What's in the CoastLine this month?

Here's a sample...

Bluff grafting

Last weekend's grafting day at Bluff was an enjoyable and useful one for all concerned. At least that's my take on it – everyone there, Robyn and myself included, had a great time grafting apple scions onto apple rootstock and everyone went home with some heritage fruit trees created by their own hands. We began the workshop with a talk inside of Steve Mitchell's lounge which was packed with keen Bluffies wanting to learn how to do the old process of grafting. Once we'd covered the theory and the reasons for chosing old, heritage varieties over the modern ones, we headed out to the grafting bench set up in Steve's backyard where we waved knives around and tied things together. It all went very well indeed, except for the final act of the day, where I drove off toward Riverton, all merry and satisfied with the day, leaving a tin-bath tub full of apple scions sitting on the road behind where the car had been parked. Absent-minded? That's not the phrase Robyn chose to describe it.

The Eco-festival in Invercargill

Last year's venue for the eco-fest was cold and soggy, this year's was warm and dry – well done the person who made the decision to hold it in the Invercargill Workingman's Club.

The SouthCoast Environment Centre had three tables: one for the products we offer such as Niwashi garden tools, King's seeds and Real Men t-shirts, another featured the Common Ground movement I'm promoting and the third was all about spreading the heritage potato project and attracting new growers. All three tables did their work and drew the attention of lots and lots of people. It was a long but enjoyable day, spent in part visiting other stall holders and learning about their contribution to improving the environment. Adam came to the eco-fest too, in order to help us lug bags of potatoes up the stairs and to present a talk on gardening to the assembled crowds. His talk was a fascinating one and provoked a flood of questions, all of which he adroitly answered. Terry, I'm proud to say, was instrumental in organizing the eco-show and demonstrated his parkour skills as he went about his business. We saw many of our own Centre volunteers at the show, as well as customers who come out to Riverton regularly. Next year, we decided on the way home, we'd like to see some sort of forum provided where people can discuss common issues and presen their various solutions to them. All in all though, an excellent day.

Otama School visit to the Food-forest

I didn't count how many there were of them, but they were a swarm! The whole school came all the way from Otama to see the forest-garden we'd described to them when we visited their school some weeks before. They were not at all disappointed, from what I could see. Children roamed the jungle in search of creeks, springs, cob ovens and Guinea pigs and found most of those things. Keen young fire-bugs lit the fire-bath and the pizza oven and tended those fires in a very responsible way. Parents and children sampled all manner of herbs they picked as they wandered about and cies of delight at discovering a new flavour were commonplace, mostly from the parents. The sun shone and the birds pooped – it was all as it should be. Otama school has plans to establish a food-forest on the sight of their school grounds and has already begun with a heritage apple orchard, a native plants section, and a lot more. They may be the most progressive of the new food-foresting schools, if they keep up the momentum they've started, though there are other schools hot on their trail...

Food-forest tours at Thames Street

Despite our reservations about asking for money for anything at all, we've allowed ourselves to become convinced that it's a fair trade, our time and work for a donation from those people who would like to come and look around our food-forest but may have felt it was imposing on our time. Now we have an arrangement, organized and managed at the Centre, where people can book a tour and meet us in the garden when they arrive. It's working very well so far and everyone, I think, has been very happy with the experience of pushing through green walls of cow-parsley, alexanders, fennel and comfrey in order to explore our garden. Already we have hosted several groups and others are booked for a time over the next few weeks. It's very interesting for us, walking people through the forest-garden and noting how different the experience is with new people and at different times of the year. At present, the cow-parsley is flowering at about head-height, quite different from a fortnight ago when it was jus breaking through the soil. As the season goes on, there is more and more to see and I expect harvest time, when the berries and fruits are ripening, will be an especially popular time to take the tour. I might have to say, “Hands in pockets!”, who knows. Mind you, if the presence of visitors scares off some of the berry-eating birds, we'll do better than ever with our harvest!

In the vegetable garden, in October

We are transplanting peas that we've sown in trays under cover. They grew rapidly in the warmth of the tunnelhouse and are now tall enough to go out into the world. We are planting them in 'tribes' with a tipi of bamboo stakes for them to clamber up. We are tucking the clusters in all through the garden in no particular order and they look great. We have also planted out trays of sweet peas grown the same way. They are making great progress in the conditions that October is bringing. As well, we've sown various leafy sald plants and planted them throughout the garden. They are making very good growth in the rainy weather and will soon be providing us with tasty leaves of all colours. I've sweetcorn too that I planted three weeks ago and is now ready to go outside. Whether it will have a long enough growing season to produce good ears, I don't know, but we will see. Self-sown pumpkins in the tunnelhouse are beginning to erupt out of the soil, along with plenty of spinach-beet whose seed I spilled onto the ground in there during the winter.