Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’
« Older EntriesDecember newsletter
December 24th, 2011
Dear all,
This is definitely a last minute newsletter and one more proof that it has been a busy and successful year for the Mt Village People and now it is timer to look back.
First of all we would like to say a BIG thank you to everyone who is part of our network and supporting our vision of zero waste and a sustainable Mt Eden. We also would like to thank the New Zealand Lottery Board for their funding this year. In addition our local board has kindly supported our projects by funding 5 Hungry Bins for our local shops and 5 beehives for Mt Eden.
On behalf of our group the MEVP, we wish you a wonderful Christmas with your friends, neighbours and family and all the best for 2012
Judith Holtebrinck
Please find below a brief list of achievements in 2011 in the village:
- Frasers Café changed to free range eggs
- The Essential Deli has stated their commitment to free range happy and healthy animals and New Zealand made products in big letters on their window.
- City cake reported that they use free range eggs for their cakes
- Chapter tearoom offers fair trade and organic tea
- The village wine shop is selling 12 free ranged eggs for $6.00
- We are now recycling 100 x 10 litre buckets of coffee grains each month
- We are collecting one bucket per month of used household batteries from Civic Video
- Pig farmers collect food waste from Frasers and KC Loo.
- The Mt Eden Community garden has 6 more garden beds
- The Mt Eden butcher has a new owner who offers free range meat
- We planted a mandarine tree in front of the Mt Eden Village centre
- We donated 100 fruit trees to schools and kindergartens in July this year and are working on giving 1000 fruit trees to Auckland next year.
- Our sustainability workshops for 2012 are now listed on our website
- Since 13.12.2011, Maungawhau Mt Eden is bus free!
- We raised $470.00 for our project to plant fruit trees at our annual community celebration at the Mt Eden Community garden.
- We have observed more people in our community planting fruit trees on their grass verges.
Things we are working on and looking forward to in 2012:
A new local recycling station: We will offer the recycling of soft plastic in one of our local shops.
We are working on a submission for the Auckland waste plan, supporting community based recycling versus handing our waste over to the big players who send it to landfill.
We are looking forward to setting up our new Hungry Bins at our local shops
We are busy raising money and collecting fruit tree planting locations on our website: www.fruittrees.org.nz, our vision is to have 1000 community fruit trees for Auckland by July 2012.
Tags: Community Garden, Fruit trees, Gardening, local food production, Mount Eden, Mount Eden Village People, recycling, Workshops
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February: Sunday 19.02.2012
November 3rd, 2011
Square Foot Gardening
Starting: 10.30am, Duration: 1-1.30 hours
Tutor: Ken Clark, SFG master from Waiheke
Location: Mt Eden Village
Contribution: $20.00
Please rsvp to: Judith Holtebrinck
Square foot gardening with Ken Clark from Waiheke
This is a unique chance to learn all you need to know to start and maximise food production in the city from one of New Zealand’s most successful square foot gardeners. Square foot gardening is a perfect solution for city gardens as it produces 70% more food than conventional gardens with less work. Ken will also share practical tips to improve your organic gardening skills and talk about soil maintenance, home-made organic fertiliser and seed saving.
What to expect:
- The workshops cover everything from seeds and organic gardening.
- You will get the chance to design your own Square foot garden on a map that you can take home.
- A flyer with gardening and soil information will be handed out outlining the workshop.
- After this workshop you can set up your own SFG garden and start your food production.
- To set up your own Square foot garden takes one hour.
About Ken Clark and Square foot gardening:
Ken first learnt about square foot gardening about 20 years ago. He proceeded to do it his own way for 17 years. 5 years ago he retired to Waiheke Island & started SFG in earnest. Ken lives on a small size section and produces an abundance of fruit and veges using the Square foot gardening method. SFG advocates growing only what you need on a weekly basis. It is a fantastic system for busy people who wish to have a more sustainable life and organically grow food with the minimum fuss and effort.
Tags: Food Gardens, Gardening, local food production, Mount Eden, Square Foot Gardening
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July: Sunday 22.07.2012
November 3rd, 2011
Grafting on fruit trees
Starting: 10.30 am, duration: 1-1.30 hours,
Tutor: Ken Clark
Location: Mt Eden Village
Contribution: $20.00
Please rsvp to: Judith Holtebrinck
Grafting with Ken Clark
In this workshop you will learn:
The different ways of grafting.
