Express - Winter Gardening series

A packed house of appreciative southern gardeners provided a warm and welcoming audience for New Zealand Gardener editor Lynda Hallinan in Invercargill on Saturday. It was no day for being out in the garden, with cold temperatures and constant drizzle making digging and planting unattractive, so flower and vegetable growers alike headed instead for the Invercargill Workingman’s Club to hear the vivacious editor of the popular gardening magazine describe her gardening experiences from A to Z, her varied life as a hands-on editor and even stories of her recent fortunes both good (meeting her bloke Jason, dubbed (’the Hunk from Hunua’) and not so good (the fire that destroyed many of her much-loved art works and her valuable stores of seeds).
The invitation to come south and speak was issued by Southland Heritage Roses and Lynda was delighted to accept, knowing that there would be an opportunity while she and Jason were down here to have a quick look around this ‘distant’ part of the world. “It was a little cold and drippy outside”, she said, “but the reception from people living here was wonderful. Southlanders love gardening and do it so well!”
While Lynda’s talk “The Good Life: From Radishes to Roses”, centred on the ‘Queen of flowers’ and her experiences with nurturing them, she covered a wide range of other gardening trials and tribulations, many of which growers in the audience identified with immediately. Even talk of the joy of chooks and the frustration of roosters struck a chord with the crowd, “They’re the next big thing, hens”, she said “and I’ve already got mine settled in and laying. My 5 hens laid 9 eggs in the first week! Chooks are now officially cool!” Not everything in the Hallinan garden is a ’top crop’, Lynda explained. She’s had her fair share of flops as well. This season it was potatoes (miserable) and tomatoes (barely enough to make a pot of bolognaise) which buoyed the audience hugely, hearing that even the experts are subject to the same vagaries as ordinary gardeners.
Arriving in the south a day early gave the two Northerners a chance to visit Riverton where they spent the morning at the Farmer’s Market where they met with coastal growers and customers and took the opportunity to find out how one of our smaller communities ticks. “I visit farmer’s markets wherever I can”, Lynda said, “They are always buzzing with activity and enthusiasm and have the most wonderful produce - look at these carrots!” (pictured).
“I’ll be back”, Lynda promised, “perhaps in the summertime. I’d love to visit some of the gardens I’ve heard about. Southern gardeners are a special bunch”.

Roving Editor

Lynda Hallinan, NZ Gardener editor and gadabout speaker on all matters to do with gardening is here in Southland for the weekend addressing what will no doubt be a sell-out crowd of rose growers and southern gardeners. Lynda, accompanied by her man Jason, flew in on Friday night and came out to Riverton to check up on the newest of her stable of writers (that's me) and see just how special our Saturday morning Farmer's Market really is. We turned on especially cold weather for the two northerners and they were forced to wear all of the clothing they bought with them and stay as close to any fires or heaters as they could, but both had a very enjoyable time while they were out here. We learned all about their plans to develop their 60 hectare Hunua property into orchards, and arboretum and berry farm and we were able to show them how we had done something similar here on our small 1 hectare property. Lynda's speaking now at the Invercargill Working Man's Club and as I'm writing a report for the Southland Express, covering her talk to the Rose Society, I'll update this post once I've finished. Looking at her speech notes, it promises to be great fun. Jason, it has to be noted, won't be at the talk. He's driving to Bluff for the afternoon, having never been in the south before. Hope he brought a warm coat and a beanie!

The Fed Act

Federated Farmers are busy right now, stirring up discontent throughout the regions over the soon-to-land Emissions Trading Scheme. The countryside is abuzz with deep concern, thanks to the goading by the Feds and aided by a shrill chorus from the Act Party that has one of their more shortsighted MPs on the rural trail attacking the scheme as well.
They are right though. The Governments ETS is a mess and will cost us money that will not fix the problem it describes.
We ordinary taxpayers will be paying to allow the real polluters of the atmosphere, industries that have been given dispensation by the National Government.
Unfortunately, both the Feds and Act lack credibility on the issue, due to their ostritch-like denial of Global Warming.
The've recognised the futility of New Zealand's ETS, but have blinded themselves to the real and looming problem we all face.

Radar's Riverton

At last! Number 6 in a series of ...6, but worth the wait. Radar's patch extended down to our town and our garden for a quick but good-enough look at our orchard garden and a chance to explain about seed saving and heritage apples. He's a very nice guy, that Radar and genuine with it. I did think though, that he felt he was a long way from home during his stay with us. We fed him freshly caught flounder and organically grown vegetables to beef him up a bit before he went back north and I'm sure it did him the world of good. We've had some very encouraging feedback since the show and can now rest easy, with the show over. We are planning however, to produce a programme of our own to show in more detail, how successful an organic lifestyle can be and how well things grow in Southland.

