7th March - Meeting at Megan's place to learn about preserving the excess summer harvest.
- also to discuss the schedule for the rest of the year.
4th April - Harvest festival at Clarie's place (Feilding) to share all the yummies from our gardens.
- Sorry I won't be able to share in this celebration- my baby is due to arrive at this time!!
An email will be sent out with the details of the meeting locations. Contact me if you need more information.
We visited 4 urban productive gardens - each had its own merits and beauty. But all were very productive. 3 out of the 4 gardens were tended by male gardeners. I guess there is hope for my lovely husband yet (tongue in cheek!). I think an annual garden tour at about this time of the year is great. I'll factor this in for next year's timetable.
Keep sowing seeds for lettuces, radishes, the fast summer crops. You'll still get a crop or two of those.
Also we briefly talked about winter planting.
Now is the time to put the winter vegetables in if you haven't done so. Sow seeds for the brassica families, leeks etc. I'm thinking of planting a crop of potatoes, not sure it's too late...if I get round to doing it this weekend.
At the last meeting, we came up with a tentative meeting schedule for the next few months. The meeting date is always the first Saturday of each month at 2:30pm unless specified. Please contact me for meeting addresses.
2008
November - Farmer Cedric's Organic Dairy Farm, host by Susan and Cedric
- also bring any excess seedlings to share and exchange
December - Ocean Organics home garden, host by Judith
2009
January - Holiday
February - Planning the winter garden, host by Esther and Matt
March - Raising Pigs, making Salami, host by Susan and Cedric and Karine Chagne
April - TBC
May - Harvest Festival, host by Clarie
We meet on the first Sat of each month at 2:30pm. Venue changes depending on what we do. I usually send out an email on the Monday with details of the meeting.
Lemon Balm tea
Put a handful of lemon balm leaves into a teapot
Put hot water into the teapot
Wait a few minutes
Serve it on individual cups with half a teaspoon of honey on each cup
It's a very relaxing tea with the most amazing aroma. No wonder bees go crazy over lemon balm.
This update is definitely long overdue. Andrew Rundle-Keswick http://www.webpagebuilder.co.nz an enthusiastic budding permaculturist wrote a really nice comment of my ever evolving garden so I have to share it :-)
I did a Permaculture Design course at Wanaka in May this year and as
part of that course I with other course participants did a Urban
Permaculture design for a urban property in Wanaka. The property in
Wanaka was a blank slate. We had a lot of ideas and sketched up
various ideas and concepts. When I visted your Permaculture property
in Palmerston North I was able to see lots of the ideas and concepts
in actual working application, plus many more besides. I think that
your property is a excellent example of how an urban Permaculture
property works. In a very small space you have a very large
production and it has inspire me to get on with converting my blank
slate property into something as good as yours.
Keep letting me know about your upcoming Permies Meetings as I would
love to come up again and bring my wife and children to show them
your property.
Andrew
We visited an Organic Dairy Farm. It was an interesting trip learning about the pasturing organic cows and the health benefits of milk from Jersey cows (A2 milk), non-pasturised milk. The facilities is simple but hygine is strictly observed to ensure that end product is at tip top condition for consumption.
We had some discussions infront of the cozy fire and enjoyed the homemade preserve and jam on crackers, and fresh walnuts. The dicussions revolved around issues relating to sponses not sharing the same passion about permaculture and potential conflicts. We didn’t come up with any concrete answers but it was really nice that as a group we could provide support to each other in this respect.
Tara's Chook Tractor
Over the last 2 months, 3 more of the regular members have made or acquired chicken tractors in various shapes and sizes. One of the topics for June’s meeting will be on chicken tractors, to discuss the pros and cons of the various designs and possibly come up with a more foolproof design(s). And to come up with strategies to integrate the chook tractors into the next growing season.
The meeting was kicked off by watching the clip "Permaculture in the City" from The Global Gardener.
The video clip features the provision of social needs and food on previously wasted land in big cities such as New York City. Through the use of Permaculture principles, maximized production achieved with restricted space and water supply. Plants are utilized in the design to lower energy input for buildings. Guild plantings are used to reduce malaria problems in Africa. Personally for me the settlement, Village Home in Davis California is my favorite.
It's a settlement designs to encourage both the development of a sense of community and the conservation of energy and natural resources. The principal designer was Mike Corbett. Construction on the neighborhood began in the fall of 1975, and construction continued from south to north through the 1980s, involving many different architects and contractors. The completed development includes 225 homes and 20 apartment units. If only more developers in NZ are expose to this concept. Totally blows my mind away..find out more at http://www.villagehomesdavis.org
That concluded our most interesting meeting in April.
The first meeting in March was nothing short of fantastic. It went from 2:30pm to 5pm.
We watched an half an hour video on permaculture in the tropics presented
by Bill Mollison, who coined the word permaculture. After the afternoon
tea, we had a quick tour round my little urban yard to see the little
projects that my husband, Matthew and I have put in place using
permaculture principles.
We then went on to my favorite, compost making and a simple
system we use to sift the compost. I'm also very proud to share that
Tara, one of the attendees, has made a round of beautiful compost since.
