Fire

 

Brownies in the garden

This afternoon I had a wonderful group of brownies in the garden. We wandered tasted and wondered. It is amazing what is edible and how much fun you can have mixing it up.

It is amazing how much of a jungle the garden is at this time of the year.
 

And thank you to Pam Pearse for taking the photo. It is not often there is one of me!!

Mushrooms

Was so lucky to have Billy and Lenny run a mushroom workshop here.

We learnt about growing Oyster, Shitake and Wine caps and so much about the role of mushrooms in our lives.

Everyone went home with some Oyster bags, Shitake logs and enough Wine cap spawn to make their own bed.

Such great learning, so many cool people.

 

Seaweek

WOW!!! Seaweek 2020.

This event has now been running for years. I was lucky to be invited back and to see how it has emerged.

I designed some activities that would hopefully create spaces for people to stop and interact with the beautiful harbor environment.

I believe to observe  fully (while immersed in natural ecosystems) with all of your senses is the start of so much. To freely question and then to interact (process or play/exploration) is to form connections, understandings, literacy,  ......

My hope is that these exploration possibilities sparked many wonderings.

Children’s explorations are so rich to join so we had a wonderful morning.

Living Design

What an amazing few days with some amazing people.

Living Design is a way of designing modeled on the beautiful unfolding of nature.

Living Design Process

 

Wow!!! Thanks to Dan our Living Design Process Deep Dive has been recorded. What a great few days.

And here is a link to the lovely feedback from Catherine Dunton-Mcleod -thank you.

Bug houses

As small gardeners start awakening in spring I always try and keep one step ahead with nesting places.

This bug hotel is made especially for mason bees, potters wasps, ladybirds, and lace wings.

Next week I really need to make a few bumble bee nests.

Upcoming workshops

Composting with CReW

Tutor: Louise Shaw

Cost: FREE

Time: 6pm

Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Location: 20 minutes from Whakatane -to be advised on booking.

Bookings:please contact David at CReW. Phone 07 308 5963 OR,  email David@crewonline.org.nz

Hosted by CReW Whakatane. 

Compost is a key that makes the world grow!

We will kick-start the evening by looking at the basic principles of composting; What can be composted? How compost happens? And what finished compost is and does?

We will then take a stroll around the garden to check out various compost heaps to see what composting
looks like in practice and look at some of the different ways you can use compost.

If we have time we will get our hands dirty and construct our own hot compost.

Each participant will go home with; an understanding of the basic principles behind composting so they can improve on or start an effective composting system in their backyard.

BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL
To book a spot please contact David at CREW. Phone 07 308 5963 OR, email david@crewonline.org.nz For more information visit: facebook.com/crewonlinenz.

Worm farming with CReW

Tutor: Louise Shaw

Cost: FREE

Time: 6pm

Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Location: 20 minutes from Whakatane -to be advised on booking.

Bookings:please contact David at CReW. Phone 07 308 5963 OR,  email David@crewonline.org.nz

Hosted by CReW Whakatane.
Worms are the intestines of our earth.

In this workshop we will learn all about these amazing creatures, what they need to be happy and how we can create a variety of ‘farms’ to make them work for us.

We will wander through my garden and have a look at some working worm farms and set up a home-made worm farm from scratch.

We will then look at some of the different ways we can use vermi-cast to supercharge our garden; seed coatings, foliar sprays, biochar,...

Each participant will go home with; some amazing new knowledge on these powerful workers and the knowledge to set up their own vermi-composting system for their backyard.

BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL
To book a spot, please contact David at CReW. Phone 07 308 5963 OR, email david@crewonline.org.nz For more information visit: facebook.com/crewonlinenz

Companion Planting

Tutor: Louise Shaw

Cost: $20

Time: 5.30-8pm

Date: Tuesday 1st of December

Location: 20 minutes from Whakatane -to be advised on booking.

Bookings: please email louise.shaw@blueduckdesign.co.nz.

