Plants for People, Plants are Life – Seeds, growing food and useful plants
August 31, 2011 by Admin

Kapiti bits, bobs, biodynamics and backyards

Spring is clearly in the air and the Kapiti Coast is starting to buzz with garden activity. The Seedy Sunday website has info on some of the excitement.

– Te Ra is hosting a series of workshops with world-renowned biodynamics experts Peter Proctor and Rachel Pomeroy. First one is Thursday so you better be quick!

– The Edible Backyard Spring Festival is Saturday 8 October – held in Kath Irvine’s oh-so-inspiring permaculture garden.

– And we’ve set up an email discussion group for Kapiti gardeners to share tips, techniques, seeds and stories.

www.seedysundaynz.blogspot.com/

Happy gardening!

Image Credit Flickr User Code Poet

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August 31, 2011 by Admin

Edible Backyard Spring Festival – 8 October

Edible Garden Spring Festival october 8, 2011

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August 16, 2011 by Admin

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Yesterday it snowed at my house. I live near the beach, in a place it never snows. I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve been in falling snow. I put the little one to bed, rugged up and ran around outside like a 5 year old. Alas, it didn’t settle so no snowmen for me.

But I did get to have a snowball fight on Sunday night at a friend’s in Brooklyn. There were blankets of it. I had been conveniently sheltering at the Chocolate Festival at the Intercontinental as it fell. When fuelled by tasty, tasty chocolate, that much snow was a total delight.

Will be interesting to see how this cold blast will affect the garden. The one year I give up and don’t plant Brussels sprouts because it doesn’t get cold enough in Kapiti is the one year it decides to snow at sea level! I must have offended the brassica gods.

More interesting point is what will it do to insect populations round these parts? Ants, whitefly, aphids, shield bugs – how will they all fare in the icy conditions? Might have been a good enough zap to get a few of the suckers away from my spring sprouts.

Watch a great little clip of aerial shots of Wellington’s snow.

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March 24, 2011 by Admin

Kapiti Sustainable Home and Garden Show


26 – 27 March 2011
Saturday 9:00am to 4:00pm and Sunday 10:00am to 4:00pm
Last year was so much fun… we ran a food swap, launched the LovePlantLife seed collection and handed out a trillion little yellow packets of seeds. OK, it felt like a trillion when we were packing and hand-folding each of them. We even took out the prize for best in show :)

But this year I’m afraid, I won’t be able to make it. I’ve been working on another little growing project. My husband and I are expecting our first child this weekend. Needless to say I’ve been a bit preoccupied with getting things organised for this little adventure.

There are some fantastic speakers and great demonstrations lined up for this year’s event, plus over 70 vendors to tempt you with their wares. I’ve loaded up a copy of this month’s On To It as it has a run down and timetable on everything that’s happening. Enjoy the show!

On-To-It-March-2011-Show-Edition

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December 18, 2009 by Admin

Wellington/Kapiti: Donate Garden Tools for Refugees

It must be a difficult time of year for refugee families, separated from and often fearing for the safety of loved ones overseas. Spurred on by a request by Refugee Services, I’ve decided to give the gift of gardening this Christmas. And would like to invite you all to join me.

Request from Wellington Refugees as Survivors:

This is a Colombian family (parents and 3 primary school children in NZ, with 3 grown up children still in Colombia) who arrived earlier. Shortly after their arrival the father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He has nearly finished his 4th round of Chemo Therapy and will have major surgery in January 2010, followed by more Chemo Therapy. He describes himself as a “hard worker” and enjoys gardening. He has developed a huge vegetable garden in his (HNZ) backyard (including composting organic rubbish) for which he would love to have some of his own garden tools (currently he borrows).

Do any of you have a spare hoe, fork, spade that you no longer need? Also a hammer and some new garden gloves.

I’d like to help this family out and get them the gardening tools they require. I’m assuming there are other families who would also be wanting such things so I’d like to collect any garden tools you have left over and disperse them to those who need them. I’ll also contribute a large amount of vegetable and flower seed. Can anyone help?

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September 20, 2009 by Admin

Kapiti Community Food Forest

kapiti coast and island

Inspired by Geoff Lawton’s Establishing a Food Forest, a group has got together to explore the potential of food forest gardening on the Kapiti Coast. Our vision is to build a community food forest garden for Kapiti.

