My first visit of the day was Rose’s planting. Her garden was set up a few weeks ago but with whanau commitments and covid out of the way I could finally come in to plant. She had a 9 and 10 year old there whom she had whangaied when they were babies and she is now their foster Mum, caring for them in the holiday breaks while their Nan had them during school term in Kaikohe. Two beautiful young children who are getting the best of both worlds. Rose explained she had to keep an eye on a cake for a tangi and was making the children breakfast. I told her to carry on and the children helped me plant.
Rose appeared shortly with breakfast for me too, to which I protested I was fine, but she admonished me, reminding me of whanaungatanga, and told me to sit down…to which I obeyed! We chatted about whanau and unconditional love. That she is one of 21 siblings and living in her parents home for which she has the role of ‘ahi ka’ for the whanau, with an open door policy. That the door is never locked and whoever in their large extended whanau needs a place to stay, is welcomed for as long as they need to. A beautiful message. We took pics of the garden, I reminded her which plants were which and I found her old garden bed was now full of chickweed. This is a valuable nutritious resource that is super vigorous at this time of year, great added to salads or thrown in a boil up, so I try to point out whenever I see it. I introduced Rose to the bokashi system today and she is happy to try. Rose showed me a pomegranate that was hanging over the neighbours tree and so ripe it had split open. She offered me half and I’m pretty excited to get them in the ground and hopefully add to my orchard!
Next stop was Nic who was waiting for me. She came out and happily asked what she could carry in. Nic had seemed reluctant, even defensive at our first visit so I was thrilled to see she was relaxed and happily helped me plant. Her Dad came out and supervised with the loveliest of smiles. We talked about diabetes and other health issues he had that prevented him from being as active as he liked and how important it was to eat healthily. I had left the bokashi system with her last time and she was happy with how it was working.
He talked about the weeds getting away on them and I told them the names of different weeds and which were edible. Nic laughed at the oxalis being lemony tasting but her Dad said back in Raro as a kid they would go chew on some if they had sore throats, but these days he downs apple cider vinegar. I love hearing old folklore around weeds and this didn’t surprise me and said at least the oxalis was free. I remembered later you shouldn’t eat too much oxalis as it has a high level of acids, and people with gout, rheumatism or liver problems are best to avoid it. I texted this through as I should have mentioned this when we talked.
Shannon wasn’t home and her phone went straight to answerphone twice, so I texted and left after 15 mins. I thought about leaving the plants for her to plant but her dog didn’t look like he’d like me popping stuff over the fence, so took them with me.
Next stop was *Zaida who had said she wouldn’t be home but to view her garden site at the house frontage. Carla was with me. It’s about 2m long x 1 m wide strip to her letterbox, She already had silverbeet in there and there is room for us to add our selection. It’s already weeded and I’m wondering if we simply plant straight into this rather than use a raised bed?
Next stop was Lorraine, who had the biggest smile and was super excited to have a garden and learn. She has two dogs. The ground is pretty dug up in places but she assured me they would be fine. She was more worried about neighbouring cats. I’m thinking about a plant that deters cats, to plant around the outside edge. We chose a sunny position beside the house and she is ready to go.
Philippa’s garden bed was in and Hugo and Philippa planted it chock full with me. We discussed where a chook run could go and took a walk to look at if there were any edible weeds I could spot. We found onion weed that can be used in place of chives, but that was about all. They expect to be there another 10 months or so with building delays and the beds can be moved at that point. I left the bucket and explained the bokashi system to Hugo.
It was a rather busy day…but best job ever!
*Some names have been changed for privacy reasons
Rākau Tautoko 