Cycleway

I spent a very productive and enjoyable Saturday morning in the company of a group local go-getters, walking around the periphery of the Riverton Racecourse, tracing out the path of a possible cycleway and at the same time, seeing Riverton from a completely new point of view.
This is the third exploratory walk we've taken since the idea of a cycleway for our town was floated and each of our Saturday morning jaunts has made us more enthusiastic for the project. Today's route began at the cemetery and took us alongside of the steeplechase course and through to the start of the road leading down to the flaxmill on the Templeton's farm at Otaitai Bush, one of the other legs of the proposed cycleway. It's all coming together tidily, much to our amazement. Now we just have to build it. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, given the enthusiasm shown from all quarters for cycleways from Kaitaia to the Bluff. Ours will run alongside of the beach, the estuary and the town, through a wetland, a racecourse, farmland and the township, with its wide, quiet roads, providing a unique experience for locals and visitors alike (or so our promotional material will read!).
It's a great project and one that demonstrates the strength of will that can be found in smaller communities like ours.
When it's completed, come on out for a ride. You'll be amazed and delighted.

Mining for information

Has the Southland Times printed a mistake in
it's article (12 May) about coal mining in
Southland and Otago? It's reported that
L&M Mining hold exploration permits for
the Awarua Wetlands.
This can't be correct.
The Awarua Wetlands are so valuable that they
are protected by international law through the
Ramsar Convention and our own Schedule 4.
Surely L&M Mining aren't looking to dig up our
precious wetland in search of grubby lignite coal?
Are they?

Freedom fishing

Commercial fishermen are being offered the opportunity to manage their own affairs and behaviour on the open sea. The Government has proposed that fishermen watch over themselves, monitor their own practices out there, un-hindered by observers and regulation, so long as they are clean at the end of the day. “We’re interested in outcomes, what you do out on the water on your boats is your business, it is the outcomes that we’re focused on".

“http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/3722232/Fishing-industry-self-rule-supported

Farmers offered control

Otago Regional Council rolling out proposal to radically change its approach

(Southern Rural Life – Wed May 12th)

“OTAGO Regional Council (ORC) is contemplating a radical departure from its present approach to managing environmental water quality.
It no longer wants to take a prescriptive approach -telling landowners what they must do to protect water quality – because it sees this as ineffective
Rather, it says it wants landowners to be free to chose how they use the land , provided discharges – surface run-off, groundwater seepage and discharge from drains – meet water quality standards which the council will set.”

Farmers, it seems, aren’t interested. Two meetings have been arranged and 1000’s of invitations sent. The first meeting has been cancelled through lack of response.

“If Otago Regional Council (ORC) adopts an effects-based method of water-quality management it will be difficult to implement fairly and only impose further costs on farmers, a North Otago dairy farmer says”.
The ORC believes that they will pre-empt the Government by implementing this system. They expect the Government to bring this approach in when it decides on it’s national water quality strategy.
This mirrors moves in the fishing industry to establish an ‘outcomes’ based system that allows the industries to ‘do as the will’, provided the certain standards are met. The fishermen seem enthusiastic, the farmers do not. Curious!

This advertisement describes the harm done by accidental spills of oil very well.

But! But!

My walk home from work takes me past one of our local pubs where an outdoor area has been set up for those who wish to fill their lungs with their favourite tobacco smoke. It's a spot just above the footpath and an ideal height from which to flick butts once the cigarette is finished. The footpath is littered with them. I've no beef with that really - I can walk over them without any effort but what does concern me is that when it rains or blows, as it can sometimes do out here in Riverton, those butts roll into the gutter. 2 metres downhill of the pub is a stormwater drain, covered by a grill that is too coarse to keep butts out, so they swish through easily and flow with the water down to the estuary below. Cigarette butts are very toxic units and should be disposed of somewhere that is not home to flounder, whitebait and other fishable creatures.
Something must be done and I will do it.
Watch this space.

The (not so) good oil

Watching the appalling catastrophe of the burst underwater oil line in the Gulf of Mexico and the day by day spewing of oil into those waters, Southlanders must be thinking about the plans to drill in the South Basin, below Stewart Island. Creating our own disaster down there, where conditions are even more difficult than those off Mexico, seems foolhardy in the extreme. If drilling was to go ahead and if the pipeline failed, broke, ruptured, perished, whatever, there is much that we could lose and little we could do to contain such an accident.
It may be that 'there are jobs to be had' from the oil industry but the risks, as we see now, are enormous.

Washout!

The heavy rains that fell in the hills around Southland have given the farmland on the plains a serious rinsing and that's not a good thing! When those of us living downstream near the coast see swedes and bales of silage floating by and can smell rotting animals in the rivers and estuaries, there's reason to be concerned. If something as big as baleage and livestock can be washed off farms, what other unseen 'stuff' has been flushed out and has entered the waterways? I'm thinking of the load of urea farmland carries, herbicides and pesticides that are commonly used along with the effluent that is being returned to the soil as part of farm management, especially on dairy farms. Heavy rain washes this off the farms and into our rivers then out to sea. It's not a healthy state of affairs.

Happy harvest!

