Gardening diary

This locally written diary (click 'what's new') follows the daily adventures of a Southern gardener and has so far covered diverse topics such as: building a 'bee-bank', growing stinging nettles for native butterflies, growing fruit in a windy spot and so on. Take a look whenever it's too wet or windy to get outside into your own garden!

Another anxious wait

Voting closes for the New Zealand Gardener of the Year today. I'm not going to jinx myself by posting a picture of crossed fingers (it didn't work for me last time!) but this time around, I won't worry about being beaten, there are plenty of worthy gardeners of riper vintage than me in the running and I'll be very happy for the eventual winner. Tomorrow will tell.

Breakfast with champions

I caught up with some of the Environment Southland council and other candidates at the Government's Environment Roadshow at the Ascot this morning. I'd hoped to sit at the 'RMA' table and debate that issue with what I expected to be a good mix of Southlanders, but the table was already full when I arrived, so I breakfasted at the 'General' table instead. There, we discussed all sorts, including climate change (we had a passionate denier), megawatts and the need to reduce usage instead of constantly increasing generation, biochar (my contribution - I think that if the Government is offering several million to research charcoal as a sequestration method, then Southland should 'put its hand up') and emissions from farming, amongst others things. It was very interesting. This is the third year I've attended the roadshow and I'm not convinced that anything comes of it on a Government/policy level, but it is a good chance to talk with people from our region and hear a range of views.

4300-odd

Dang! Not enough!
Next time.
Thanks to all of you who contributed to that score. There's more work to be done at the grass-roots and I'll get on to it tomorrow!
Robert

Last minute voting

Voting for the local body elections closes on Friday! Around 40% of votes are in now and our returning officer is hoping for 60% by the end of the week. I'm told that most voting is done in the two days after the arrival of forms in the mail, followed by a 'flush' of late votes at the end (now, that is!). If you are wondering, I can tell you that it is impossible for a candidate to know how well they might be doing! It will be a nervous wait over the weekend for us all.

Te Anau Conference

Saturday's Bluegreen conference at Te Anau was a chance to see and hear how different agencies around the country are proposing to deal with a range of environmental issues, including climate change and the government's 'cap and trade' programme. The presenter I found most inspiring was Guy Salmon, who had recently returned from Finland, where he was studying the process used by their central and local governments to make decisions. The consensus style used by Finland and Denmark is an excellent model for New Zealand, Guy said, and result in policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. We hear politicians of all stripes repeating this phrase, but the Finnish model is, I believe, essential for making the aim of having productivity balanced by environmental health, a reality. Several of the other presenters were well off the mark and behind the times with their vision for a 'sustainable New Zealand', but will hopefully have picked up some ideas from the better speakers.