Comfrey and Tomato do mix!!

Dying to plant cabbages in the heat of Summer?

Well, my clever neighbour, Haklyka, came up with a great plan one day. Between the two sisters, they built a giant cage with a very tidy netting over it. When everyone elses cabbages are being devoured by the white butterfly caterpillers, she grew the most perfectly amazing cabbages. I was very luckly to be given one of them. Even the most annoying aphids couldn't get near it.


I believe the cost of the netting came to NZ$28. Another way to get around this is to use recycled window netting although it will probably last one season. But then, there are always someone willing to part with their curtain netting. Note that she had to crawl from under the netting to get in there, so it's good to think about accessing the plants. Also, I think there "Net cage" only need to be half the height.

I made 3 bottles of sauerkraut from the cabbage and gave her a bottle.

Recycling shower water

One of the things I enjoy is taking a nice luke-warm or hot shower depending on the season. In my house, it takes a while for the hot water to come through and I always thought that it was such a great waste to let all that good water go down the drain. Well, we finally did something about that last night. We directed the shower water to a 10 litre bucket whilst waiting for it to heat up. It came up to 8 litres of water before the water got hot enough to not make one jump in cold shock! Wow, that’s a lot of good water wasted which could be used in the laundry, toilet or garden.

Matt and I have replaced commercial soaps and shampoo with baking soda and vinegar since 2006, so the grey water is effectively useful for the above purpose too. With that in mind, I put another bucket in the shower with me, standing above it (it really is easier than you imagine) I managed to collect another 8 litres after a 7-minute shower (longer then my usual 3-minute shower as we were covered in salt and sand after a great swim at Foxton beach). Between Matt & I, we collected a descent amount of recycled water to water my extremely dry flower garden in the front garden last night, and it felt good!! Another added advantage, we now have reason to visit the neglected front garden every day.

Growing Carrots - Part 1

I'm having success germinating and growing most plants so far but the carrots planted in spring has failed miserably. Anyway in all true Permaculture spirit, make as many mistakes as possible and learn from mistakes. So, I've learnt the 3 DON'Ts for growing carrots-
-Don't let the veg bed dry up
-Don't use strong watering sprayer
-Don't plant them too far apart otherwise they don't germinate

I haven't given up growing carrots yet. In my search for better ways of growing carrots I came across this website Tinker's Gardens that has a really good tip on sowing carrot seeds.

Tiny Seed Planting Technique:

When planting tiny seeds in your beds Make a shallow furrow the appropriate depth, or directly on top of bed. Roll out a strip of toilet paper in the furrow. Deposit the seeds on top of the toilet paper. This will enable you to see the seeds drop and adjust the spacing, which will save seeds and the amount of thinning-out necessary later. Roll out another layer over the seed and lightly sprinkle or mist with water to hold the layers in place. Lightly cover with soil and gently sprinkle with water. This will prevent the seed from being scattered when lightly watering. The seeds will germinate and grow as usual, right through the paper, which will disintegrate after a few waterings.