What you can graft together, success and failure stories.
What tools you need to get started
What to expect:
Ken is a master grafter and has managed to graft seven different sorts of plums onto one tree. Grafting on existing trees is one way to get a wide variety in your garden if you don’t live in an orchard. This is a great way for people in the city to get all different kinds of fruit on your trees.
About Ken Clark:
Ken has been gardening all his life with the main focus on food production. He grew up on a farm and back then you relied on your own garden to get your dinner on the table. When Ken was 12 his parents divorced and he had to take over all the major digging in the garden and his mum did the planting.
He now lives on Waiheke on a 850 m section and produces food in abundancy to feed himself and his wife. The beauty of Kens food garden is that he has a wide variety of different fruit and vegetables for the entire year.
The benefit of having your own vegetables and fruit trees in your garden are simple: you know where your food comes from and you don’t spend money on oil to get the food from wherever into your kitchen.
Tags: Fruit trees, Gardening, local food production, Mount Eden, Mount Eden Village People, Workshops
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August Sunday 12.08.2012
November 3rd, 2011
Beekeeping in the city:
Start time: 1pm-3pm
Tutor: Paul Romley
Location: to be confirmed (Mt Eden or Parnell)
Please rsvp to: Judith Holtebrinck
Beekeeping in the city:
Bees provide us with two main things; pollination, and honey. They fly to nectar and pollen sources in the wider urban environment, and in the process of visiting flowers, gather nectar (which becomes honey) and pollen (which becomes a food source for them in addition to the honey). The city due to its numerous gardens, reserves and parks provides year round sources of these for the urban bee. Any person of discipline & learnt understanding of bee behaviour & their needs can maintain a healthy & very successful hive. Bees can be kept in the city environment, depending on the local bylaws (which the super-city will be ‘harmonizing’, creating one bylaw governing beekeeping in Auckland City in 2012) and depending on your neighbours.
What to expect:
You can expect to learn about bees, their life-cycle, how a hive works, and the necessary maintenance required to keep your hive healthy & happy. You will learn about where to get bees from, and the different kinds of equipment you will need. Beehives are required to be registered so you will learn about what is required from MAF. You will be given details about the Auckland Beekeepers Club. Finally, expect to get stung at least several times when managing your own hive, and bee amazed at the intricacies of nature and the beehive.
About Paul Romley:
Paul is an ex-commercial beekeeper of six years experience working for Comvita, in the BOP. He developed a passion for landscape design, but has recently re-discovered his passion for bees. He is only interested in small domestic beekeeping situations, and manages his own beehive (on a balcony four stories up in Parnell), and two other beehives at his sister-in-law’s place in St Heliers. He also has assisted several friends set up their own beehives.
Tags: Biodiversity, Community, Gardening, Mount Eden, Mount Eden Village People, Sustainability
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October: Sunday 21.10.2012
November 3rd, 2011
Square Foot Gardening
Start: 10.30am, Duration: 1-1.30 hours
Tutor: Ken Clark, SFG master from Waiheke
Location: Mt Eden Village
Contribution: $20.00
Please rsvp to: Judith Holtebrinck
Square foot gardening with Ken Clark from Waiheke
This is a unique chance to learn all you need to know to start and maximise food production in the city from one of New Zealand’s most successful square foot gardeners. Square foot gardening is a perfect solution for city gardens as it produces 70% more food than conventional gardens with less work. Ken will also share practical tips to improve your organic gardening skills and talk about soil maintenance, home-made organic fertiliser and seed saving.
What to expect:
- The workshops cover everything from seeds and organic gardening.
- You will get the chance to design your own Square foot garden on a map that you can take home.
- A flyer with gardening and soil information will be handed out outlining the workshop.
- After this workshop you can set up your own SFG garden and start your food production.
- To set up your own Square foot garden takes one hour.
About Ken Clark and Square foot gardening:
Ken first learnt about square foot gardening about 20 years ago. He proceeded to do it his own way for 17 years. 5 years ago he retired to Waiheke Island & started SFG in earnest. Ken lives on a small size section and produces an abundance of fruit and veges using the Square foot gardening method. SFG advocates growing only what you need on a weekly basis. It is a fantastic system for busy people who wish to have a more sustainable life and organically grow food with the minimum fuss and effort.
