Potluck notes

Kai o Te Aro Potluck -8^th July, 2010

Things we covered

Fruit Tree Order

The order will arrive by the end of July. An impromptu working bee may have to be arranged when this comes in. Some of the trees have come in and should be ready to plant this Sunday. See the discussion elsewhere on OOOOBY. We will also see how much money we have left. Lillian has a station wagon for transporting trees from mitre-10 Mega (Petone?)

Working Bee -Sunday, 17^th July

Orchard Site

-Move Compost

-Plant seedlings in new bed

-Plant peas, garlic

Steps

-Weeding

-Moving bricks and leaves

Secret Garden

-Mini Glasshouse

-Set up seedling trays

Spring Planting

We agreed that rows and labelling are the order of the day.

Seedling trays need to be gotten ready for spring planting. There are seeds available in the fridge.

Ideas for things we’d like to plant early are: native spinach, pumpkins, kamo kamo, peas, lettuce, tomatoes (perhaps these need to be started earlier?)

WITS

WITS stands for Wellington Independent Trading System

We are registered with WITS. We can trade surpluses for materials we might need, just like in Age of Empires™.

Communications

Do we need a most frequently contacted list?

What about Google Wave? (My current computer can't get on Google Wave)

School

Elizabeth will do a 1 hour gardening elective per week with Aro Valley School. She may need someone to cover her in August. Vic+ people may be able to assist here.

Aro Valley Community Council (AVCC)

Charles raised the point that the AVCC could hold the groups archive, phone list, and descriptions of roles etc. as a backstop. This would help make Kai o Te Aro more resilient. The relationship between Kai o Te Aro and AVCC will continue to evolve.

Here are the Kai o te Aro Potluck planning meeting notes from 9 September

Thanks to Elizabeth for hosting a lovely potluck and sharing her wonderful view of the harbour.

AVCC
The community centre have kindly offered us the use of one of their filing cabinets.
Everyone - collect up any KOA items (newspaper clippings etc) that would be good to archive and bring them to the next meeting.

AVCC recently dropped off some plants that they want planted on the bank next to the community centre.
General feeling that we'd like to have a mutually supportive relationship with AVCC, for example through communicating to people on our mailing list about working bees AVCC have organised, rather than act as a taskforce.
Agree that we'll plant the plants at the next working bee and Charles will talk to Linda to clarify our relationship.

Poster
Charles' friend is keen to create a poster design, which could possibly also be used for a tee shirt and a stamp. Charles described a beautiful-sounding possible design and content. Charles will work up some copy and post it on Ooooby for comment. With a bit of luck we will have a mockup of the poster to look at for the next meeting.
Another great idea for the future - creating an Aro Valley garden tour guide with lots more info about the gardens and seasons.

Fruit trees
There should still be six fruit/nut trees to come from Mitre 10. Charles to contact Simon for an update.
Frances has offered that we can get things delivered to her address if we want, so they don't have to sit at the Orchard.

Orchard sign
Peter Pritchard from VUW is happy with how the garden is going, but points out that the faster it looks like a beautiful garden, the safer it will be.
VUW may possibly be able to produce a sign for us if we get one designed. Agree it should have the name of the garden, a contact number and a graphic element from the poster.

Te Aro School programme
Elizabeth updated us on the school programme. A second group of kids are now in the elective programme, and loving it. Elizabeth met with the school to discuss formalising it and making it permanent. She has found a teacher who is excited, but unfortunately doesn't work on Fridays. She has also written a brief for a larger/more holistic programme that will be presented to the school board. There is budget to build eight more garden boxes, and Bunnings are keen to be involved and hold a working bee.

Education sessions
Several people are interested in organising education sessions for KOA (possibilities: instructive tour of wild edibles by Wild Picnic blogger, fruit tree pruning session).
This could be combined with or addition to the working bees.

Seeds
We have lots of seeds in the fridge. Charles suggests organising them into seasonal planting groups so we can easily find the ones that are good to plant right now.

Watering
With summer coming up and seed trays in the cold frame, we need to have a good system for watering. Agree that we'll work out a watering roster for the coming month at each planning meeting.

For September:
Week of 13th - Karen
Week of 20th - Joanna
Week of 27th - Elizabeth

Noxious weeds
The terracotta pot in the Secret Garden is full.
Possible solutions:
- soak in water for several weeks until decomposed enough to put on compost
- bag up and leave to compost (possibly in a tidy pile on the bank above the Secret Garden)
- bag up and send to landfill

Everyone - please think of any other solutions and put them on Ooooby.

Working bee

The focus will be on the Orchard and the Steps.

Orchard:
- bring bricks from Frances' house and concrete from Secret Garden to build beds
- use compost pile at Orchard to make beds
- take down windbreak fence at Orchard and build up raised bed instead

Steps
- break up pallets at the Steps to make beds
- dig in green manure
- remulch paths

AVCC
- plant plants for AVCC along bank

Secret Garden
- sort out seeds in fridge into seasonal planting groups
- deal with terracotta pot of noxious weeds

- look for spot for shade garden

Bring: plastic bags for bagging noxious weeds in terracotta pots
Elizabeth will talk to Bunnings about possibly providing topsoil or pavers.