Planned, planted and maintained by the community, the forest garden will serve as an education resource, plant nursery, seed bank, outdoor community centre, meeting point and food bank. Accessible to all, the area will become an edible landscape with walkways and glades, natural in look but designed with our needs for sustenance and play. A living repository for the future, in the heart of our community.

We’ve been doing a lot of talking, thinking, researching and come up with a document that we think encompasses the project’s heart. Now, we need some input and some support from you.

Have a read of the Kapiti Community Food Forest Proposal
Please do send us an email answering the following questions:

1. Do you support in principle the establishment of a community food forest in Kapiti?

2. Would you be willing to be part of a group of volunteers that is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of a Kapiti community food forest ?

3. Do you have any resources (land or money) you would be willing to donate to help to establish the Kapiti community food forest?

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September 12, 2009 by Admin

Seedy Sunday is next Sunday – September 20, 2pm – new venue!

dsc02193Hoping to see you next Sunday! Because things have got a little bit tight lately, with SS becoming so popular, we’ve now had to move to a bigger venue – the Paraparaumu Memorial Hall on the corner of Tutanekai and Aorangi Sts. Click here to see it on Google Maps.

This month, Dave Johnston will be talking to us about Effective Microorganisms (EM). The concept of EM was developed by Japanese horticulturist Teruo Higa, from Japan. He reported in the 1970s that a combination of approximately 80 different microorganisms is capable of positively influencing decomposing organic matter such that it reverts into a ‘life promoting’ process. So essentially, we are talking about putting life back into our soil and growing healthier, nutrient-dense food.

The swap table has been huge! It’s fantastic to see such a variety of plants being grown in the area. Bring along any of seeds, produce or plants you have to swap.

This month, you may want to remember to bring some cash as there will also be a bit more of a sales table with books from Levin Soil & Health, Earth Whisperers/Papatuanuku DVDs, some Bokashi buckets and other EM.

I have to say a huge thanks Pat at the Kapiti Community Centre for looking after us so well. We are so lucky to have such great facilities available here.  I’ve also been very grateful for the support of the Kapiti Observer, Levin Soil & Health, Sam, Andrew, Jo, Sharon, Pam and Richard, as well as you all for making Seedy Sunday such a great event. Let’s do it all again this Sunday!

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June 27, 2009 by Admin

Sweet Seedy Sunday

Loving our Seedy Sundays. Had a fantastic turn out last weekend to see the lovely Sarah Frater from Edible Gardens. With so much knowledge and experience, it was a really interesting session on fruit trees. It’s a popular topic right now – articles in the Kapiti Observer each week by Kath Irvine, a glorious NZ Gardener special (the species harvesting guide is pure gold) and fruit tree providers simply running out of stock. Mental note: must do lots of preservation posts this season.

Swap table was very exciting. I had been a little worried that we’d end up each month with swap tables where everyone had brought the same thing – absolutely wrong! I’m so impressed by the variety of things – feverfew seedlings, orach seeds, mini kiwifruit, plenty of lovely bunches of different herbs, three types of sunflower seeds, teasels…….

Lots of great conversations too – lots of really interestig people doing interesting things and really wanting to get involved. Lots of interesting local initiatives including:

- Transition Towns Kapiti Food Forest,

- A Gardening Group looking to form and help people in their own backyards,

- Raumati South Community Garden,

- And plenty of people interested in seed-saving and starting a Kapiti Community Seed Bank.

If you want to know anything more about any of these, email me and I’ll pass you on to the right people. Or come to the next SS.

Next Seedy Sunday is July 19, 2pm Kapiti Community Centre. Guest speaker to be confirmed soon.

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April 4, 2009 by Admin

SHAG’d

kaleI’m exhausted, having spent the day at the Kapiti Sustainable Home and Garden (SHAG) show promoting the heck out of Transition Towns and Seedy Sunday. It’s been a beautiful day. But now I’m a little sunburnt, a little weary, with feet a little sore. Just enough energy left to pour a well-earned wine.

Thrilled to bits about response to Seedy Sunday! Lots of very keen gardeners, a supportive mayor and great reception from other local ‘eco’ groups. Everyone I talked with really liked the idea of getting together and sharing questions and experience about local conditions, pests and practicalities. Yay – getting excited! April 19 – here we come!

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