Beneath the pavement

Quick Update

2009-06-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

I just saw that the World Health Organisation has raised the pandemic alert for swine flu to level six - that means its officially a pandeminc. I dont think the death toll from this pandemic will be alarming but the effect on the global economy almost certainly. The effect on international travel alone should give the economy another thumping at the time it can least afford it.

Welcome to the new reality, long term recession, increasing resource scarcity and global instability.

As for me I have been busy, I'm doing a bit of freelance work at the moment but have a huge amount of spare time. So every day I have been working away on practical projects. I'm brewing ciders and beer, I've have greatly improved my baking skills. I've made marmalad and the garden is finally getting into shape after a productive summer.

We set up a fire bath in our yard last week so after a long day working I can take a soak, stare at the sky and drink a bottle of home brew.

I may post more about what I'm up to in future.

White House to Get Organic Garden - WTF

2009-03-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

So apparently the white house is going to be getting an organic garden. I'm normally pretty cynical when it comes to things like this for instance I think Obama will be the most hated president in US history. He will preside over period where it becomes clear to the world that the US empire is breaking apart. He will be the one that deploys troops onto the streets of US cities and like Lyndon B Johnson will be seen as betraying a generation of activists hopes.

That said I can' t see much wrong with the white house planting a garden, its a powerful symbolic statement which the world really needs.

From AP spotted on cryptogon

The White House is getting a new garden.First lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to break ground Friday on a new garden near the fountain on the South Lawn that will supply the White House kitchen.

She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District of Columbia. The children will stay involved with the project, including planting the fruits, vegetables and herbs in the coming weeks and harvesting the crops later in the year.

Mrs. Obama spent time earlier this week at an exhibit on rooftop gardening.“We’re
going to get a big one in our back yard, the South Lawn,” she promised the volunteers

Doomers

2009-03-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of years I have spent quite a lot of time on doomer websites learning a whole lexicon of new words. Abbreviations such as TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) and derogatory terms such as sheeple roll off my tongue with the best of them. But first I should explain how I happened to stumble across the doomer community.

Our way of life is completely unsustainable this seems so obvious to me that it barely warrants mentioning. Furthermore I believe that peak oil and climate change mean that we are facing a breakdown of the complex systems we rely upon much faster than most of us realise. So when I worked all this out I started studying organic farming and turning my parents place into a permaculture demonstration site. Next I started looking round for others who were into the same thing. The funny thing was that very few people seemed to be taking food growing seriously. For most people into organic gardening in the west it seems to simply be a hobby. I would go around to the home of a noted organic gardener or permaculturalist and I would see a small garden that would only produce a tiny amount of the food they required.

So after looking for people seriously into creating a different world I stumbled across the doomer and collapse websites. Here was a group of people that take growing food seriously. They also look at the wider picture and openly consider questions such as, if the power goes out how will I get water and how long will the sewerage system keep running. Whilst I don’t believe civilisation will collapse overnight and carry a Bug out Bag with me 24/7 packed with emergency essentials as some of them may I do share a similar outlook about significant disruptions to our society over the few decades.

Of course the doomer community and peak oil nuts such as myself have gotten a tremendous boost from recent geopolitical events. Oil going to $150 a barrel was considered nuts when people like me talked about it in 2005 yet by 2008 it was reality. Talk of tent cities and martial law might have sounded like conspiracy theory a couple of years ago but these sort of things are popping up in the news daily.

Aside from all the other reasons I find doomer sites entertaining and usually a more interesting read than most of the other blogs out there.

Bloody People

2009-03-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

I was wandering round yesterday having quite a good day when I came across this gull with a hook and lure embedded in its beak. It was obviously in pain and constantly trying to dislodge it from its beak. I don't think I need to remind readers about how the worlds oceans are in the process of collapse, how ninety percent of the worlds large fish are gone etc etc. I find any kind of sport hunting sickening and any form of meat consumption in the modern world requires denial about the pain and suffering inherent in the production of flesh.

I spent ages trying to catch it as it appeared dehydrated and wasn't moving too quickly but eventually it flew off.

Reflections On Protest

2009-03-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

At the protests I go to I rarely take part anymore and instead I usually take photos or talk to people I know. Its not that I doubt the urgency of the causes we fight for, the vital need to take action like never before or the conviction of everyone on the march or picket. Its just I find our actions unbearably depressing, as the world burns all we can do is march down to the US consulate for the tenth time this year. Most of the time even the cops are bored. Members of the self styled riot squad chat amongst themselves and stroll down the street beside the marchers.

While we are getting hot and angry working up a good self righteous sweat most of the public walking down the street are either bemused or confused by our action. Most simply snap a photo on their cellphone to show to the family later and turn to their friends puzzled as they try and work out exactly what we are protesting about. The hundred or so angry people escorted by police move in a revolutionary bubble down queen street leaving little wake behind them and eventually dispersing to the pub to swap stories about that march when the flag got lowered at the US embassy.

Our pickets and smaller protests seem to offer a better chance to engage the public but the story is the same, a small microcosm of misfits amidst a swirl of shoppers. When a member of the public does come over to talk to us most of us tense up expecting a verbal barrage and are shocked when word trickles over that someone actually supports us.

We seem to be stuck repeating these tiresome actions over and over again knowing that the best possible outcome of our march is 40 seconds of critical coverage on the six o clock news and only then if one of us decides to punch a cop. Most of the time we simply go home and check indymedia to see photos of ourselves and to read an over inflated account of our protest.

I know this is a dark picture of our protests that I have portrayed but its only because I feel stuck. I was still a teenager when queen street filled with 30,000 people marching against the release of Genetically Modified organisms into the New Zealand countryside. I remember standing at the top of queen st and looking down to see it completely filled with people literally as far as the eye can see. We had widespread public support across the entire country, this was a domestic issue not some war in a third world nation or some US backed regime massacring an indigenous minority. Despite all this we lost the GE battle, whilst we aren’t yet growing GE crops in Aotearoa field trials of GE crops are becoming widespread. That movement melted away and despite a lot of training and a lot of work most of the people involved seem to have disappeared.

So as the world economic system is crumbling and tent cities are springing up I’m left wracking my brains as to how to make our opposition to the current system felt. And more than making our opposition felt how do we build a counter culture that rejects individualist capitalism. Surely marching and protests should come from a body of people opposed to the current system rather than being our way we try and build and opposition.

I’ve got no answers but this is something I’m interested in so I might try and work out what’s going on in other countries to resist the current recession and how they are building and organising.

Police Target Political Activists

2009-03-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

None of what is in the Guardian article comes as any surprise to me, the police in NZ are doing exactly the same thing through both overt and covert surveillance. While not surprising it does make me angry, it also seems completely stupid and unnecessary. I cant come up with any plausible reason why this level of surveillance could possibly be useful. The level of political crime in the UK and NZ is negligible so this surveillance is complete overkill if the justification is crime prevention. It seems instead that western governments view activist movements as a major threat worth investing huge amounts of resources into. While I only really know what is going on in NZ I disagree with the Guardian that there is more of a focus on monitoring the press than activists. Sure journalists get harassed by cops but what they experience is nothing like the intense personal harassment dealt out to known activists.

For a taste of what things are like for activists in Aotearoa this article is illuminating. For an activists perspective of this kind of surveillance Fit Watch is a great read and I really respect the people that run it.

Thanks to cryptogon for spotting it, link to the full article which has video and audio here

Guardian: Police Database on Thousands of Protesters

Police are targeting thousands of political campaigners in surveillance operations and storing their details on a database for at least seven years, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.
Photographs, names and video footage of people attending protests are routinely obtained by surveillance units and stored on an "intelligence system".

The Metropolitan police, which has pioneered surveillance at demonstrations and advises other forces on the tactic, stores details of protesters on Crimint, the general database used daily by all police staff to catalogue criminal intelligence. It lists campaigners by name, allowing police to search which demonstrations or political meetings individuals have attended.

Disclosures through the Freedom of Information Act, court testimony, an interview with a senior Met officer and police surveillance footage obtained by the Guardian have established that private information about activists gathered through surveillance is being stored without the knowledge of the people monitored.

Police surveillance teams are also targeting journalists who cover demonstrations, and are believed to have monitored members of the press during at least eight protests over the last year.

Videographer Jason Parkinson and photographer Jess Hurd describe to Paul Lewis how they have been followed by police while covering protests
The Guardian has found:

• Activists "seen on a regular basis" as well as those deemed on the "periphery" of demonstrations are included on the police databases, regardless of whether they have been convicted or arrested.

• Names, political associations and photographs of protesters from across the political spectrum – from campaigners against the third runway at Heathrow to anti-war activists – are catalogued.

• Police forces are exchanging information about protesters stored on their intelligence systems, enabling officers from different forces to search which political events an individual has attended.
Lawyers said tonight they expect the Guardian's investigation to form the basis of a legal challenge against the use of police surveillance tactics.

Nestle Protest

2009-03-05T21:30:00.001-08:00

Today supporters of striking Filipino workers held a protest inside Nestle's New Zealand corporate headquarters. Nestle are an all round evil corporation and every time I went past their building in Auckland I felt guilty for not doing something. Nestle are the most boycotted company in the world and rose to infamy for aggressive of cows milk based baby formula in developing countries as a replacement for breast milk while I support the choice of women to breastfeed or not and realise that for many women this is not an option it is the deceitful aggressive marketing and also the dairy industry which I have a problem with. The list of abuses Nesle is responsible is long with use of slave labour, GM organisms, depletion of groundwater just the beginning.

The protest today was in support of 600 striking workers in the Philippines and to show our anger at the dozens of union members and leaders that have been killed. These killings and anti union activities are an integral part of Nestles attempts to keep wages low in its manufacturing plants. During the protest a union organiser who has visited the factory in question talked of how the factory has become a military controlled zone and the real fear of death that union members have in the Philippines.

Whilst our action today was small and symbolic I am sure it meant a lot to the striking workers. International acts of solidarity should never be underestimated, the protests and actions across the world in support of those arrested in last years terror raids in Aotearoa meant a lot to me and have highlighted to me the importance of showing our support for overseas struggles.

Excuses

2009-03-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

So I do actually have a lot I want to write about, like the mining of Happy Valley, the battle for female co-leader of the greens, why New Zealanders are responding differently to the financial crisis than other countries etc. And given time I will get round to writing about some of these. In the mean time here are a few more photos I took at the community garden on the weekend.

Sign of the times

2009-03-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

These are some photos I took today in Auckland, I think this was going to be a mall type major development with below ground car parking. I think developers have gone into a receivership and work has definitely halted. It was hard to get good images of the site because of a fence thoroughly surrounding it but I am happy with these.

I love the bomb (graffiti) in the first photo, its kinda hard to make out but says "I wish this was a swimming pool". I really wish I had gotten a better photo of this bomb.

UK govt scared of possible anti banker backlash

2009-03-01T21:09:00.001-08:00

Man these are certainly interesting times. I dont really have much to comment on this story, I would be suprised if rioting got out of control, people still have to much to lose to launch themselves at lines of riot cops or to burn banks. As for political extremists stirring up civil disorder I think thats exactly what activists try and do 24/7 its only when a situation becomes unbearable that people get angry though. Political activists dont have the power to create anti government or anti banker anger at most they have a bit of power to direct anger which already exists but that power is pretty minimal.

Hat tip Cryptogon

From Daily Express:

TOP secret contingency plans have been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a “summer of discontent” in Britain.

The “double-whammy” of the worst economic crisis in living memory and a motley crew of political extremists determined to stir up civil disorder has led to the extraordinary step of the Army being put on standby.

MI5 and Special Branch are targeting activists they fear could inflame
anger over job losses and payouts to failed bankers.

One of the most notorious anarchist websites, Class War, asks: “How to keep warm during the credit crunch? Burn a banker.”

