February 2013 Blog Posts (12)

can some one tell me how I can contact a Bee Hive Keeper to get info and have those babies in my garden..I am in Wellington

Journey to the Goodlife

What a fabulous surprise these were...

Our good friend gave us some Scarlet Runner Beans for tea.  I cut them up then noticed some pink hiding in the bean.  My daughter and I carefully opened one and found these superbly coloured beans waiting for…

Last week Ooooby was given a wonderful opportunity to plug into the bright young minds of 90 freshly minted university graduates during their induction to the fray of sharp thinkers at …

Two things Ive noticed. The variety of food plants, support plants and weeds provides a lot of contrast of textures, leaf forms and shades of green. A dandelion seed head is inherently beautiful when not judged. Also, taking responsibility for feeding bees and birds has the effect of integrating you into the eco-system. Instead of seeing the garden as a me-centred food supply, I now wonder if the bees and birds will have enough to eat. We are becoming more equal. I think indigenous peoples…

Thought I'd share this fabulous Carrot we found when pricking out some baby carrots for tea! Beautiful.

We have started a blogg about our young families journey getting back to basics and becoming more sustainable, we'd love to invite you to our blogg to see what wonderful delights we have been conjuring up so far...…

Laine has a link to a post by Toby Hemmenway about whether permaculture is capable of providing us with self sufficiency, self reliance etc and even whether that would be a good thing.

I think he misses the point.

Permaculture itself is a response to the question about how long we can go on using the land in an unsustainable way. To be clear about…

7.5kg and 300mm across this is the biggest of 20 or more, self sown from seeds dumped in the compost. Flesh is sweet and dark.

Scones using real egg. Clotted cream was one day past use-by and perfectly OK but biffed out by the veg shop. Ceylon tea from Sheraton Denarau Fiji.

The chooks seem to enjoy a shower. Ive soaked them a couple of times with the hose and they dont run away. Im sure they get wet in the wild, so maybe a regular shower or bath should be part of their welfare program?

Choko vine now covers the chooks run, keeping off the hot sun and providing leaf and later fruit for fodder. A permaculture principle is to get more than one function from components. Tagasaste in front fixes nitrogen and will perform the shade and food functions when it matures. Chicken manure feeds both…

After the dryest January on record I caved in and bought a sprinkler. My citrus have no fruit, but Im not sure if its the drought or the absence of honeybees. Sylvane, the Swiss beekeeper who sells at Takapuna market told me of one local apiarist whos lost 70% of his 350 hives to varroa mite.…

Vege garden ruined this season as I used horse manure and didn't check whether or not the source sprayed or not. They have since confirmed that they do spray their fields once a year with a product they get from Wrightsons. Sure it is aminopyralid or one of the similar chemicals in herbicides that have caused damage to my tomato plants, potatoes and beans. The pictures are identical to that I see on heaps of internet sites including the guardian research when it became of problem in the UK…