Today I visited Shannon first who is very easy to work with. She has gardened before by just digging up some of her lawn, but never had any tools, a raised garden or really good soil. Her dog had been a pain pooing wherever she gardened, so we are exploring options to keep him out. He’s an exuberant, one year old staffy. She is pretty excited about being able to start over with the veg seedlings I brought in today and what she will be learning over the time I am mentoring her. She had never heard of bokashi before and is keen to give that a go. Shannon came to us through a positive parenting course and talked about the difficulties of having a 6, 4 and 2yr old. It was a lovely chat about finding better ways to talk and listen to your children and why they are better for it.
My next visit was Naita and Sia. A lovely older Tongan couple who were keen to have chickens and this was a pre-visit. Naita has built a lovely chicken coop and showed me his handiwork, proudly inviting me right into the coop to inspect the nesting boxes etc while his wife videoed with a running commentary in Tongan and told me to wave out to the people. She was either doing a live feed or videoing for her facebook page! They have nine older children and a rather lovely larger section than most. They had laid down mats so I didn’t get my shoes dirty and I could see they had gardened this area before. Lovely lovely people!
*Taimani was my next visit though I’d been told she is very deaf and probably wouldn’t answer the door. I decided to go anyway and noticed a St Johns vehicle parked in there, so thought either
a) there’s been an incident or b) its a service call which I know they do but at least someone will hear the door knock and I wouldn’t be on my own, so bowled on up! It was a service call and we were able to decide on a site quickly within a huge back yard and I left.
Next was Mariyam’s Pre Visit and we found a position that might work.
Next was * Zaida whom we had pre visited and the only patch of ground was beside the letter box, barely 2 sq metres but workable. I had chosen things that were smaller and lower growing, so it wouldn’t impede the path to the gate. *Zaida, and perhaps her Mother, pulled up just after me and told me she wouldn’t be getting a garden anymore. That since the killing in Christchurch of the woman walking home from work on Saturday, they didn’t feel safe outside and had decided to take out the fencing and garden, so she could park her car there instead of walking the road from wherever she could find parking. I felt really sad that life was now so limiting when they came here to live in a safer community. I’m seeing life through so many different eyes.
So I only got seedlings into Shannon’s garden.Enjoyed today even though it wasn’t as productive. Small steps sometimes!
*Some names have been changed for privacy reasons.
Rākau Tautoko 