Such remarks have rung alarm bells in Scotland Yard and the Ministry of
Defence.

Intelligence sources said the police, backed by MI5, are determined to stay on top of a situation that could spiral out of control as the recession bites deep.

The chilling prospect of soldiers being drafted on to the streets has not been discounted, although it is regarded as a last resort.

Great Short Film

2009-03-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

Great short film about Permablitzing

A couple of us are working on a Permablitz type event in Auckland probably in a month or so, more details to come.

Global Economy Collapses

2009-02-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting stories about the current global economic melt down because I figure everyone already knows about it. Since 2005 I have been going round talking about the end of industrial capitalism and the coming crash. At the time I was accused of being nuts and of wanting a pol pot style great leap backwards. Whilst this current crisis could just be a hiccup for global capitalism and could result in global agreements similar to those set up after world war two I think it is more than that.

I think the current economic crises is closely tied to very real limits to growth. I don't think its coincidental that this crises intensified sharply after oil and mineral prices shot up sharply a year ago. I think a rise in the price of raw materials combined with a very shaky economic situation which had been obvious for years was enough to trigger and intensify the current crises.This society is so complex and fragile with supply chains snaking the globe that even relatively minor disruptions such as strikes or shortages of key materials can cause major disruption world wide. Once we really get into this crisis it will be very difficult for the global economy to recover.

On a broader level I think peak oil and a couple of other factors will mean that instead of a temporary hiccup we will be looking at the long term decline of industrial society. Whilst we probably have another few hundred years of industrialised society ahead of us I think our global society has peaked. I believe this because I think we are hitting peak oil right now and I think that from here on in the energy which drives the industrial system will become more expensive and harder to get.

So go outside plant your gardens, talk to your neighbours begin building the new world right fucking now. If you get your hours reduced consider working part time and slashing your expenses. Work out what is really important to you and do it. This is what I am doing and I have never been happier. Even if this crisis is just a hiccup I want to use this chance to begin creating the world as I want to see it.

Oyster Mushrooms

2009-02-22T13:04:00.000-08:00

My friend has been growing/cultivating oyster mushrooms in buckets. He bought the initial spawn to get them going, mixed it with some woodchips and put the mix into buckets, misting the buckets daily to keep moisture and humidity up. These two photos were taken about two days after the first flush of mushrooms appeared.

Oyster mushrooms are remarkably adaptable and a good mushroom for beginners to try. They can be grown on a wide range of substrates including, straw, woodchips, paper, coffee beans etc. If anyone is interested in mushrooms I can highly recommend checking mycelium running out. This book is awesome, it blew my mind and the minds of everyone I know which has read it. Basically Paul Stamets outlines the world beneath our feet and how fungi are crucial to the functioning of ecosystems. He then shows how fungi can be utilised not only to produce food but to heal damaged landscapes. Paul Stamets website is here

Update in response to a question about where to get spawn I would reccomend checking out these two sites for NZ suppliers, Mytopia and Mushroom Gourmet I think my friend got his from one of these but I am not sure which. If I see him soon I will ask him.

Huge Guerrila Garden

2009-02-16T00:40:00.000-08:00

We were driving back from the winter gardens last week when my friends mentioned this huge garden they had seen near the motorway. Of course I wanted to go and check it out, as you can see from the pictures the garden is massive. Most of the garden is Kumera but there were also Corn, peppers, tomatoes and a bunch of other plants.

While I'm not sure I think this is a guerrilla garden which makes it all the cooler. The kids at the house next to it ran out when we turned up worried we were going to harvest veges but I asked if I could take some photos and they were ok with that. They were justifiably proud of the garden and gave the kind of ambiguous answer I expected when I asked who's land it was.

Anyway this kind of semi market garden scale growing is awesome. I really wish all permaculturalists and organic gardeners were this serious about growing food. Though given my recent hiatus from serious food growing I am no longer one to preach :) Gardens are becoming increasingly common all over the suburb I live in and I'm sure its the same across Auckland. Its definitely an inspiring time to be growing food. In south Auckland where I grew up there was always some semi-subsistence growing happening but it is becoming far more common with the current recession.

Winter Gardens

2009-02-16T00:34:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to say about these photos, I took em at the heated indoor, winter gardens at the Auckland domain last week. I really like the winter gardens, they often have cool tropical fruits and veges growing in them.

The winter gardens are kept warm and humid year round so you can walk out of a grey miserable Auckland winters day into a warm tropical atmosphere.

Acorn Bread

2009-02-13T00:34:00.000-08:00

So I have done some pretty depressing posts over the last while but I don't want to give my readers the impression that life is all doom and gloom. Indeed as I sit here drinking wine made out of fruit from a tree I planted a few years ago things seem pretty bright.

Anyway I spent this afternoon making acorn bread. I have been looking forward to making acorn bread for quite a few months and though I had forgotten how much work it is the reward is most definitely worth it. I took photos of much of the process so any avid readers in NZ can go out and make there own acorn bread over the next couple of weeks. Any northern hemisphere readers will need to wait until Autumn and go and find some acorn trees.

For an introduction to how acorns have been used historically and a more exact recipe read the great article my friend wrote last year here

The first step is to collect acorns, get any decent looking brown ones which aren't obviously cracked. You don't have to be very picky as you cull out the bad ones in the next step.

In this step I whack the acorns in the bag with a hammer splitting them, I then pull the husk off and chuck the kernel into the container. This is where you cull out the bad ones, any bits that are black should be removed or the whole kernel discarded. As these acorns were blown down in heavy wind last night all were in good condition and I think I only chucked a couple away.

Here I float off any husks as they aren't very please ant to bite into. Surprisingly I only let a few pieces of husk get through.

Next I boiled the kernels on a low heat for about 90mins or longer changing the water two or three times. This is to get the tannins out of the nut, I will try soaking nuts in water for a couple of days at some point but I didnt have the patience to wait today.

This is what they looked like once boiled, kinda grey and crumbly and edible though strong tasting.

I then mashed these thoroughly and mixed 50/50 with regular white flour, oil, soy milk, golden syrup 5 teaspoons of baking soda and some water. I didn't really follow any recipe I just mixed ingredients until it looked right.

Next I baked it for about 40 mins until it wasn't too moist when I cut a small piece off.

Here is the finished product, two and a half hours later. It tasted great and went very quickly.

This will definitely be the first of many loaves.

Petting Zoo

2009-02-06T02:04:00.000-08:00

There was a petting zoo at the Waitangi day event I was at today, I found it pretty depressing. While it can be argued that its good that kids have an oppurtunity to interact with animals I think running round harassing stressed animals isnt the healthiest of interactions. The petting zoo was set up as entertainment which I obviously have a problem with. While I was taking these photos some teenage farm kids were joking about how they treat the animals on the farms they came from. While these kids were joking round the footage and photos stories I have heard and seen mean I know that these kids probably were'nt making it up. After hearing them talk of kicking pregnant ewes in the stomach I walked away sickened.

No suprise that wherever I go I see evidence of the fucked up nature of our culture.

Praying Mantis

2009-02-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

Tamil Protest Phots

2009-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

More Garden Photos

2009-02-04T00:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics I took in my friends garden today. I'm really happy with how they came out.

Capitalism in the process of collapsing.

2009-02-03T02:50:00.000-08:00

This is so funny, I get a vindictive pleasure at watching the industrial capatalist system struggle and seeing free market neoliberal policys outed for the short term sham they are.

I think this is part of a long term collapse (ie 50 years) as our global civilisation reaches limits to growth posed by natural resources as well as the way the current civilisation is designed. There will be cycles of growth and recovery but the overall pattern will be catabolic collapse

Hope you are all planting your gardens and preparing for a post industrial economy. This is particularly relevant to people in my age group (ie young) we will see the end of industrial civilisation in our lifetime. No doubts about it.

From AFP via cryptogon

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia launched a 42 billion dollar (26 billion US) stimulus package Tuesday and slashed interest rates to a 45-year low in a bid to battle the global economic crisis, which has choked growth.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the massive stimulus package was aimed at nation building and supporting up to 90,000 jobs "in the face of the unfolding national and international economic emergency."

The government faced a "stark choice -- to act or fold its arms and let the free market rip," the centre-left Labor Party leader said. "The government has resolved to act and will continue to act."

Photo's of Bees

2009-02-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

So I took quite a few photos yesterday, I have been trying to work on my photography as I have recently realised that I kind of peaked in 2007 in terms of good quality images. A lot of this has been boredom, the protests I go on all look the same and garden shots are usually very similar so I kinda lost interest in putting a few hours into getting that really interesting or nice shot. Also as I haven’t really been blogging for a long time I haven’t been doing much with the photos I took.

So I have been concentrating on trying to improve my skills recently and been making an effort to take more photos. So after reading a few tutorials on insect photography I took a heap of photos of bees. I changed technique by using manual focus and burst mode, whenever I thought the focus was about right I would hold the shutter button down and take a burst of photos. This is definitely something I will do a lot more of in future. I also tried to anticipate where the bee would move next rather than trying to track it, this kinda worked but I still didnt get and noteworth shots of the bee in flight.

The main mistake I made was not paying more attention to what I was framing into the shot. As a result most of the images I took even if decently focused are cluttered and messy. The other mistake was using too low an aperture setting. This meant that the photos were too sharply focused on particular parts of the image rather than the whole bee being in focus.

Anyway to non camera lovers reading this I apologise for the rant and will try and actually write some more interesting content soon.

The weirdness of real life

2009-02-01T14:44:00.000-08:00

On a flight from Wellington yesterday I was reading an interesting book titled “How to deal with the media and win” whilst the guy next to me read a book titled something like “how to get rich”. The guy ended up asking me about the book and we got talking turns out he ran an IT company and had to deal with the media from time to time. Before I knew it he was going on about Zeitgeist and how the economy is completely fake, how free market policies did not create the best long term solutions and that as companies are legally required to think only about making a profit for their shareholders they should not be entrusted with infrastructure etc etc. We also discussed how Obama had been allowed into power as the system was desperate and someone was needed that could restore confidence and hope to a system which is in the process of collapsing.

Side note I think Obama is the worst thing that could have happened. In eight years time people are going to be bitter and feel betrayed as Obama spends his two terms keeping the US economy going at the expense of the poor.

Needless to say I was pretty blown away that this random business guy could see beyond the free market mantra parroted by the business round table. As my normal interaction with business people is yelling at them I have no idea how much of the capitalist elite realises how much of a sham things really are. My suspicion is a lot of them can see it but are as trapped as the nine to fiver trapped for the rest of their life in a mortgage to pay off a shitty home in suburbia.

Praying Mantis on keyboard

2009-02-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

For some reason a Praying Mantis decided to come and hang out on my keyboard for a bit this morning. After taking a few photos I took her/him outside.

I really like to see stark contrasts between human controlled and created artifacts and uncontrolled wild things.

Anarchist soccer

2009-02-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

We had a big anarchist versus Socialist soccer game today near the community garden. I was taking photos rather than actively participating, it was my first time trying to photograph sporting events and I have a new respect for professional photographers, getting clear sharp action shots that arent cluttered or messy is bloody hard work. Anyway you can see some more of the photos I took here

I only have an 18 - 55 lense at the moment so I had to get right in amongst the game to get photos. Hopefully I will have money for lenses someday soon........

Friends Garden

2009-01-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from a friends garden I took yesterday. Gardening continues to expand in popularity amongst my friends and now virtually every one of them has a garden. Its also expanding amongst normal people as well. I walked into the office kitchen today to see the head of production for the factory swapping garden produce with the head of sales both of them bubbling with excitement about what they were growing and what they were planning to grow over the winter period.

In the UK apparently the government is encouraging businesses to reduce employees hours to four or even three days a week rather than outright laying them off. Hopefully this extra time and all the new unemployed will find solace growing zucchinis, tomatoes and potatoes. Its a bit late to plant summer crops so for anyone starting a garden at the moment start thinking about autumn as it could be right around the corner.