This garden based workshop will start by delving into companion planting techniques and how they create thriving gardens. We will then walk around the garden and orchard to see first hand what companion planting looks like in practice.

We will cover the basics of; succession planting, guilds, cover cropping, crop rotation, beneficial insect plantings, mychrozial connections,…..and you will come away with your own guild of seeds/seedlings to take home. 

Please remember this is an outside workshop. Bring a small container to put your seeds/seedlings in and be prepared to get your hands dirty.

For bookings please email louise.shaw@blueduckdesign.co.nz.

Crop Swap

Yay!!!
What a celebration. The first ever Crop Swap in Whakatane. Over 20 gardeners showed up and shared herbs, plants, seeds, fruit and veg.

It is slowly evolving to meet the needs of our town. Today it changed to incorperate Timebank trading. It is going to be fun seeing how this event grows and changes over time.

Cannot wait to see what shows up in a couple of weeks time.

Abundance

A quick gathering session around the farm to show off some of the abundance.

This is the photo used for our first Crop Swap advertising. Thought I would make it authentic by using crops grown in this bio-region in this season.

Edible weeds

 

What a great day.

I hosted another Permaculture design course field trip organised by the amazing Catherine and Neville Dunton-McLeod of  Plenty Permaculture.

I always learn soo much from everyone and get to show off all of my latest developments and bounce my ideas of a great enthusiastic bunch of people. Ahhh!!!

One inspirational person was Julia Suck from Julia's Edible Weeds. She has given me a whole new lense to look at my property -and food.

Charcoal pencils

Charcoal off gassing in my charcoal tin. I love watching the gasses as they burn.

When the flame goes out I remove the tin from the fire and turn the tin upside down to cool and stop any further combustion.

Waiting

This year we had over 170 children attend our two seaweek mornings.

We made over 60 handlines, dug, splashed, build, poured, talked and even managed to catch crabs, flounder, mullet, sprats, starfish and a seahorse.

Tee - pee

What a morning. I love creating things with children. I worked with a great group of homeschooling families and we planted loads of fun seeds, build a bug house for pollinators and other garden helpers and then created this beautiful tee pee for the plants to climb.


Well I should not really say we as once the children knew how to use some of the tools they did it all themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who knows what sort of structures they built when they got home.

I am now inspired to make mine.

Community

Another fun morning. We turned a whole lot of natural roadside resources into a beautiful house for beneficial insects.

This Kindy is very inspiring. They have;

-their own seed collection.
-an amazing comunity kai share stall for people to share surplus food and plants.
-an amazing secret (edible) garden.

I cannot wait until next year.

One of my favourite tools is this hole maker.

You bang it, wriggle it, bang it, wriggle it, then bang it again........

Then you can pick up the tallest bamboo and push them into the holes all by yourself. Easy peasy. All ready for tangling with colourful wool.

The soil was hard in Murupara but the children did it. We used turf as our garden edge, added a little compost and airated the soil with a fork.

In a couple of weeks when the seedlings are strong the children will plant purple peas and then gourds, beans, cucumbers.................

Preparation

Getting ready for another workshop.

It is always exciting thinking about all of the new people you are going to meet and knowledge that will be shared.

This workshop will look at edible playscapes. We will be focusing on gardening with and for children and encouraging natures many gardeners.

Willow knot

What a wet workshop.

We;

- went for a hikoi and found out about the different types of willow.

- looked at willow working techniques.

- designed our own projects.

- harvested our willow.

- built our own living hut.

And it rained!!!

Crab fishing

What a day!!!

An incoming tide, sand, water, a few simple tools and a whole lot of children = fun.

We made sand castles, crab traps, handlines, tide pools, clay sculptures, water fountains........................ another successful toddler hikoi.

Our house

We built walls, floors and a roof and then each made a 'room'.

'Will the insects like their house? What will live in our house? How can we feed our insects? Can we make a house that a slater will like? What else could we use?'

Childrens questions are amazing.

Our house is a start. Who knows where it will go.