The Gardens4Health seasonal hui are an opportunity for our community of gardeners and organisers to come together to celebrate the successes of the season gone by, to share what they have learned, and to share advice as we prepare for the season to come. Our ngahuru / autumn hui hosted at Headway House brought up some great reflections from the season. Thank you to all the amazing participants who brought their enthusiasm and knowledge.
This year the dreaded drought forecast for Tāmaki has been alleviated by solid periods of rain, but the potential for a shortage of water has got our gardeners thinking of cost effective ways to store water and preserve ground water for as long as possible: water tanks, irrigation, cover cropping, and mulching were all discussed. Pūkeko have proven to be a huge challenge for many gardeners even in suburban centres, with many crops being damaged or destroyed by them. We shared strategies to manage the impact they have on our kai.
Ali shared her knowledge about green manure crops, which regenerate nutrients and organic matter in soil as well as condition soils eroded or compacted by the elements. We shared seeds that can serve both as green manure crops and as nutrient dense kai. We also shared our aspiration to form a seed library, to which people could contribute saved seeds in exchange for access to seeds saved from gardens all over Tāmaki. We will continue to consult our gardening community to refine this project.
Download the PDF to the first Seasonal Pānui/newsletter for the year from the link below.