Anyhow heres the photos.

Phtos from Community Garden

2009-01-25T13:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos I took at the Kingsland Community Garden yesterday. The gardens don't have any real water supply so everything is looking pretty parched apart from a few plants being hand watered. As a result a lot of the stressed plants have gone to flower so I ended up taking a lot of photos of flowers.

It was encouraging to see bees about and I spent a bit of time trying to get some good photos. All the gardeners I have talked to have noticed the drastic drop in bee numbers since the Varoa mite arrived in Aotearoa. In a couple of years people probably wont notice and in twenty or thirty years we will tell disbelieving kids about how lavender plants used to be covered in bees.

Colony collapse disorder may or may not have reached New Zealand yet but the sudden loss of pollinators is sure to have a massive long term effect on what we grow and eat. It is also one of the signs of a catastrophic breakdown in ecosystems. When something as fundamental as bee's disappear widespread collapse of entire ecosystems is guaranteed to follow.

Symbolic Action at Weapons Manufacturer

2009-01-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday around 200 people protested outside Rakon, a New Zealand company that manufactures guidance systems for missiles including those being used to bombard GAZA. The protest was held in opposition to the ongoing invasion of GAZA by Israel.

As part of the protest one activist a christian peacemaker climbed onto the building and painted kills in front of the Rakon sign. He was arrested whilst still on the roof. His explanation of why he took the action can be found here

Several other protesters threw eleven water balloons full of red paint at the front of the building to symbolise the eleven hundred civilians killed so far in Israels latest invasion. So far none of these people have been arrested to my knowledge.

After feeling powerless at last weeks march it was awesome to see some direct action being taken. The cops were taken completely by surprise and these two acts of civil disobedience were taken despite the building being surrounded by cops and private security guards.

The action got widespread TV coverage on all the news channels here and got decent radio and Internet coverage. I'm not sure if the print media have really picked it up.

In a similar overseas action activists attempted to shut down a UK weapons manufacturer causing large amounts of damage. Mainstream coverage here. Alternative news coverage here

Edit

I put together a rough video with some of the footage from the action

Free Gaza Rally

2009-01-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos I took at yesterdays march in Auckland to oppose the current massacre of Palestinian people. Over 600 people turned out for a rally and march.

However I couldn't help but feel disempowered by yet another march down queen st to the US consulate and back to Aotea square. Throwing shoes at the embassy was a welcome break from the usual stage managed show off political dissent. Aside from this and the chanting in Arabic the march was like any of the other marches against violence towards the people of the middle east we have seen over the past eight years. Perhaps it was just me but I was suprised that people weren't angrier. Quite a lot of the people there seemed unable to muster genuine outrage at what is going on in palestine. As a result I didn't really have the energy to run round trying to get good photos so these ones aren't the best.

Regular posting

2009-01-11T01:29:00.000-08:00

I hope to resume regular posting on this blog. For ages I have been avoiding putting stuff about me online because I was worried about my privacy. I'm not so worried any more so hopefully regular posting will resume on a wide range of political and social issues.

Motorways at night

2008-11-16T17:22:00.001-08:00

So I was taking photos of motorways the other night intending to show how disgusting they are but instead they look kinda beautiful.

I used long exposure times with a low ISO to get the pictures.I played round with saturation and colour temperature on the bottom two images.

Kingsland Community Garden

2008-11-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Here ares some pictures I took yesterday at the community garden. Things are growing amazingly well in the spring warmth.

Cool local Garden

2008-11-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of my friends garden. The guy that runs it shows amazing use of every inch of space particularly vertical space. Another awesome thing about it is that it is less than two years old! All the trellising in the photos below is to grow pumpkins up and pumpkins are also to be grown across the garage roof.

Presentation at World Vegan Day Event

2008-11-02T02:22:00.001-08:00

I did a brief presentation yesterday at a festival put on by some Auckland Hare Krishna's for world vegan day. I talked about how the same attitudes of dominion and exploitation behind the farming of animals in our society are also the attitudes behind how all our vegetables are produced. I explained that as health conscious vegans its important for us to eat heaps of fresh organic vegies and as few of us can afford to but them we may as well grow them. I finished up by telling people it was spring and that they had no excuse not to start a garden or get involved with a community garden.

As well as mine a friend got up and did a great impromptu talk on the enormous possibility's for Guerrilla Gardening around Auckland and the small plot he has put in. People were raving about this talk hours later so hopefully someone starts a guerrilla garden out of it. I will go and get photos of his guerrilla plot sometime soon, he just wants me to wait for his potatoes to come through first :)

Another friend of mine talked about his garden which on a normal section in south Auckland grows almost all the fresh vegies for 7 monks. He had amazing photos of pumpkins blanketing his garage roof and corn growing around his letter box. I talked to him for a while afterwards about seeds and growing and as a result he dropped off some plant for the community garden at my place this morning. I will probably be going out to his place on Tuesday and will take a bunch of pics. I think his garden is probably the most inspiring one I have been too in Auckland in terms of productivity and the health of everything growing in it.

All in all the night was great with good food, interesting people and a good mix of groups represented.

Gardening Popular as Economy Crashes

2008-10-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've been reading about the coming crash for so many years now that even as it starts I cant force myself to pay attention. Every morning brings new storys about this or that bank collapse, yo - yoing oil and commodity prices and looming economic recession. I have to remind myself that to the average person all of this is brand new and that the average person has no idea how bad things are going to get.

All the bad news and rising food prices have been great for gardening and nurserys and garden centers across Auckland are rapidly selling out of edible plants. On the back of all of this I recently helped a journalist out with a story about saving money through gardening. His single minded focus on the financial benefits of gardening seemed really odd to me and ever time I went off on a tangent about the political, emotional and environmental benefits of gardening his pen would stop moving. As soon as I got back onto how much broccoli cost or how much it cost to build a garden bed his pen would start moving furiously.

As part of the story I had to travel to my parents place so a photographer could get a picture of me in a garden. After posing beside my silverbeet patch one day I got a phone call saying the photos were'nt quite what he wanted and would I be able to do a second lot of photos? So the next day it was on the train once again and this time the photographer wanted me to dress up in gloves and a hat and hold carrots and a basket full of vegies. So after posing in various places all over the garden I was expecting to see a photo of me in the paper. However they didnt use the second days pictures either and instead went with a photo of another lady in her rather bare looking garden.

I will be meeting another journalist next week about a longer term project around gardening which sounds fun. I will write more as I get details.

Housing New Zealand

2008-10-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Early this year I got a call from a resident living in a government owned and subsidised housing complex. The complex was pretty much brand new but because of its cramped nature and the hundred or so kids living in it there were already some pretty bad vandalism issues. As one of the strategies to combat this and to build community spirit this resident was really keen to get garden beds put in at most of the houses. After a bunch of meetings we got funding to put in ten small beds and I provided seedlings about six months ago.

About a month ago I got another call and it turns out that Housing NZ were keen to fund another 15 garden beds. When I turned up with seedlings for the new gardens I was a bit nervous aobut how the original beds would be going but most were thriving. As I went round the houses many residents offered me food which they were cooking using the vegies from their gardens. Seeds I helped plant six months ago were now healthy thick rows of carrots. Fragile broccoli seedlings were now heads the size of dinner plates.

I was way to busy talking to kids and parents to get many photos but here are three, one of a new garden bed and two of a garden bed that was put in a few months ago. This has been a great project to be a part of and left me with a real buzz

A similar project is being proposed for all of south Auckland which I may be a part of. The scope of the proposed project is enormous with thousands of gardeners trained and potentially dozens of community gardens set up. While I have only played a small role in this bigger project it is awesome to know that despite the global ecological crisis we are undergoing that there are some real small solutions out there.

Apologies for the Absence

2008-10-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

So apologies for the absensence, I have been working hard on a couple of projects and moved into a flat which did not have access to the internet. I do have the internet now though and will be resuming regular posting about gardening across Auckland city. Interest in gardening is sky rocketing in NZ and I have been contacted by numerous journalists for storys over the past two months including two from national news papers. I have an upcoming long term project with a local news paper but I will write more about that when I have a bit more detail.

I'm living in a central suburb and unfortunately my landlord won't let me have a garden so I have been doing work at the Unitec gardens as well as at various community gardens including the Kingsland gardens. I have a backlogue of pictures so I will get on to posting.

Anarchism and Community Gardening

2008-08-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

I wrote this to go in a zine for an event I talked at. The talk went really well and I will expand and work on this piece including a heap of stuff which came up in questions etc

Anarchism and Community gardening

Around the world food prices are going up as employment rates are going down and rich western countries are beginning to experience shortages in some staples. What we are seeing at the moment though is only the beginning of a very long period of energy descent as more and more global consumers compete for a limited amount of oil. As our economy and food supply is built upon the continuous use of cheap oil the effects of rising prices will have a dramatic effect on the way we live. I think that as living standards fall in the west we will see greater opportunities for anarchist organising

To me anarchism is a rejection of all coercive forms of Authority and a move towards greater individual and communal autonomy. I see gardening and community gardening as a powerful tool for practicing non coercive community organising, challenging our current notions of private property and meeting some our needs. Setting up and running a garden is far easier than attempting to start a worker run workplace but allows for many of the skills to be used and provides some the same benefits.

Community gardening provides a way for us to work together voluntarily and share the harvest. It also allows us some control over one of the larger parts of our lives how we get the food we need to survive. Instead of buying and eating foods which reinforce corporate control we can grow and eat food which builds community resiliency and health. By using space which would normally be seen as private or unproductive we can challenge current notions around private property and what public space can be used for. By involving the community in this we give ourselves a tool to spread our philosophy and to build support for other campaigns.

Most of our campaigns have little real effect on our day to day lives or the lives of people living in our communities. I think this is one of the major reasons for burnout as our successes do not directly affect us and the problems we are fighting are always at a bigger scale than we can directly change. Add to this the fact that much of the work we do is around violent struggle and I think its obvious why more people don't become involved. To become a threat to those in power we must become relevant to those around us. The solutions we offer must appear achievable and more attractive than the consumerist dream offered in our society.

Of course a few community gardens alone wont bring down capitalism but it could be an important way for us to put our beliefs into practice and to show our communities that there are many different ways of organising our lives. If nothing else more gardens would give us healthy free food and an opportunity to build something positive.

So how do we do it?

The easiest place to start gardening is in your yard, if you have grass cover it with paper for a few months add some compost and put some veggies in. If you have concretes you can easily grow herbs like rosemary and thyme as well as most veggies in pots. Once you have some practical experience growing food it will be much easier to do it in a larger scale. Auckland only has a couple of community gardens and none of these are producing very much food at the moment so I think we urgently need more. Auckland City Council policy is encouraging of community gardens so it is possible that we could get official approval to start up gardens. The other faster and probably more empowering way would be to identify space either owned by individuals or institutions that isn't going to be developed urgently and then starting gardens there.

Whatever form of gardening we get involved in I think it must be tied strongly to the community it is in if we are serious about building autonomous communities. Having local support is also incredibly important if the possibility exists that we may be evicted from whatever land we end up using.

What I've been up too

2008-08-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

After my gardening blitz two weeks ago there hasnt been that much too do in the garden. That combined with threee large storms over the past week has meant that conditions havnt been that conducive to gardening.