Tags: Gardening, Healthy food, local food production, Mount Eden, Mount Eden Village People, Square Foot Gardening
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Fruit tree pruning workshop – shared results
October 25th, 2011
This approximately 4 year old Macadamia tree was pruned by workshop tutor Ken during the recent MEVP pruning workshop. Cutting out the central leader was probably perceived as totally butchering the tree not just by its gasping owners but by every single participant of the workshop.
3 month later, the tree shows extraordinary signs of health and vigour with its first ever catkins everywhere and in particular inside the now light-penetrated crown.
If one has ever hesitated to prune out the central leader – here is the evidence, it is working well in favour of the tree and the nut saviours of the future.
Tags: Food Gardens, Fruit trees, Gardening, local food production
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Square Foot Gardening workshop, 16.10.2011
October 1st, 2011
Square Foot Gardening with Ken Clark from Waiheke
Ken first learnt about Square Foot Gardening about 22 years ago. He proceeded to do it his own way for 17 years, 35ears ago he retired to Waiheke Island & started SFG in earnest.
Ken lives on a small size section and produces an abundance of fruit and veges using the Square Foot Gardening method. SFG advocates growing only what you need on a weekly basis. It is a fantastic system for busy people who wish to have a more sustainable life and great home grown food with the minimum fuss and effort. The workshops cover everything from seeds to eating and building a Square Foot Garden.
Tags: Events, Food Gardens, Gardening, local food production, Mount Eden, Mount Eden Village People, Square Foot Gardening
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Master gardener program spring 2011
October 1st, 2011
Master gardener program spring 2011 at the CCS Disability Action Community Gardens
The course is taught by a stunning line-up of New Zealand’s organic gardening experts and will show you how to create your own successful organic garden and contribute to a more sustainable and eco-friendly urban environment.
The next course starts on Saturday 1 October and is held weekly 9:30-12:30 until 10 December for 10 weeks at CCS Disability Action at 14 Erson Avenue in Royal Oak. Contact: Scott Thiemann Scott.Thiemann@ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz
Basic topics covered include getting started and garden design using permaculture principles, soil health and how to maintain it by using various garden techniques, introductory botany, herb cultivation, composting, worm farming, growing fruit trees suited for our region successfully, managing pests and diseases by various organically safe methods, successfully saving seeds, creating food forests, and tools that make it easy. PLUS a couple of field trips to well-established gardens organised by some of the most knowledgeable people in the field. PLUS many opportunities to practice the art right here in our own gardens. PLUS multiple plant starts and seeds to take home. There’s more? YES, plus the opportunity to learn all of this in the comraderie of others of similar mind.
Tags: Food Gardens, Gardening, local food production
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100 Citrus for schools:
August 10th, 2011
We had a wonderful day on Sunday the 7th of August providing 100 fruit trees to local schools and kindergartens. All 100 fruit trees now have their roots down in their new garden homes in schools and kindergartens all over Auckland.We would like to thank all the teachers and parents for sharing our vision of free and healthy food by taking action and being involved in the ‘Citrus in schools’project.
We have three main goals with this project - to support families with lowering their grocery bills; to encourage local food production; and to teach children how to plant and care for fruit trees. Our commitment for July 2012 is to provide 500-1000 fruit trees to schools and kindergartens. If you want to be part of this project and suggest a site for the planting of a fruit tree please register on our website: www.fruittrees.org.nz. Best wishes, Your fruit tree ladies Judith, Justine, Karen, and Jo
Tags: Auckland, Community, Fruit trees, Gardening, Mount Eden, Schools, Sustainability
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Create urban bio-corridors
April 28th, 2011
Planting roadside berms to create urban bio-corridors is an wonderful initiative from our friends at GreyLynn2030. We also spotted some beautiful berm planting in Sandringham. This is a great way to create biodiversity in front of your house that can be beneficial to bees and other important insects in our city and to meet your neighbours. To find out more about guidelines, suitable plants all you need to know to get started go on GL2030 website.
Tags: Auckland, Gardening, Healthy food
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