The first harvest festival I ever saw was in an old church in the north Otago township of Hampden. The elderly and ever so kindly woman I was visiting needed some help carrying the bottles of preserved pears she was donating for the harvest display and in helping her I got the opportunity to see how the older generation marked the autumn and the season of plenty. There were freshly picked apples: pippins, russets and codlins, orange and blue pumpkins, sacks of potatoes, leeks as thick as your arm, enormous cabbages, dark-skinned beetroot; everything a good garden and orchard produces. Most striking were the preserves: jars and jars of bottled fruits, chutneys, jams and jellies. It was a marvellous sight and one that made me realise that these people were not only happy to share the enjoyment of the harvest, but were also very thankful for it.

Some 30 years later, I’ve been fortunate in being able to share in that same enjoyment of the bounty of the season. The Heritage Harvest Festival held in Riverton recently, was all that the one at Hampden had been, and more. Not only was there the colour and fragrance of vegetables from the garden, fruit from the orchard and even grains from the field, there was the tang of cider and the sweet smell of honey mead and the refreshing fizz of elderflower champagne to mark the harvest and demonstrate the many ways Southlanders make use of the fruits of the season. Entries for the harvest display came from all over Southland and many heritage tomatoes and potatoes were brought in by gardeners who value and maintain the old varieties. Many of the rare varieties were shared out by those gardeners to new growers, keen to keep the varieties going. The children too had pitched in and made vegetable people and fruit animals, everything that can be made from a carrot or a marrow or a oddly-shaped potato. The Heritage harvest festival was a wonderful reminder that we are very lucky to be living in a rich and fertile part of the world amongst people who still hold to traditional ways that are good.

What's with the weather?

If any more rain falls on my garden this summer, I’ll have to convert to rice production.
Rather than throwing a paddy, I’m enjoying the experience of living in a rainforest and practising a blend of aquaculture and horticulture in my vegetable garden. Who’d have thought watercress would be the main crop this summer. The sopping skies have got me thinking though, about climate change. There’s something in the air, isn’t there. This isn’t natural, all this rain and cloud. Say what you will, the climate’s changing, not just here, but across the globe. And it’s not so simple as saying that it’s warming everywhere. Some places are experiencing colder than usual seasons. The scientists who predicted and continue to report on climate change described how patterns of weather across the world would become less stable, more unpredictable and less comfortable for all. It seems to be happening just as they said it would and Southland’s weather this summer certainly fits the pattern of greater unsettledness. It’s predicted to get worse, swing more widely and roughen up. People living in drought-prone areas will be really worried and will be looking for wetter areas to relocate to. Southland is one of those increasingly attractive areas where water, or rather, lack of water, isn’t a problem.
If there’s going to be greater need, and I believe there is, for well rained-on areas to grow food for hungry people in arid regions, we should prepare ourselves to do just that. Southlanders know agriculture, have lots of land and , as of this summer, more rain than we can shake a barely-tanned fist at.
Our good soils and our rain grow good crops: grains, vegetables and fruits and given a bit more of that ‘global warming’ we’ve been warned about, fields of rice.

Out with the new, in with the old.

I’ve decided I don’t much want what’s coming up. A nose-diving economy, a changing climate that might push the mercury up way beyond comfort level and dwindling oil reserves doing the same with the price of everything - it’s all a bit much!
So, I’m going backwards, returning to a gentler time when the news was better (it’s never been perfect, but a lot of what I’m hearing now is pretty grim). To help with that process, I’ve shunted the television into another room, beyond the reach of the aerial and abandoned my habit of watching the 6 o’clock news. So far, I’ve not missed a thing, so far as I can tell.
I’m taking steps to stay away from the supermarket too. The tremendous growth of my vegetable garden, both in size and in content (you should see it; just like the vegetable section of the supermarket, only fresher and no plastic wrapping in sight!) and our orchard’s the same, with all sorts of fruit attractively arranged … on branches! We’ve even freed ourselves of the need to buy bread. We’ve gone part-shares in a grain mill (small, electric, quiet and the flour is so fresh!), so I guess that’s breakfast covered as well. Ah, porridge!
The need for 3 new tyres and a warrant of fitness for our car has prompted me to douse every moving part of my bicycle and get back on the road in the old way - it’s pedal power and it feels good! I’ve even taken a job that I can get to (on time) by bike. Working close to home, in your own town can’t be beaten. I think I’ll downsize a lot of other things as well. Picnics down by the water (2 minutes walk) or up in the bush reserve (10 minutes by bike) or, just as relaxingly, in the orchard (20 seconds - you could do it with your eyes shut!) will satisfy me when an evening at a restaurant is too much of a stretch.
I’ll bet there are a lot of other people doing the same thing - simplifying their lives, taking time to enjoy the things they already have and entertaining themselves in ways that don’t involve the worries of the world. I’ll probably meet a few of them along the way. The future’s looking a lot more cheerful already.

Ecan

The first warning shot has been fired across the bows of our own Environment Southland council by Agriculture Minister David Carter, speaking at the Irrigation New Zealand conference in Christchurch yesterday. Carter showed exactly who is calling the shots over themanagement of our environment, especially our water resource saying,"I would have thought what happened recently with Environment Canterbury would be a signal to all regional councils to work a bit more constructively with their farmer stakeholders." In other words, don't oppose farmer's schemes to use rivers for irrigation or you'll face dismissal by the Government. The council of Environment Southland must not allow themselves to be bullied in this way.