Yesterday was the first day in a while without heavy rain so I got out and repaired the hothouse which blew apart, none of the plastic broke so i just nailed it back on. Some of my bananas had also blown over so I cut a few down and chopped them up for the compost pile. A neighbour had helped himself to a stem hanging over his side of the fence with bunches of bananas on. He offered to return it but this is exactly the sort of thing I want to see and which will in the long run help to build community

I've also been taking cuttings from herbs, pepino etc heres a how to guide I wrote recently

Taking cuttings

Taking cuttings is a quick and easy way to grow plants if you are gardening on a budget. Cuttings Simply prepare a tray or container about 7 - 10 cm deep full of pumice (can be bought from a gardening store). Take a cutting from the plant which you wish to grow this cutting should be around 5 – 10cm long but its worthwhile to try multiple lengths when you take the cuttings. Next strip the bottom 5 – 7 cm of leaves and dip in rooting hormone or Willow water. The rooting hormone isn’t really nessacary but increases the number of successful cuttings

Place the cuttings into the tray a few cm apart and water the tray very well. Cover the tray with a plastic bag to increase humidity and mist and water the pumice once or twice a day. Take the bag off for about half an hour a day so the plants can get carbon dioxide. The tray should be in a place which gets reliable sun like a north facing window or in a hot house.

Once you see new growth on the cutting carefully remove the cutting and some pumice. If white roots have begun growing though the medium its time to replant into potting mix and water once a day with your other seedlings.

Softwood cuttings (plants with green stems) should be taken in spring or summer. Hardwoods with brown stems like figs or grapes can be taken in late autumn or late winter. These times are not fixed and if you have a warm sunny area and keep the medium moist then you can take cuttings over a longer period.

Plants which its easy to take cuttings from inclue: Rosemary, Lavender, Thyme, Fig, pepino, grape.

Willow water

This can be used instead of rooting hormone.

To make it cut up a small stem of a willow plant and chop into 10 cm lengths. Put these lengths into a jam jar and leave for 24 hours. This contains the same rooting hormone found in commercial rooting hormone. This water can also be used to water the pumice to encourage strong root growth.

Nitrogen Fixers

2008-07-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Nitrogen fixers are an integral part of any garden food forest or perennial system as a lack of nitrogen is often a limiting factor in ecosystems. Nitrogen fixers have the unique ability to take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and convert it into a form which is available to other plants. They do this with the aid of symbiotic bacteria which in make nitrogen available to plants in return for sugars and nutrients from the plant. These bacteria are visible as white nodules which form on the roots of Nitrogen fixers.

White Nodules contain N fixing bacteria

Most plants which can fix Nitrogen are members of the Legume family. This family includes peas, beans, clovers as well as a wide range of shrubs and trees.

In the garden we incorporate Nitrogen fixers by regularly planting peas, beans and clover, either amongst other plants or as part of a crop rotation.

In perennial areas we include a range of fast growing pioneer species such as Tagasaste to fix Nitrogen and improve the soil before or as we plant fruit trees. As the fruit trees mature and increase in size many of these Nitrogen fixers can be chopped down and used as mulch. If this is done in a well thought out manner fast growing trees can be used to block light and suppress the growth of weeds without sacrificing the fast growth of fruiting species. Groundcovers or intercrops of clover or beans can also be incorporated into design.

Tagasaste is a fast growing tree of 3 - 5 m which is useful as a stock feed and which is used in native restoration projects for its prolofic flowers which feed many types of native birds. It can spread but is not highly invasive. Standing beneath a tagasate tree in flower is an amazing experience, the air above you is constantly moving with bee's and birds moving through the tree.

I recently got some seed from Unitec which after boiling for 30 seconds I planted in my hot house. I now have about fourty seedlings which I will plant around my property particularly along the grass verge which runs down the side of the section as well as a few food forests I am working on around the place. After 3 - 6 years the trees will be cut out and the branches used for mulch and the trunks for firewood.

Mature tree in flower

How does the garden grow

2008-07-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of the garden. I have completely planted up and properly weeded all the main garden beds. This is a real achievement which doesnt happen often so now I am focusing on increasing the available growing space and working on some other things I have been putting up (like tidying the garage)

Urban/Rural Divide

2008-07-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

I recently read a utopian article on worldchanging.com about the possibility of sending out people from the citys to spread skills and information to the suburbs and even rural areas about living sustainably, putting together local power generation etc etc. While the article suggested setting up a lot of things which I consider relatively useless (such as advanced electronic communication networks) it triggered an interesting debate in the comments section around whether or not city folks have anything to teach rural folk. While I accept entirely that rural folk in general have far more useful skills than say your average office worker there is still a huge amount of knowledge around living sustainably that many modern farmers lack.

For example some distant relatives recently stayed the night at our place between moving between one farm and another, The husband and wife have both lived the majority of their lives in rural areas and the husband is particularly adept at all the usual jobs on a farm. Despite this lifetime interacting closely with his environment he was constantly blown away as I talked about Nitrogen fixers, water storage, agroforestry and a bunch of other techniques. Walking round my backyard section with him quickly highlighted his profound disconnection from his surroundings. Needless to say he left with a bunch of Tagasaste seedlings, Comfrey roots and Daikon seeds as well as a very good introductory book to permaculture.

Anyway the point (as was well made by some people in the comments section) is that modern farmers are going to be screwed as oil continues to spiral in price and complex society breaks down. They may have greater access to land and food but heavily indebted and reliant on commercial fertilisers they are going to need all the help they can get. I think we may even see commercial farmers simply walking off their land and moving towards the city as farms become unmanageable without immense inputs and as drought takes more of a toll (as happened during the dust bowl).

Industrialised farming is nothing like the mythical family farms of 200 years ago. But even the mythical family farms created deserts out of fertile soils and destroyed the land they were upon. Much of the fertility that was once present in agricultural soils is gone and without constant inputs of water, machinery and fertilisers growing crops may become impossible.

Both farmers and suburbanites will need help organising to resist banks and crippling taxation. They will both need help and instruction building composting toilets and putting in swales. And as counterintuitive as it may seem I think many farmers will walk off their land even as people are crying out for food.

Planting Strawberrys

2008-07-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have been doing the last couple of days has been moving most of my strawberry plants. They had been growing in a bed at the back of the garden but that bed had gradually become overrun with Couch grass and the soil had become compacted. I plan to sheetmulch the bed with horse manure and cardboard and then use the bed for growing pumpkins or some other summer crop which requires space.

The strawberry plants have been moved up to the front of the property into a variety of containers as well as one garden bed. The containers are an adhoc collection I have bought from nursery supply stores as well as plastic barrels cut in half and filled with compost and old potting mix. Overall after dividing clumps up I probably have about 70 plants which is more than I expected buy you can never have too many strawberrys :)

The old strawberry patch

2008-07-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

An amazing local garden

So apologies for not posting for a month, the simple reason has been I have been too busy to get out into the garden the past month or so. Its only been the past few days that I have been able to get out and start weeding and planting.

Last week however I had the oppurtunity to visit a friends garden and help him make some compost. I had heard about the garden for some time and had envisioned a large area perhaps a field behind his house. It was with amazement then that I realised that he and the others living in the house were growing all of the households fresh vegies in the area around a standard 1970s home. This is even more incredible because he feeds eight vegetarians living in the house from the garden and regularly cooks large meals containing fresh vegies for others as well. While he doesnt grow all his staples he has grown a considerable amount of potatoes and pumpkins and last night told me how someone has given over their lawn so he can grow potatoes.

The thing which blew me away was how lush and healthy all the plants were, disease was virtually non existent and despite very close spacing everything seemed lush and highly productive. Compost piles scattered around the property and barrels full of comfrey tea are probably the reason for the lush growth

Use of space was highly ingenious with lettuce growing on a pallet atop a compost bin and frames set up so pumpkins can sprawl across the garage use. The home built hot house was warm and humid in the very middle of winter and contained fruiting chilli plants, basil, cucumber and some straggling tomatoe plants.

All this in a garden less than two years old! Inspiring what can be done when you put your mind to it :)

2008-06-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Moulting

The chickens have been going through their first moult since I got them and their feathers are thickening up in preparation for winter. For most of the hens this just means more feathers and a shiny new appearance but one of the hens - Mildred is growing feathers on her neck for the first time. Mildred and the other hens were originally bought from an intensive factory farm and when I got them they were all missing varying amounts of feathers. Mildred has had large sun burnt red patches for many months so it is a real relief that the new feathers are coming through.

This is Mildred preening herself

The garden is going along well, all beds are planted up and we have an abundance of brassicas. Garlic, onions and leeks are all becoming established and broadbean seeds are poking through rich soil and carrots have been sown. I am continuously sowing more brassicas and salad crops so that we have vegies to eat throughout winter. Auckland is blessed with relatively warm wet winters which allow for constant year round food production.

2008-05-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Small Solutions

As an activist and someone living in one of such an alienating destructive culture its easy to forget that most people are just doing the best they can. Its been then to be able to work with people on some small but positive solutions to the global situation we are in.

One of the cooler things I have been doing is helping residents at a government housing complex establish veggie gardens. Through Housing NZ we got funding to build garden beds for around a quarter of the residents initially with more if these ones prove a success. As part of the funding I have been able to go out and get seedlings and seed to help the families get their gardens going and I have spent a few mornings helping people plant their patches up. Most of the people I am working with are refugees and there is quite a language barrier but gardening is universal and through mimeing and broken English we have been able to explain most things.

Most of the plants the familys want to grow are things like chilli peppers and eggplants which cant really be planted till October at the earliest. The winter crops they are most interested are things like carrots and onions, stables which they use a lot of anyway. I have been using seed catalogues with heaps of photos in to explain which seed is what and how they need to be looked after. This can be more complicated than it sounds when you add three or four people asking questions, kids running round digging holes and chucking seeds around and a generally chaotic atmosphere.

The garden beds we have put in are small and most of the familys are already using the lawn and any other available space to grow veggies. I cant wait to see yards overflowing with productive plants come summer :)

There is a possibility that housing NZ could fund a lot more projects like this but even if there isn’t any easily accessible funding this is something I want to keep working on.

2008-05-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

Harvesting Kumera

I have tried to grow potatoes the last couple of years with varying levels of success, no matter what I've tried my yields havnt really justified the work put in. This summer I decided to try growing Kumera and I'm happy with the results. In November I put two kumera tubers into a tray full of pumice after a couple of weeks sprouts came through and I pinched these off with roots attatched and planted them in a garden bed. Today I dug up the bed and got about a bucket full of tubers. As I didnt put much work in I'm pretty happy with the yield and I think I will put two beds of Kumera in next summer. I have a couple of other patches of Kumera in my food forest and have harvested Kumera from two pots. I got about two medium size tubers from each 15L pot so growing Kumera in containers may well be worthwhile if you have a limited amount of space.

Im also hoping to grow Kumera on what is currently the grass verge at the front of the property. This is the sunniest warmest place on the property and would greatly increase my available growing area. Id be interested in hearing from others about their yields of Kumera - I'd estimate I got around 2kg a square meter.

2008-05-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

Pushing the Boundarys

The garden is rapidly filling up with autumn/winter crops and I'm having to carefully weigh how much space I want to give to the staples. Onions, leeks and garlic are all fairly easy to grow on the soil I'm on so I'm giving them at least one garden bed each. The other beds are full of brassicas, salad crops and some beetroot. When I plant seedlings I normally make sure the soil is covered with mulch or compost and the results are startling. Hard degraded soil has quickly turned into rich fluffy soil full of earthworms. I have found that whitefly is often a problem in march and april but as the temperature drops the whitefly seem to disappear.

As the garden is fairly well under control I have spend quite a bit of time establishing a mixed hedge along the edge of the property. I have almost completely run out of space on my property for fruit trees so I'm getting creative to pack more in around the place. One of the most underutilised bits of property is a long narrow stretch of grass running alongside our property and the street next door. The area is fairly exposed with poor soil which will need building up considerably. I have checked pretty carefully and talked to quite a few people and I'm rather confident that none of the trees will be planted over utilities (fingers crossed).

