Term 4 Wk1 Eco Action work done

Vege garden

Planted seed Potato tubers under fabric mulch and then topped off with Pea straw. The idea is that the new potatoes will grow in the straw layer and there will be no dig and no weeds.

Planted Cabbage seedlings through fabric mulch. Covered bed with bird netting as deterent for Cabbage White Butterfly.2x1 900mm long screwed to inside of 2m wide beds. Pot on top to prevent perforation damage. Cloth pegged down with wire staples. Hopeful this might prevent necessity to spray to kill caterpillars which decimated bok choi last season. Mesh size used in UK is 7mm but unavailable here so used 1cm which may be too big to keep adults out. Need cloth 4m wide so choices limited and expensive $5.50/m. (see photo)

Some carrot seedlings up. Slugs a problem so have used Blitzem bait around each transplanted seedling.

Peas up, beans not.

Continued weekly harvest donation the worthy family. “My Vege Box”. Aiming for a box a week.

Nursery

Pricked out 100 Coprosma repens and 100 Ti (cabbage tree) cordyline australis seedlings. Potted on to PB3 100 Kowhai.

Slug grazing killed half wineberry pricked out seedlings so slug pellets deployed.

Kahikatea seedlings germinated. Very distinctive at 1.5 cm tall.

The weedmat circles have been very effective at minimising weeds as demonstrated with the comparison in growth between the beech trees with and without mat. The subsequent weed stress (both nutrient and moisture competition) shows a significant growth deficit. (see photo) The loss of the fabric circle weed mat in the wind is a problem so small rounded pebbles were purchased $9 for 15kg so expensive but cheaper than hand weeding and better than herbicide spray. ¼ handful weighting the fabric down should help their retention. (see photo)

All PB3s moved outside as shade house too small to accommodate them.