Julia posted a comment that I missed (to much forward momentum, not enough retrospection) so I'll post it here (and try to address it) so it doesn't disappear into the dusty annals of time.
Dear Guyton Family,
I have just joined Robert's blogspot because I'm in the middle of designing
a 140sqm orchard and vegetable garden using forest gardening principles. I
followed the link from the NZ Crop Tree Association to your heirloom tree
saving project (and NZ Gardening).
Six months ago we moved to 5 acres of gorse infested pasture and covenanted
bush in Puhoi to build a house and art studios from deepest darkest inner
city Grey Lynn. So I'm on a huge learning curve having only had a moderate
vegetable garden prior to this. Sculpture and education are my knowledge
base not edible plants frankly.
Is there a way I can plant your apple trees up here? How I can buy them or
become part of the copyleft way of going?
There are nurserywomen up our way with reservations about the food bill
quietly slipped through parliament prior to the Election, and its possible
implications for heirloom seed and plant preservation. I'm hoping to get my
fruit trees and seeds just in case it becomes difficult to source rarer
varieties.
I would like to support what you are doing somehow. Your blog is a great
source of inspiration.
Thanks for that Julia. Good move, getting out of town and beginning a venture like that you hint at. I'd like to help, despite my distance from your project. First up, I'd recommend a re-think about gorse. 'Infested' is the popular view of gorse on land, but I say it's a great advantage to you, managed properly. It's a legume, bringing nitrogen to your soil. It's a nurse crop and great protection from the wind. Used well, it can greatly speed up the progress of whatever it is you are planting. Managing the fire risk will be the big issue though.
Apple trees will grow where you are and I suggest you look to someone like Kay Baxter for heritage trees from the locality. After reading your message more closely and realising where Greytown is, you'll find that your area is/was famous for it's apples, including heritage varieties. Perhaps you'll be able to locate some genuine oldsters and graft from them but either way, there will be people in your area who know all about apples. Ask Robyn (my wife) any question you like about apples - she's the Apple Queen and has done a huge amount of reasearch and practical apple stuff.
As to the Food Bill, I'm unsure of where it's at. If it comes to banning the bartering of vegetables, farmers' markets and seed saving, there'll be upset, outrage and rebellion.
If you have other particular questions, feel free to put them here where I'll see them :-)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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7 comments:
My concern about the Food Bill was that it might have shifted the burden of proof to the accused - you would need to show your seeds were not someone else's IP. Which is hardly fair, if they release their IP so it can come onto your property, and if you can not reasonably know, then I think you are entitled to use and eat their IP. Not that I want to plan commercial seeds, I won't even plant anything marked F1 hybrid.
Anyway, I expect if the worst des come to pass the revolt will be quiet, subtle, and very persistent.
Good luck with your garden, Julia. I've had a garden since I was in my mid-twenties, mostly for fun and to avoid paying a fortune for flowers in mid-February, and more recently for eating. At the moment there are several hundred square metres in vegetabes or being broken in, and the same in flowers, with plans for significant extensions over the break.
My turn to be amazed, Armchair Critic - flowers? Fantastic, but how, why and so on - are you a florist?
The Greens have a post on the Food Bill and I'll read it today. Perhaps then I can comment intelligently. For the meantime, your comments seem sensible.
Several hundred square metres is a lot of ground for veges - expecting trouble? :-)
Flowers because they are beautiful and smell nice. Is it possible to have too much beauty?
I'm not expecting trouble, but I don't expect to crash my car, yet I always use my seatbelt. And I have family and friends who appreciate and sometimes need the veggies. The area might be big because I don't work the soil very hard.
True that.
How do you 'not work the soil very hard'. This sounds like my kind of horticulture.
Not much, I don't pack them in like sardines, leave the soil to rest after a crop, plant something different next time, like flowers, and only use natural fert.
Sounds healthy. 'Scuse my insistance, but which flowers do you favour?
(I grow a lot of foxglove, borage, alkanet, sweet pea, mullien, echium and iris, but my main crop flowers are apiacaea - fennel, carrot, parsleys and so on - not 'show' flowers, but insect attracting.)
Echium and sweetpea are right up there. I have cornflowers, verbena, roses and lavender.
The bees like the lavender. For some reason there seem to be mostly bumble bees this year, and very few apis mellifera. Maybe the dairy farmers moving away from growing clover is reducing their numbers. I don't know of anyone who keeps bees near here.
I was told that bees need to be talked to. When one comes inside I open a window to let it out and I tell it the window is open, it needs to go out and where the window is. It seems to work, though some bees are a little slow (unfamiliar with the idea of windows?) and I suspect it is actually a mixture of coincidence and the calm voice giving me the confidence not to panic, rather than the bee understanding english and cooperating.
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