Focaliser: Charles

Next meeting
Will be at Jamie's house, 7th October. Elizabeth will facilitate.

Replies

Joanna Morton September 27, 2010 at 10:28am

Here are the Kai o te Aro Potluck planning meeting notes from 9 September

Thanks to Elizabeth for hosting a lovely potluck and sharing her wonderful view of the harbour.

AVCC
The community centre have kindly offered us the use of one of their filing cabinets.
Everyone - collect up any KOA items (newspaper clippings etc) that would be good to archive and bring them to the next meeting.

AVCC recently dropped off some plants that they want planted on the bank next to the community centre.
General feeling that we'd like to have a mutually supportive relationship with AVCC, for example through communicating to people on our mailing list about working bees AVCC have organised, rather than act as a taskforce.
Agree that we'll plant the plants at the next working bee and Charles will talk to Linda to clarify our relationship.

Poster
Charles' friend is keen to create a poster design, which could possibly also be used for a tee shirt and a stamp. Charles described a beautiful-sounding possible design and content. Charles will work up some copy and post it on Ooooby for comment. With a bit of luck we will have a mockup of the poster to look at for the next meeting.
Another great idea for the future - creating an Aro Valley garden tour guide with lots more info about the gardens and seasons.

Fruit trees
There should still be six fruit/nut trees to come from Mitre 10. Charles to contact Simon for an update.
Frances has offered that we can get things delivered to her address if we want, so they don't have to sit at the Orchard.

Orchard sign
Peter Pritchard from VUW is happy with how the garden is going, but points out that the faster it looks like a beautiful garden, the safer it will be.
VUW may possibly be able to produce a sign for us if we get one designed. Agree it should have the name of the garden, a contact number and a graphic element from the poster.

Te Aro School programme
Elizabeth updated us on the school programme. A second group of kids are now in the elective programme, and loving it. Elizabeth met with the school to discuss formalising it and making it permanent. She has found a teacher who is excited, but unfortunately doesn't work on Fridays. She has also written a brief for a larger/more holistic programme that will be presented to the school board. There is budget to build eight more garden boxes, and Bunnings are keen to be involved and hold a working bee.

Education sessions
Several people are interested in organising education sessions for KOA (possibilities: instructive tour of wild edibles by Wild Picnic blogger, fruit tree pruning session).
This could be combined with or addition to the working bees.

Seeds
We have lots of seeds in the fridge. Charles suggests organising them into seasonal planting groups so we can easily find the ones that are good to plant right now.

Watering
With summer coming up and seed trays in the cold frame, we need to have a good system for watering. Agree that we'll work out a watering roster for the coming month at each planning meeting.

For September:
Week of 13th - Karen
Week of 20th - Joanna
Week of 27th - Elizabeth

Noxious weeds
The terracotta pot in the Secret Garden is full.
Possible solutions:
- soak in water for several weeks until decomposed enough to put on compost
- bag up and leave to compost (possibly in a tidy pile on the bank above the Secret Garden)
- bag up and send to landfill

Everyone - please think of any other solutions and put them on Ooooby.

Working bee

The focus will be on the Orchard and the Steps.

Orchard:
- bring bricks from Frances' house and concrete from Secret Garden to build beds
- use compost pile at Orchard to make beds
- take down windbreak fence at Orchard and build up raised bed instead

Steps
- break up pallets at the Steps to make beds
- dig in green manure
- remulch paths

AVCC
- plant plants for AVCC along bank

Secret Garden
- sort out seeds in fridge into seasonal planting groups
- deal with terracotta pot of noxious weeds

- look for spot for shade garden

Bring: plastic bags for bagging noxious weeds in terracotta pots
Elizabeth will talk to Bunnings about possibly providing topsoil or pavers.

Focaliser: Charles

Next meeting
Will be at Jamie's house, 7th October. Elizabeth will facilitate.
Charles Barrie August 4, 2010 at 2:56am

Sounds like a great idea Lynsey. Is that something you would like to organise? Or would you like me to make contact?
Charles Barrie July 24, 2010 at 8:09am

Thanks for putting this up simon. Can anyone remember who was going to host the august meeting? If it is on a tuesday or thursday I can facilitate

C
- Simon Tegg > Charles Barrie July 24, 2010 at 9:47am
  
  Louisa was
  
  I recall she's right infornt of the Secrt Garden
- Lynsey Ferrari > Simon Tegg August 1, 2010 at 1:02pm
  
  Hi Guys,
  
  Apology for this Thursday's potluck & meeting. I'm minding my grandchildren but expect to be at the working bee.
  
  I noticed you've discovered the Wild Picnic blog lately Charles. So did I, via WITS. I'm keen to make contact and see if she will come to the valley some time later this year for a weedy walk so we can learn more about our own little wild treasures. What do you reckon?

This reply was deleted.

Kai o Te Aro Community Garden

Replies