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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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Wellington’s gone all planty

Wellington sunrise

Well, I guess it is spring.

One of the things I love about this city is how green it is. Not the city city but the hills surrounding it – houses peaking out from amongst the trees, it looks incredible. Love it. And then there’s the Karori Wildlife  Sanctuary and Otari Wilton Bush that are incredible conservation areas just 10 minutes from the city centre.

Anyway, the point of all this was to let you know about DOC’s Conservation Week, the Wellington Spring Festival including the tulip displays at the Botanic Gardens. Wellington Botanic Society are exploring the mysteries of lancewood at their September talk (despite two years of trying, I haven’t made it to a single event of their’s…I will keep trying).

And don’t forget Seedy Sunday in Kapiti on September 20. A chance to swap your seeds, plants and produce and learn a little about gardening and about your local community. Brooklyn Transition Towns also have a seed swap that day.

Wellington city 01

Wellington suburbs

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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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Seedy Sunday – Kapiti – August 16

DSC02389Yep, it’s that time again and we have Grant Lyon speaking about nutrient density in commercial and organic food and how to get those nutrients into your soil. He will be talking about Brix levels and refractometers and ways to get the best vegetables out of our gardens. I’ve found a bit of a basic introduction to brix here.

I hope you all have your seeds, plants or produce ready to go for the swap table. This has been such a huge success, with everybody eager to see what other people are growing and take home something different.

We’ve had a lot of press in the last month – appearing in the Kapiti Observer, the NZ Gardener mail-out and a lovely article by Hannah Zwartz in the Dom Post.  So I’m expecting a great event this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

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Permaculture Design Certificate with Bill Mollison & Geoff Lawton

mollison_lawtonSeptember 21 is my birthday. It’s also the start of a 2 week PDC course with two of the godfathers of permaculture – Bill Mollison & Geoff Lawton. Which would mean 2 weeks in Melbourne around my birthday. Can I combine all these elements? It would be dreamy. But then so would this one in Jordan…  Oh decisions I wish I could make if only I had some extra coin. Dear Universe, please provide – I promise I shall do good with it!

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It’s Seed Catalogue Day!!!

Possibly the most exciting, empowering, heart-wrenching, drama-filled, comedy-laden (for everyone around me), garden-geekiest day of the year – today I am Empirial Ruler deciding what shall flourish in my domain this coming season. The catalogues have arrived, the paper and coloured pencils are out, the day is cleared and the tea is brewing. Today I choose my seeds.

This year’s Seed Catalogue Day is brought to me by:

EcoSeedsKoanga Institute
Kings SeedsKoanga Gardens

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Food Prices Rocket

This just in from Stuff.co.nz:

Food prices rocketed by 2.8 percent last month – the biggest increase in 20 years.

Figures from Statistics New Zealand show that food prices have soared by 8.4 percent in the 12 months to June.

SNZ said that all five of the food subgroups it measures increased in June. The most significant upward contribution came from a 15 percent rise in fruit and vegetables.

Government Statistician Geoff Bascand said that cold weather had hampered growing conditions.

Within this group there were stratospheric increases in the price of lettuce (up 122.8 percent) and tomatoes (66.7 percent higher).


There’s no time like the present to start growing your own food! Come along to Seedy Sunday at the Kapiti Community Centre this Sunday, at 2pm to learn how. Get support and inspiration for your gardening. Remember to bring something for the swap table.  Mark Howell from Te Ra school will be talking about compost and explaining planting by the moon.

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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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Flowers make life so much better

flowersFlowers make me very happy and I’m very grateful to my colleagues who are a lovely bunch, for this lovely bunch. LPLL has been a little stagnant lately as I’ve been in recovery. But lying on my back in a hospital bed has started a whole lot of thought processes which will hopefully soon manifest into a whole raft of quality content and real-world planty projects.

I’m starting to come right so you’ll be hearing more and more from me over the next couple of weeks. But it may still take a little time to get fully up to speed – please keep checking your RSS.

x Anna

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The dark side of fruit & veg

apple2I’m just a little perplexed by this article in the Daily Mail. I can’t figure out if it’s another case of bad journalism, some kids taking the mickey or a tragic indictment of the state of our food supply.

I can maybe see what they’re saying about hayfever. I can also see that in diversifying our diet, we eat new compounds that could cause allergic reaction.

I believe though, it’s more likely that kids are actually allergic to the high levels of pesticides in the fruit and veg. The cited celery and bananas being amongst the most pesticide-laden of products.

But such horrible headlines! ‘The tiniest piece of celery can leave me gasping for breath’: Rising number of children allergic to fruit and veg.

Ridiculous scaremongering for those that only read the sensationalist headlines. All the good work that’s been done on promoting healthy eating in England will have just taken a giant step backward.

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