Term 2 Wk4 Eco Action work done

Broad beans Bed Plot 5 & 6 germinated and showing through. The benefits of planting through a cut seam in the mulch fabric is very evident when a comparison is made with a bed sown with lupins and self-sown weed seeds as an overwinter green crop. Competition for light nutrients and water would have been severe unless the bed had been weeded. Weeding is a job I hate and strive to avoid at almost any cost. The mulch fabric cost $68 for a 50m roll that is 2 metres wide. This equates to 68c per square metre. If the mulch fabric is stored to grow the same crop next year it should last multiple seasons to bring the mulch cost down but even so each bed of broad beans cost $3:60 for seed and about $3:00 for mulch. Thus the crop will have cost $6:60 for the yield of beans we harvest off each plot.

Initiated plant sales to SBHS staff. $3:00 for Eco Sourced Trees in PB3. Koromiko plants 0.3m tall as butterfly food from nectar. The Kowhai trees for bird nectar are only 0.2m so too small to sell after 1 season of growth. The other 20 species now seedlings will come on stream next season. The plan is to keep a third for SBHS own use, give a third away to worthy school and community groups and use a plant donation sale to make the operation sustainable long term to pay for potting mix and mulch etc.

Vege Garden

Planted out Plot 23 with three rows of Brussel sprouts and two rows of beetroot through fabric mulch. Began Bokashi compost test to recycle garden weeds in 13l Bokashi bucket (25 May 2016)

Nursery

Pricked out 100 Coprosma robusta Karamu into 50x50 x100 pots. Karamu has orange fruit to feed birds.

Pricked out 80 Dodonaea viscosa Akeake into 50x50 x100 pots. Akeake is very hardy and provides good quick shelter for other more frost sensitive trees. The wood is extremely tough and durable, and New Zealand's Maori have used Akeake to fashion clubs and other weapons

Pricked out 20 Pittosporum tenuifolium Kohuhu into 50x50 x100 pots. Provides food for native birds. Nectar during October-January. Fruit/seeds during February-June. It is attractive to bees.

Term 2 Wk5 Eco Action work done

Vege garden

Placed roll out mulch over beds to form “stale seedbed” for spring plantings in Plots 20-24.

Nursery

Pricked out 100 Coprosma robusta Karamu. Birds enjoy the masses of orange fruit on female plants.

Pricked out 100 Kunzea ericoides Kanuka. The flowers produce a reasonable amount of nectar that is quite favoured by honeybees. The thick golden honey is popular for its strong taste and reputed antibacterial properties. Nowadays New Zealand’s Kanuka pharmaceutical honey is renowned for its natural health benefits.

Collected Griselinia littoralis Kapuka http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/trees-native-botanical-names-g-to-l/broadleaf.html seed from Travis wetland and sowed it fresh. This means that the resulting plants have genetics which are local so should be adapted to the local environment and require less” help” surviving.

Term 2 Wk6 Eco Action work done

Vege Garden

Planted out cabbage, broccoli and curly kale in Plot 8. Harvested remaining carrots for donation purposes.

Nursery

Pricked out 100 makamako, Wineberry, Aristotelia serrata. It develops edible berries which dark red to black and 5mm wide containing 8 seeds. These berries ripen in January to February and are dispersed by birds. http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/table-1/wineberry-makomako.html Pricked out 100 Manatu, Ribbonwood Plagianthus regius. The inner bark yields a strong fiber that resembles flax and is called New Zealand cotton. Good strong grower providing early frost protection for other species. http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/trees-native-botanical-names-m-to-q/ribbonwood-plagianthus-regius.html