The fruit trees I'm planting will be primarily to feed the kids which walk down the street next to the property as well as diversify our diets. I'm going to plant tagasaste, lavender, rosemary etc as well to bring in insects and improve the areas overall health and diversity. The long term plan is for this mixed hedge to gradually replace the existing Acmena hedge with something far more useful and productive. The main problem is probably going to be kids knocking over the occasional small tree when they play rugby on the road. To get round this I am mostly planting trees I've grown myself so I don't get too upset if the occasional one gets destroyed.

Here is a general list of what I plan to plant

Trees: Tagasaste, Feijoa, Guavas, Macadamia, Orange, peach, Plum, Tamarillo, Fig, Abyssinian Banana

Bushes: Sugarcane, Jerusalem artichokes, Yukon, Pepino, Rosemary, Lavender

Ground covers: Comfrey, Sweet potato, Borage, Nastirtums, Nettle, Strawbery, Daikon radish, Lemongrass, Silverbeet, Nettle.

You cant really see them but there are two peach trees as well as the banana

Closest to the front is a macadamia, the two other trees are feijoas

2008-05-08T16:22:00.001-07:00

Weirdness with the animals

Somehow my chickens have been getting out of their enclosure and laying their eggs behind a fence. The suprising thing is that when I go out to check on them in the morning they are all back in their enclosure. The only explanation I can think of is that one or two must hop out lay an egg then hop back in to hang out with the rest of the flock because they are feeling a bit nervous about being out there by themselves. Its all very odd but I've found that chickens are always a suprise and can be highly entertaining.

Aside from being entertained by the chickens I have been busy planting onions, leeks and garlic as well as various other autumn/winter veges. I have been gradually sheetmulching the grass verge outside of my house and have been planting a mixture of low maintainence edibles such as pepino, sugarcane and yukon into the mulch. I have to be careful how and what I plant as the neighbourhood kids are very bored on the weekend and engage in petty vandalism simply because they have nothing else to do. For these reasons I am planting out peach trees which come up randomly throughout my garden from the trees hanging over it. If these trees get damaged I have plenty more to replace them with. I am also growing a mixture of other useful trees such as tagasaste to create a useful polyculture along the property boundary.

On another note I have to thank farmlet for linking to me I check farmlet and the sister blog cryptogon often and really appreciate both.

2008-05-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Politics of Gardening - cont

It has always seemed self evident to me that food production is highly political. It can be carried out in ways which channel resources towards a few reinforcing existing hierachy or it can be the opposite. It can be done in ways which empower indiviuals or in ways which empower communitys or neither. It can further alienation towards people and the natural world or it can build community and relationships with particular environments.

Working in horticulture with this analysis makes things a lot more interesting. My regular paid job takes on a new light as a perfect example of how food production can be used as a tool of alienation by the wealthy. From the time seeds are put into the ground until the vegetable arrives in your hands it has not been touched by human hands. Instead the seeding, weeding and preparation are done by enormous hugely expensive machines. This process ensures that at no stage do people have any emotional connection with the physical process of a plant growing and fruiting. The processing stage is especially perverted with immigrants working twelve hour days tending to assembly lines under beaming fluroscent lights as tons of vegetables stream past them at dizzying speeds. Throughout this process the vegetables are stripped of whatever nutritional value they may have once had creating a sterile bland commodity out of once living breathing matter. The sheer artificiality of this process ensures you come to relate to food as a lifeless dead bad tasting product.

The workers are of course being used to funnel wealth into the pockets of the managerial class. This class meets monthly in overstuffed chairs in fully catered meetings. They flick through charts showing average output per worker per hour, day, week etc. These graphs are created by a system where workers fingerprint in and out and have to write down their exact output every few hours. Meanwhile workers are working in 4 degree temperatures repeating the same motions throughout an entire twelve hour shift.

In my voluntary work the hierachy is noticable as well with upper middle class men and women turning up to events expecting to be served just because they pay a koha towards the space we are using. The sense of entitlement is often startling as the well dressed minority make demands about this or that minor thing and expect the organisers to fix things. They almost never stay round to pack up and make it incredibly clear that while they enjoy the films or workshops there is no way that they would ever help organise the next one. It could not be made more apparent that they are their as consumers and view the information we provide as a way of serving themselves, of ensuring they have fresh great tasting salads. It does not occur to them that the same techniques could be used to ensure that people do not have to sell as much of their lives to this capitalist system that we live under. Or that instead of making themselves feel self righteous about eating healthy that gardening could be used to build community control over land.

Working on peoples propertys this mindset is even more apparent with rich people highly uncomfortable with any relationship which isnt soley about a transaction of money for labout. They shift uncomfortably when I refuse to be treated as a labourer or when I say that I dont want to be paid because I do a lot of work because I enjoy it.

It gets annoying constantly bumping into the expectation and reality that my and everyone else's labour is a commodity to be bought and sold, that land is a medium used to maximise production, that growing food is just about making yourself feel good. That because I'm helping out a rich person they think that they can tell me what to do and they can head off for the day. That $5 allows someone to walk in to an event consume information and walk out.

2008-05-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Food Forests

I have been fascinated with food forests since finding out about them a few years ago. The idea that a complex three dimensional system could provide for almost all of our needs with very little work is quite obviously immediately appealing. I have had had the pleasure of working in a few established food forests and have been able to put in a few of my own around the place. I have always found food forests far more enjoyable to work in than conventional gardens and have found that as promised they are generally far less work.

This weekend I put in the beginnings of a food forest at a friends lifestyle block. This particular food forest has been designed to produce fruit year round with minimal effort. The trees are initially planted in small sheetmulched circles so a mower can move between the trees. Over the next twelve months I will gradually sheet mulch the entire area and plant a wide range of beneficial herbs, insect attracting plants as well as nitrogen fixers such as Tagasaste. This gradual approach is being taken to make use of the available labour and plant supply as we would not have been able to complete the project in one go. This gradual approach will also allow my friends to get used to managing the food forest as until now they have been stuck in a rather conventional mindset as to what an orchard should look like.

Before

After

On a related note the permaculture guru Geoff Lawton is about to release a video on Food Forests. It looks like a really exciting practical guide to food forests and I look forward to getting a copy. I will put up a review of it once I have seen it.

Here is a clip from the new DVD which blew my mind

2008-05-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Chicken Run

For weeks I was wondering how one particular chicken was getting out, true it could easily fly over one of the fences but for some reason I was sure that there was another explanation. Sure enough there was. One of the chickens was hopping up onto a chair, then onto the top of the chair and finally getting up onto the top of the highest part of the enclosure. Strutting back and forth building up the courage to launch into the vege garden.

Chicken mid air in the center of the photo
Who can blame a chicken for trying to get to this feast of greens?

2008-04-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

Quick Update

I've been doing quite a lot of work in the garden the last few days. It makes a nice change from far too much time in front of the computer or at meetings but at the end of the day it leaves me very tired.

I spent this morning taking tree's out of the Unitec food forest. There food forest at 8 years old is a good example of how quickly you can turn a field into forest using permacultural techniques but there are quite a few issues with the way they set the food forest up. Basically they planted heaps of support trees like tagasaste and wattle but not enough fruit trees. Because the soil at Unitec is awesome I think they should have put in less nitrogen fixers and coppice species and more fruit trees. As well they havnt been doing much ongoing maintainence such as pruning to allow light to fall on the fruit trees they have planted. So this morning I went round creating light wells for fruit trees and opening the canopy up so more light gets into the food forest. I will take my camera when I go there next week and get some pictures.

The other things I have been working away at are a plan to build raised bed gardens for a complex of state houses, a plan to put in a food forest at a friends lifestyle block and starting up a company for the work I am being offered. More details about all of these when I have more time.

2008-04-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Rice Shortages?

After yesterdays post one of my family members decided to buy some more rice that evening while out. The first two supermarkets were sold out of 10kg bags of cheap rice and they ended back up at the supermarket we were at that morning.

If anyone else notices shortages of staples in NZ I would be interested in hearing about it.

2008-04-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

The only survivalists in South Auckland?

After going to a bulk nursery this morning to buy some fruit trees and seedlings we stopped off at the local supermarket. We were there to buy chicken food but with cryptogon's hints to Kiwis to have a good supply of staples fresh in my mind I convinced the person I was with that 20kgs of rice was probably a good addition to the shopping cart. In the carpark we wondered whether we were the only survivalists in south Auckland as we pushed our trolley full of onions, rice, pumpkins and chook food towards the car. When we got home and I had fed the chooks I hopped on the net to read that walmart was limiting rice purchases and that many stores had run out. While I am unaware of stores running out of staples in NZ it is surely only a matter of time. I was quite surprised by my family's reaction to the story, they were on the verge of grabbing the keys and buying another 60kg on the spot. I convinced them that supermarkets were unlikely to sell out before Monday and that panic buying would only create artificial shortages. After reading about the precarious nature of our food supply for a couple of years it seems I have become dulled to the message of imminent food shortages.

Much of the rest of the day was spent in the garden mulching, weeding and planting. Here are some photos I took towards the end of the day. I am getting the hang of some of the manual functions on my camera with brighter shinier images the result.

2008-04-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

Soil Loss

This series of videos is really good

Part four here

Final part here

2008-04-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

A Crude Awakening

I recently received a copy of A crude awakening in the mail, I have seen quite a few peak oil films so I wasnt expecting much - an explanation of the hubbert curve, some talk about the role of oil in our society and what some of the effects of peak oil might be. A crude awakening was completly different though, I found it gripping and scary despite what I thought I knew. It is undoubtedly the best introduction to peak oil and energy descent I have seen and is well worth buying. It obviously had a decent budget and is very well put together.

Heres a clip from the movie I found on youtube

(dont worry the colours are crisp and clear on the DVD)

2008-04-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

The politics of gardening.

The medias constant calls for us as consumers to find solutions to the worlds problems are growing louder as problems like climate change become undeniable. These calls are almost always limited to lifestlye changes such as taking the bus or turning the lights off - neither of which seems particularly appealing. The calls ring hollow because they are. Modifying you lifestyle is never going to stop companies (or for that matter this entire culture) clearfelling or trawling the planet bare. Quite simply the ongoing extraction of resources and increasing pace of destruction are a vital part of the civilisation we live in. Agriculture and the citys destroy the carrying capacity of any given area. To continue our current way of life this this culture must spread out and destroy a wider and wider area.

How does this relate to not using plastic bags? Well the roots of our way of life are unsustainable so everything above them will be as well - this culture has locked us into a way of living which is inherently unsustainable. That said though not all actions individuals can take are equal. The most heavily promoted actions like using biofuels or hydroelectric dams act only to enmesh people in this unsustainable industrial society. These "solutions" such as recycling create a more efficient system. They free up resources for other sectors of the economy and in the long run no matter how well meaning or creative the people pushing these sorts of things are probably helping this culture grow. The other type of solutions which are not being pushed are things like quitting you job or growing you own food. These solutions are far more effective because they take labour and money out of this system and lower peoples dependency on the system.

This quote from a recent Sunday star times article really highlights this for me

Scientists searching for a way to solve global warming have stumbled on the perfect solution for removing CO² from the air and locking it away in a non gaseous state. Crucially - given the scale of the problem – the device is self-replicating, self-powered and has the added benefit of preventing floods and erosion. They call it ‘the tree’

There are solutions to the problems such as emissions trading which disempower. Emissions trading is something organised by the heads of states and created in such a way that economic growth - ie the destruction of the natural world - will not be inhibited. Pushing emissions trading is repeating the story that people have no power over how the economy and this society operate. Instead of pushing this message we should be empowering people with projects such as backyard gardens which show that there are radically different ways in which we can live. Real solutions will be self replicating and uncontrollable. Permaculture for instance uses basic techniques which can be taught in a few weeks and which work on every scale - from balconys to watersheds. These techniques inevitably challenge the way this culture operates. For example permaculture teaches people to look at landscapes in a wholistic manner ignoring the abritatrary lines drawn around public and private property. As well co-operation and sharing the surplus are at the very center of permaculture. Of course these actions must be widespread to be effective - a single tree can be blown over easily by wind and dries out easily, however as individuals join togehter we will for a forest with interlocking roots and branches which is immesurably stronger than the individuals which make it up. And by increasing our autonomy and interdependence from this system we will be able to break the vicious cycles which tie us to this system.

Remember Compact Fluorescent lights are packed with lead and other hazardous chemicals, made out of oil and require strip mining and the entire industrial capatilast system. Instead of buying into their so called solutions think about how you can increase your and your communitys freedom from this system which is killing the planet.

2008-04-15T18:44:00.001-07:00

Pics

I have been playing around with the new camera experimenting with all the manual functions, after using cameras on Auto for so long its quite nice to be able to control exactly how the images come out. Its been raining the past few days which is great for the gardenbut isnt really conducive for going outside and gardening.

2008-04-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

The end of Industrial Agriculture

The daily reports of rising food prices and global food shortages have been playing on my mind a lot lately. I have been talking about coming food shortages for several years as a result of peak oil and climate change but hearing about them daily is still really scary and the map below really drove things home. I think what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of Industrial Agriculture and for that matter the end of Industrial society. I think the process of deindustrialisation will be faster than the process of Industrialisation but that the change won't be overnight.

Anyway I hope you all have gardens and are helping your friends, familys, neighbours and communities to prepare for the inevitable end of an unsustainable culture.

2008-04-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

New Camera and Sunday gardening.

Hey thanks to everyone who commented on the Acorn bread recipe :) The garden is beggining to feel the bite of autumn as temperatures drop and the sun gradually lowers in the sky. Despite this we havnt really had much proper rain for 4 or so months. To people in a dry climate a couple of months with little rain may not sound like much but in Auckland with an average 1200mm of rain per year it certainly seems dry.

Despite the lack of rain I decided to go ahead with tree planting in a workshop on food forests that I ran today. In the workshop I explained the theory behind tree planting and gave a brief overview of the concept of food forests - which is basically that a range of types of plants are planted together in a way which benefits everything, increases yields lowers pest problems etc. This is done by planting useful ground covers, beneficial shrubs and fruit trees together. After theory and showing people my young forest garden we went to an area of abandoned council land and the attendees drew up plans showing slope, what plants were growing, wet and dry patches, wind direction etc. After the planning we got planting.

I got my new camera yesterday so here are a couple of photos.

This is Mildred - an ex battery hen she has a very strong personality

Drawing a site plan

Clearing holes for bananasPlanting fruit trees

Next sunday will be a workshop on soils and composting

2008-04-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Acorn Bread

I must apologise for my lack of posting lately I havnt felt particularly motivated to write. However we had a very successful workshop on weeds and foraging last Sunday in which we made delicious Acorn bread.

Acorns are awesome – 30% protein with heaps of good fats, there is a heap of other awesomeness about them so I would encourage you to read up on them

Its acorn season in Australasia at the moment so heres a basic guide to making acorn breat.

First find some acorn trees with heaps of Acorns on the ground, collect the good looking acorns, avoid any that are cracked or that have holes in them. Put them in a plastic bag or some other container as its awkward to hold very many.

Once you get home use a hammer to break the shell and get the kernel out, throw aside any that have black bits on or that don’t look that great. I found this was around a third of the ones I gathered. Try and get the skin like covering of the kernel off, if you cant don’t worry, you can pull it off once hey have boiled.

Next put the acorns in a pot and boil for about 15 minutes, then tip the water out and put the acorns in another pot of already boiling water. Putting it in cold water supposedly locks in the bitter water. Continue this switching perhaps 4 or so times. The water will be very dark with tannic acids at first but will gradually become lighter coloured You will know the acorns are done once they turn grey and are soft most or all of the way through. You will have to make a paste with them in the next step so I think its better to do it for too long than too short. Alternately you can leave them on a very low heat over night or leave them in a bag in a stream for a week. This step is about leaching them so I’m sure there are other ways as well.

The dark water can be used to dye clothing but will need something to fix the colour in.

Next use a mortar and pestle to mash the acorn kernels into a paste, try and remove any lumpy bits that were not boiled for long enough as they taste weird.

Then use the paste according to this recipe, there are many others on the net and I would encourage you to adapt it to whats in your pantry or backyard.

ACORN BREAD
2 cups acorn flour
2 cups cattail or white flour
3
teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup maple syrup or sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup
soy or regular milk
3 tablespoons olive oil

Bake in pan for 30 minutes or until done at 400 degrees

Using the ingredients given above will produce a sweet, moist, nutty
bread. The ingredients can be varied to produce different types of bread or
muffins or pancakes, etc. Acorn bread is highly nutritious. It has an energy
giving combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. John Muir called dry
acorn cakes "the most compact and strength giving food" he had ever used. I use
maple syrup from the trees in my woods instead of sugar. Not only do I enjoy the
wild beauty and fiery colors of the maples and oaks that surround my farm, but I
also savor the sweet acorn bread made from their nuts and sap. What better way
is there to get to know the trees than to live under them and eat from their
bounty?

2008-03-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Winter ills already (plus books)

Despite it being march I have already come down with a bad flu like illness. After my gardening class on sunday (which went well I thought) I was feeling exhausted and ended up going to sleep fairly early. The next morning I awoke with what I thought was a cold. Its a few days later and I still feel exhausted and weak but I think I'm finally getting over it.

Despite the flu I did manage to get another two wine barrels planted up. I have put the wine barrels in sunny spots near to the house (Zone one areas) and have planted the barrels thickly with salad greens, silverbeet and a few broccoli plants. Hopefully these barrels will inspire us to throw a salad together or add some extra vegies to the meal expecially in the coming darker winter evenings.

I have also got two books from Amazon.com and am waiting for a couple more. They are.

DamNation - dispatches from the water underground.

A sobering look at americas destruction of waterways across the continent as well as useful advice on grey water and water conservation.

Here is a video of a grey water workshop run (I think) by the primary authur of DamNation

The Woodland Way - by Ben Law.

An inspiring guide to woodland management.

Here is a google video of Ben Law building his house using timber from the forest he manages. I found this video heartwarming and really appreciated Ben Law's amazing personality

2008-03-12T23:05:00.000-07:00

Goings on in the garden

The garden continues to flourish with the high temperatures and decent amount of rain we have got recently. Some summer vegies like basil, tomatoes and beans are just hanging in there while autumn crops like peas, brassicas and silverbeet are growing well.

The main thing I have done recently is empty and refill my pond. Ponds provide habitat for a range of beneficial insects and contribute towards the overall health and stability of any garden. My pond however is surrounded by mulch and the chickens constantly scratch mulch into it. So yesterday I pumped the green water onto the garden, put the mud which had built up into the compost pile and refilled with fresh water.

I am trying to track down a supply of black barrels to make a greywater system and to store rainwater in so I'm phoning round food importers. No luck yet but I hope to get enough to give away rainwater barrels on the gardening course I'm running which begins on sunday.

I still dont have a camera but may borrow a friends on sunday to get some pictures of the garden.

2008-03-08T00:54:00.001-08:00

"In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway."

2008-03-06T19:08:00.001-08:00

This Video is Awesome

2008-03-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

Obsessed?

I'm starting to wonder if I'm a bit obsessed with improving my soil. Last week I posted about how I bring several cubic meters of woodchips and weeds onto my property every year. Well yesterday I got home and found that one lot of my neighbours had moved out and the landlord was cleaning the place up. In the process he chopped down a couple of trees and severely trimmed most of the trees on the property. When I saw the huge pile of branches he had made it was a bit too much of a temptation. Before I knew it I had offered to take the entire pile and explained that I wanted it to make compost out of. The landlord obviously thought I was crazy but it meant that he didn't have to get a skip bin in so he was very happy for me to take the pile. Its now sitting in my driveway while I try and figure out whether I should compost if which will take one - two years given the size of some of the branches or whether I should chip it which would mean hiring a commercial chipper for about $60 bucks.

The other interesting thing about the tree's being removed is that it dramatically changes the dynamics of my site. The garden will now get an extra two hours sun in the morning but is much more exposed. I feel sorry for the people who move in next door as he has removed some of the trees which protected the house from the cold southerlies we get in New Zealand. The health of the people next door not to mention the heating costs will be dramatically affected.

I've really begun to notice how permaculture and a general appreciation of the natural world revolutionise the way I see the world. Now I constantly think about temperature, slope, plants and instantly see some of the many cycles which surround us.

I still have a few more branches to move and need to tidy up the yard for a party tonight so I will have to post about the social dynamic with my neighbours at some other point.

2008-03-05T14:29:00.001-08:00

Food Prices

The rapid increases in the price of food are beggining to scare me. According to this article in the New York Times the price of wheat is 80% higher than a year ago. It points to biofuels as one of the main causes with 14% of US corn in 2006 used for biofuels expected to rise to 30% by 2010. How will the world cope with these kinds of price increases? And its been shown that the rich can afford biofuels even as tens of millions starve for want of food.

This is scary because no one knows how to respond to this kind of situation. Back yard gardening is fine and all but unless practiced on a masive scale will realistically have little affect on food production. Going back to the land is fine as an individual strategy but does not change the global picture. I feel the only viable response is collective organising against biofuels and for price caps and food subsidys. This kind of organising could be important to western nations far sooner thansome of us may expect.

Anyway the chickens need feeding.

Hattip cryptogon

2008-03-01T15:58:00.001-08:00

What I'm Watching

I've stumbled on a treasure trove of permaculture films which have been uploaded to google video, they are all excellent films.

Aside from watching these I have done a bit of sheetmulching of the grass berm on the side of our property.

In grave danger of falling food - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3162503821561656641

Permaculture and Collapse - http://radiodistopia.com/permacultura/

Permaculture in practice - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7629806485951726891 3

Learning from Ladakh - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5314168278683386338

Grand Designs - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9008769522888708228

Farming with Nature - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=727825431796194016

2008-02-29T13:57:00.000-08:00

Is Gardening Sustainable?

A friend of my brother had a tree blow over in the very strong winds Auckland had last week. My brother knowing I need regular delivery's of mulch dropped a load round at my place which I promptly used on paths and in the chicken run. Last year I probably brought on 3 cubic meters of weeds for compost 3 cubic meters of horse manure for compost and growing potatoes and 2 cubic meters of mulch. The latest delivery prompted me to think about the sustainability of what is commonly thought of as gardening.

As my experience and those I know has shown most gardeners have to bring quite a lot of biomass onto their propertys. This biomass can be compost, materials to make compost out of, woodchips, leaves potting mix etc. This constant inflow of organic carbon is necessary to replenish the carbon lost from soil through cultivation and because most of the crops we grow are leafy nitrogen rich plants that do not store much carbon. Another major factor is that we send all our human manure off site, this very rich outflow of nutrients and carbon must be replaced every year. Obviously having to bring carbon onto your site every year to replace that which you use cannot be sustainable right? And if everyone is doing this we are going to need to put aside a lot of land to grow that carbon.

This constant inflow of Organic Matter is just one of the many reasons why home gardens require a constant inflow of resources. To get around this there are several things one can do. John Jeavons a leading proponent of biointensive gardening techniques recommends that half your garden be planted in carbon crops for compost. Similarly I have planted fast growing plants like Abyssinian bananas, reeds and wild ginger which can be used to make compost out of. I have also planted heaps of trees whose prunings will eventually provide carbon.

Overall though intensive home gardening is only sustainable when land is left in low intensity wild or semi wild states. This is permacultures zones four and five, areas which are unmanaged and which provide space to hunt and gather, selectively log certain trees, collect firewood, observe etc. These semi wild areas also help to create rainfall, harbour beneficial insects, retain soil moisture and keep thousands of important an ecological processes working. Without these areas intensive gardening becomes fragile with nutrient loss, pest problems and drought all becoming real threats.

More on resiliency in horticulture here at Jeff Vails site

2008-02-25T23:20:00.000-08:00

A week of gardening

So carrying on from last weeks post I have been getting active again in the garden. A friend came over on friday and we re covered the hot house in plastic. The plastic came from a rubbish bin at a plastic factory and all the other parts of the hothouse (frame, timber, benches etc) were all salvaged as well.

I have been walking round the property and have come up with quite a list of projects to do when I run the retrofitting suburbia course in a few weeks. Rain barrels a grey water system, water diversion channels a mini pond and plenty of planting are all in the works. As my insurance claim for my last camera is being processed I will hopefully have a new one son and my motivation to blog will go up as I document these new projects.

I have planted a bed of carrots and started seeds of phacelia, wild carrot, onions, leeks, lettuce and some more silverbeet.

heres some information I put together about wild carrot

Carrot (wild)

Wild carrot also known as queens annes lace is the ancestor of the domesticated carrot, it is edible when young but quickly becomes too woody to eat. It attracts beneficial insects and breaks the soil apart so should be can be encouraged in low maintainence areas of the the garden or orchard.

A teaspoon of crushed seeds can drunk with a glass of water immediately after sex for birth control. Several scientific studies have indicated compounds in the seeds which may be effective in preventing pregnancy.

It bears some resemblance to poisonous hemlock so care should be taken to make a positive identification.

2008-02-19T15:43:00.000-08:00

Around the Garden

Things are picking up in the garden after summer holidays and various other interruptions. Over summer there were various setbacks which dramatically lowered the harvest.

The tomatoes I planted grew way too quickly and didnt fruit particularly well. This was probably because I gave them too much fresh compost. The fast growing green growth was then susceptible to fungal disease and many then died off. The courgettes suffered a similar fate but I think they may have been stressed by the incredibly dry temperatures.

After finally pulling out the tomatoes and the sunflowers which were completely spent I have been replanting with Autumn crops. Brassicas, carrots, lettuce, bak choi and silverbeet have all been planted and should provide for some decent winter eating. I am finding that my 9 or 10 garden beds take a decent amount of time and effort to prepare an maintain. Hopefully this will be balanced out by a decent yield of food.

Otherwise the main thing I am doing is preparing the garden for my upcoming gardening course, getting everything tidy and making repairs to the hothouse.

Hopefully my posting will become more regular now I am working more outside.

2008-02-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

Composting

Sorry for those who have been waiting for updates, I went on holiday and have just got back. Hopefully posting will be more regular from now on.

Here is some composting directions I have written up for my upcoming guide to retrofitting suburbia.

Hot and cold composting

Composting is the speeded up process of turning once living material into humus. It can be an invaluable way of creating high quality organic matter to feed the soil with.

Hot composting carefully mixes green and brown materials to provide an optimum ratio for the growth of bacteria. These bacteria heat the compost pile up to high temperatures and breakdown of materials is very rapid. Hot composting can kill seeds off weed species, to do this the pile must have a good mix of materials and be kept moist but not wet throughout the breakdown.

During the the rapid breakdown a significant amount of carbon is off gassed as carbon dioxide losing some of this crucial resource. Another drawback is that the pile must usually be a cubic meter in size and while materials may be stockpiled getting this much material on a suburban section may be difficult

Cold composting relies on fungi and larger micro organisms like slaters to break down material. Piles are made by piling roughly chopped brown materials and whatever greens are nearby into stacks. These piles can take two or three years to break down depending on how much moisture is available. I believe this slow breakdown can create a higher carbon compost which is better able to feed the soil than nitrogen rich hot compost.

A cool area beneath trees is a good place for composting, the trees roots are able to soak up nitrogen and minerals which leak from the pile.

Organic materials can also be layered around growing plants for example branches can be chopped and scattered round trees. Weeds can be pulled out and lain down as a mulch across the soil. This allows nutrients to be taken up directly by plants and encourages soil microlife.

Directions for Hot Compost

Gather pile of green and brown materials, should be 50% of each by weight

15cm layer of springy materials, branches, twigs (helps with aeration

Alternating layers of 15cm of green material and 15cm brown material.

Water each layer with 20L of water depending on how wet materials is

Turn pile biweekly, this increases aeration and speeds decomposition. It is however backbreaking and I almost never do it.

Greens

Weeds
Grass clippings (should be in thin layer)
Animal manures (avoid manure from carnivores eg cats)
Kitchen wastes
Seaweed
Coffee grounds

Browns

Leaves
Branches (should be chopped to 5cm lengths)
Twigs (should be roughly broken)
Leaves
Dried weeds
Weeds which have flowered or become woody
Woody plants such as corn or sunflower stalks
Untreated sawdust
Paper and cardboard (finely shredded)

Compost activators

These kick the process off and speed the composting process

Comfrey
Nettle
Poultry Manure (organic backyard hens only)
Soil (small amounts sprinkled throughout pile)
Compost (Small amounts added throughout process)

Worm farming
Worm farming is probably the easiest way of dealing with kitchen waste. Tiger worms are kept in a large container and food scraps are added periodically. Liquid from the bin is captured and used as a rich liquid feed in the garden or food forest.

Worms need to be kept in a dark moist environment. To start a worm farm take an ice-cream container of worms and castings from an existing farm and place them in your farm and add some food. To harvest castings take the top layer of food and worms off and scoop out the rich black castings.

Bins can be bought or made out of almost anything, I use a bathtub with a bucket under the drainage hole but use your imagination. Other ideas include large buckets, polystyrene trays or wooden boxes.

Dealing with Tough weeds

Weeds like wandering dew (loved by chickens) and oxalis (a good ground cover) don’t often get destroyed through the composting process. For these weeds I have several large barrels which I throw the weeds into, once the barrels are almost full of weeds I fill them with water screw the lid on and leave them to break down for a year or two. The liquid is then used to feed my veggies and the solids are added to a compost pile.

Putting the barrels in a cool dark corner means the breakdown is slow and doesn’t smell too bad.

Compost teas/Liquid feeds

Compost teas and simple liquid feeds are relatively easy to make and act to boost populations of microbial populations in the soil.

Keeping the tea aerobic through frequent stirring is important to preventing negative bacteria from building up. Do not spray the tea or feed onto salad crops or fruits or vegetation which will be harvested soon as not all bacteria will be befenicial.

If using tap water leave it in a bucket for a day outside, this will allow some of the chlorine in the water to evaporate. Rain water would be more ideal.

There are heaps of variations out there the two recipes here are just examples J

Compost tea recipe.

Suspend 1 – 2kgs of well made compost in panty hose in a container of 10 – 20 liters of water.
Add a handful of seaweed powder or rock dust if available.
Add a handful of seaweed powder or rock dust if available.
Stir frequently for 4 – 5 days.
Strain the mix through cheesecloth or a fine screen
Spray onto plants and soil.

Nettle Liquid feed recipe

Pack a bucket with nettle leaves
Fill the bucket with water
Leave for one – two weeks stirring occasionally
Strain the mixture and dilute ten to one
Spray onto plants and soil

2008-01-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

GLOBAL GARDENER FILM SCREENING

8pm 12th February

KFM Upstairs, 208 Karangahape Road Auckland

'Permaculture helps people turn wastelands into food forests'Urban Sustainability Group presents a special one-off film screening of 'The Global Gardener' series.

BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For three decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture that he devised. The Global Gardener is a showcase series of permaculture techniques and properties around the world, demonstrating how people everywhere are working with the land to grow healthy communities. Each episode looks at examples in different regions: IN THE TROPICS - Mollison introduces the basic Permaculture principles, and shows results in Australia, India, and Zimbabwe. ARID LANDS - Reversing desertification in Arizona, Botswana and Australia.COOL CLIMATES - Europe, Tasmania, and the San Juan Islands in Washington State. URBAN - New York City and Harare, Zimbabwe.

The film screening will be preceded by a short presentation on permaculture in New Zealand. Food and drink will be available.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP asap to jdarroch@gmail.com

2008-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Making Horticulture Work

I spent the day at Horizon Gardens in Royal oak sheetmulching their food forest. I also planted a bunch of tree's. While its the middle of summer the trees should be fine with frequent watering. Horizon gardens is one of the larger community gardens in Auckland though it recently lost about half its space to a parking lot and some administration buildings.

The change in size is forcing the volunteers and staff to become creative and new growing areas are being created constantly. The intensity of planting is to increase as well with dwarf varietys and stacking used to maximise production in a smaller area.

The most interesting part of the day was when Scott (the gardens main caretaker) mentioned that most of the farms he woofed at had major labour shortages This is also the main problem for most of the urban sites (including my own) that I have been to. Quite simply people do not have time or energy in a modern society to be able to grow large amounts of their own food. Working weeks are steadily lengthening in first world countries and with all the pressures of a modern life people simply are unable to put aside 5 - 10 hours a week for the garden.

Over the past 60 years farm sizes have increased and produce prices have plummeted. Perhaps 40 or 50 years ago growing food on a urban or peri urban scale was financially prudent but in the modern world things are seriously different. As the graph below shows the amount of income spent on food in western countries is minor. Add in the pressure of paying for land, a decent wage and other commitments and it is easy to see why people cant seem to find time to grow their own food.

So how do you make food growing worthwhile? Land has to come down in value to a realistic value. People have to spend a substantial part of their income on food once again. Fossil fuels have to go up in price so they dont skew food production toward massive mechanically driven food growing operations. People have to start valuing food and stop seeing it as a commodity.

Anyway if you want to help out at Horizon over the next while email me at jdarroch@gmail.com

2008-01-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on Food

Since finding out about peak oil in 2004 it has been clear to me that serious global food shortages were at best a decade away. An inevitable result of a food supply completely dependant on fossil fuels. From feed stocks for fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides to the machinery required to plant, harvest and transport food all are dependant on oil. This situation has become so bad that for every calorie of food produced at least 10 calories of oil must go into its production and distribution.

It has been alarming to see biofuels touted as a "solution" to oil shortages as almost all biofuels produced are using land or crops originally used for human food. This article today on the oil drum showed how bad things really are though. Ethanol made from corn is booming in the United States driven by high oil prices, however one tank of corn derived biofuels contains enough calories to feed a person for 7 months! Currently 20 - 30% of the US corn crop is converted into ethanol for fuel, enough plants are under construction to use 40% of the US corn crop for ethanol and the industry is growing at 25% a year. The united states grows half the worlds corn and much of its surplus ends up fuelling population growth in the third world. The article shows that pushed by government subsidies, "environmental" pressure and huge profits biofuels could spell starvation for the worlds poor. All of this on the back of a 110% rise in the price of wheat in the past year.

My fears about peak oil and gobal food production have over the past year or two become increasingly mainstream. Despite this most so called solutions fail to tackle the problems inherent in our society and instead seemed aimed at allowing the modern lifestyle to continue for the upper and middle classes for as long as possible. It is all too possible that we will not see any change until the middle classes wake up one morning and wonder why they cannot drive to work and why their supermarket shelves are empty.

It is some comfort to know that the garden is producing well but I am only too aware that individual solutions to collective problems do little more than salve the conscious. What is needed are collective efforts which tackle this cultures individualism whilst dismantalling a society dependant on fossil fuels.

2008-01-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Weeds Glorious Weeds

2008-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Garden Pics

My camera was recently stolen so these are a few photos I took the other day on a friends camera.

My sunflowers continue to grow madly, I think I've added way to much compost to some beds as I'm having heaps of green leafy growth without much food off some of my plants like tomatoes. Soil improvement has been my focus the past few years and I am seeing plant health and growth improve amazingly as a result.

Potato flower, many of my potatoes are growing in dappled light beneath fruit trees.

My tomatoes are taking an intolerably long time to ripen, the sight of dozens of immature green fruit week after week is torturous.

Silverbeet also known as swiss chard, I grow heaps of this and use it in place of spinach and to bulk up meals. Any I don't eat gets fed to the chickens.

2007-12-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

Food forests

This is a first draft of part of some notes I'm writing up to go with my workshops, I will probably include a lot more of my own experience in the finished version.

What are they?

Food forests are food producing landscapes loosely modeled on natural forests. Fruit tree’s and other useful species replace the trees of a forest and a variety of useful species replace ground covers present in forests.

Like natural forests the ground is constantly covered in a food forest. This is done through the use of living ground covers such as nastirtum and also through the use of dead materials such as straw or chipped wood. As the forest garden matures the trees will increasingly shade out the living ground covers and contribute to mulch from their leaves and pruning.

Because food forests are multileveled diverse landscapes they can be far more useful that conventional orchards or conventional field cropping methods. Food forests have been extensively used in traditional horticultural systems but are relatively new in the western world. As is becoming increasingly clear a well designed food forest requires minimal weeding, watering or fertilization.

The Unitec Food Forest

Food forests are artificially kept in a state of interrupted succession; trees growing overhead are spaced to allow a lush carpet of greenery to develop. Instead of the thick darkness of a New Zealand native forest we aim to create a relatively open environment conducive to fruit production.

Stacking

A food forest is typically made up of seven levels; these levels stack plants according to how much light they require.

Planning

Space

The principles behind forest gardening can be applied on any scale in any space. On an inner city balcony a dwarf fruit tree may be grown with mint and nasturtium around its base. A suburban backyard may have 10 or 15 trees with passionfruit climbing through them and comfrey across the ground. A rural property may have several acres of useful fruit or nut trees for market.

Light

The edge of a forest is far more productive than the center; on the edge sufficient light is available to support lush vegetation and to support forest species. Creating this rich edge zone is one of the major goals of a design. Trees should be spaced so that light is able to penetrate throughout the forest garden and light wells can be created which herbaceous annuals can be clumped in.

Heat

Even a suburban backyard has a wide variety of microclimates, these can be exploited to grow subtropicals like babaco, to help species mature early etc.

Wind

On highly exposed sites windbreaks may need to be planted, these can be a mixture of useful species which provide a variety of products.

Wind levels and directions should be carefully observed before planting and trees should be placed according to the levels they can tolerate.

Fertility

Varying amounts of site preparation will not to be done depending on fertility and soil type. Very poor soils will need proportionately more nitrogen fixing species and species grown for their biomass.

Signs of nutrient deficiencies should be carefully looked for and if necessary soil tests done. It is generally much easier to treat imbalances when the site is being established than when trees are looking sickly down the track.

Drainage

Wet soils can be used to grow mints, bananas, taro and other water loving plants. Dry spots can be used to grow rosemary, fig or…

Dry sites may require swales to catch rainfall running across slopes and help it infiltrate into the soil and a constant cover of mulch is probably a must.

Slope

North facing slopes are ideal for food forests as trees will not shade each other as much as on flat sites. South facing slopes can be used but if deeply shaded trees will have to be further spaced apart. To prevent erosion swales may need to be put in and the ground should be not be unnecessarily cultivated.

Species selection

Fruit trees should be chosen according to

- How suitable they are for the climate
- When they fruit
- What other functions they might play (medicinal, mulch etc)
- How big they are when mature (dwarf species, full size etc)

Smaller plants should be chosen according to

- Shade tolerance
- Medicinal use
- Whether the attract beneficial insects etc

Other species to include

- Mulch producing species (eg Abyssinian bananas, wild ginger)
- Food for chickens and wildlife (silverbeet etc)

Things to keep in mind

Placing your forest garden is crucial, will the avocado you want to plant eventually shade out your vegetable garden or block crucial winter sun? Through careful placement the same plant can provide welcome winter shade and block cold southerly winds.

When designing your food forest think about how to enhance and maintain fertility, provide habitat for wildlife and grow variety of useful species which can be harvested throughout the year.

Flowers like lavender and wild carrot which attract beneficial insects should be included to improve the overall health of the forest garden.

Nitrogen fixers like tagasate or wattle should be included at planting; these can be eventually thinned and removed for firewood as the rest of the trees mature.

Placing a bathtub in your food forest filled with water and aquatic plants will benefit bird’s insects and lizards.

Establishing the forest

Before you begin a thorough site plan should be developed. The best time to plant trees is in spring or autumn.

Once you have a plan for your site the first step is to remedy any deficiencies or problems with the soil.

Next allow weeds to grow and sheet mulch the site as described in (yet to be written)

Covering the weeds with paper then vegetation

In the sheetmulch rough seeds such as potato and broad bean can be grown planted and grown in the first few years. These plants will gradually be shaded out as the forest develops.

Once sheet mulched trees and groundcovers should be planted, around 20% more trees should be planted than you want at the end to make up for plants which do not do well or which die.

Maintenance

Weeds

In the first few years herbaceous weeds may be a problem; these can be managed through the use of chicken or duck tractors or weeded manually. Many weeds will be shaded out as the food forest grows, useful groundcovers will also suppress weeds.

Pruning

Pruning of trees in the food forest is primarily done with light in mind and also to remove diseased or unnecessary branches. Trees should be pruned or thinned out as necessary to create light wells for light loving understory plants.

A Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka famous for his so called “natural farming” techniques did no pruning in his orchards and believed this made for much healthier trees. As far as I am aware these techniques have not been trialed in New Zealand.

Ducks and Chickens in the food forest

Chickens can be let into the food forest periodically to eat faller fruit and insects but they love mulch and will scratch up anything that’s loose, soil and seedlings included.

Ducks are very suitable for larger food forests as they do not scratch up mulch. They will however eat green like silverbeet and may need to be managed carefully.

Retrofitting an existing orchard

Conventional orchards are planted in long straight lines or with trees spaced regularly with grass growing between them. One plan for increasing the productivity is to plant nitrogen fixer’s small bushes and plants like borage and comfrey in the rows. Alternately in some agro forestry systems the gap between rows can be used to grow annual vegetables if the trees are sufficiently spaced.

Old trees which are diseased or unproductive should be removed and replaced with desirable species. Small orchards may be sheet mulched whilst in larger orchard living mulches can be planted.

More Resources

Robert Hart

2007-12-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

Bill Mollison - The Global Gardener (C00l Climates)

Part One of Three

here

Part Two of Three

here

Part three of three

here

2007-12-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

Urban Sustainability Group DatesDraft Timeline/Calender 2008

Heres the draft plan for Urban Sustainability Group workshops in Auckland early next year. Most of the workshops will be carried out around central Auckland but some will be carried out in the outer suburbs. To find out more details or get added to the email list contact jdarroch@gmail.com

Times and Locations to be Finalised

. :)January12th (sat) - Seed Saving

15th (tue) - Film night

17th (thu) - Chutney preserving workshop

27th (sun) - Meeting and social/sports/pot luck/eating

28th (mon)- Walk the walk leaves from Auckland --> walking to the South Island

February12th (tue) - Film night

23rd } Finn teaching workshop24th (sat and sunday)

End of march - 6 session urban organic course

2007-12-25T18:51:00.000-08:00

This is an article I wrote for Auckland Animal Action, the newsletter its from can be downloaded here

Industrial Agriculture.

Farming isn’t typically seen as being relevant to animal rights however the production of all food in our society is intertwined with environmental destruction and animal abuse. The increasing industrialisation and growth in scale of farming are rapidly causing desertification across the globe and rapidly falling food production is already harming the worlds poor. At the same time the modern farm provides no habitat for indigenous plants or animals and the few hardy species that can survive such as rats and weeds are quickly poisoned. To end the exploitation of animals and to prevent irreversible damage to the earth requires a radical reshaping of how we grow food.

Rows of crops planted by laser guided tractors, farms that stretch for hundreds of kilometres, monocrops of chemically dependant vegetables. To grow one calorie of food on the modern farm requires between ten and one hundred calories of fossil fuels. To some extent we are no longer getting our energy from the food we eat but rather from the fossil fuels used to grow that food. These fossil fuels are used to manufacture the fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides which are all fossil fuel based and to power the tractors and irrigation equipment upon which the modern farm depends.

As more fossil fuels are used farms get larger and result in huge areas sometimes the size of small countries being planted in one crop. These monocultures are a perfect habitat for a few highly adapted insects and result in vast quantities of pesticides being used to fight a losing battle. These pesticides move through the food chain killing birds which eat the insects and larger predators which eat birds. These chemicals also affect those that eat the produce, while you as a vegan may not suffer from the colon cancer and heart disease which plague meat eaters but you are still eating food which is to a very real extent poisonous.

Monocultures provide almost no habitat for wildlife and any animals which do find a niche on the farm are brutally exterminate. Birds which eat crops are shot, rats and mice living in fields are killed by huge harvesting machines and insects are soaked in chemicals. Worse perhaps though than the animals killed directly through farming is the habitat destruction upon which farming depends. As global population increases the pressure to increase land under cultivation is fuelling the destruction of the last remaining forests bulldozers and chainsaws push into the Amazon for international soy barons. The smoke from Indonesia’s forests was visible from space as settlers burn offs went out of control and raced through the rainforest wiping out hundreds of species of plants and animals. The burnt off land is used for palm oil production but as rainforest soils are poor quality the land must be regularly abandoned and burnt off again. South America has lost 70% of its forests Africa 79% Europe 80% and North America 85% and this loss is only increasing in many parts of the world.

In any wild area bare soil is a rarity, caused by fire, flood or landslides it is quickly covered by low growing herbaceous plants before bushes and finally trees become established. Bare soil mean erosion, a loss of fertility and eventually desertification. Our entire food supply however depends on growing a handful of annuals which require bare soil. These crops wheat, soy, rice etc require ploughing every year, a process which kills off the bacteria, fungi and insects crucial for healthy soil. Do this long enough and eventually no soil is left. This process has been carried to completion in what was once the Fertile Crescent Iraq; Israel Lebanon etc were all once heavily forested, covered in oak and cedar. These tree’s were cut and the land put into agriculture. The land left without any soil cover suffered from heavy erosion and rising water tables eventually becoming a desert. This process of desertification is well underway across many of the worlds primary food growing areas including major areas in America, Africa, Australia and Russia.

To all the problems with agriculture the average vegan response is that being vegan requires less land than being eating meat and that thus their environmental impact is lessened. While there is truth in this argument it ignores the fact that human population is directly related to food supply. Extra grain freed up by a vegan diet will be invariably dumped on the developing world at prices which send local farmers out of business and the abundance of cheap carbohydrates invariably fuels a population explosion. Eating a vegan diet does not mean you are necessarily eating an ethical diet.

So what can those wanting to eat ethically do? The first step is to choose carefully where you buy your food from, local and organic farmers typically take far more care for the land than international conglomerates. Part of most Organic certification schemes is a requirement that land is set aside for wildlife and that farming practices do not negatively affect animals in the area.

The next step is to grow as much food yourself as possible. Besides the knowledge that your food is not covered in a layer of chemicals you will know that rainforest was not clear felled and wild life shot or poisoned just so you can have cheap vegetable products. You can also find out about and practice permaculture, one of the key philosophy’s guiding permaculture is to enhance biodiversity and to provide habitat for as many species as possible whilst still providing for human needs. In permaculture ways of growing food which do not rely on annual clearing of the soil are encouraged and re-establishing forest cover is seen as vital to ecosystem and human health. In the end the entire industrial system rests on the exploitation of all life, human animal and plant, boycotting any specific group of products does little to change this system. Instead we need to create alternatives to the current system in our own lives and in our communitys.

If you are interested in getting involved in organic gardening, community gardens or permaculture in Auckland contact the urban sustainability group via jdarroch@gmail.com