My first call today was Evelyn who is a grandmother to 12, 5 of whom she raised herself. She showed me her gardening efforts from years ago which was now a mess of overgrown grass and noxious weeds. She also showed me poroporo and explained they add the young leaves to boil up, but once the berries are there it’s bitter. We chose a sunny space that will work well and she’ll get the cardboard down with help from her cousin who helps out now she’s elderly and uses a stick. She’s excited to be gardening again.
Next was Line. She has Marie next to her and Jackie next to her, so all three will have chickens, which is kind’ve awesome! She told me they will help each other. They have a large planting of Taro in the spot the chickens are to go and I told her they will definitely eat and dig these up but she showed me her husband’s second plot and said that’s fine. They are using the back wall of the shed and side and back fences as part of the barriers, so it’s just a couple of spots that need attention, and she told me her husband is handy and will sort this for the chickens.
Then I visited Jayden & Kyle who have come on our programme after receiving some rehomed chickens who are possibly the happiest chickens you could wish to see! Plump, with a palace of a coop and free ranging most of the day, they have nothing to complain about. Kyle had left out a selection of outdated supermarket food packets to show me and ask if these foods were OK to feed them. I explained it’s important to NOT give them more than they would eat in a day, so foods aren’t left lying around to attract rats, and to soak bread so it’s not going to swell up in their tummies. I have given them a feeder to help them on their journey and explained the importance of proper nutrition with layer pellets and using the food scraps are extra. Also told him I am happy to get a text or call if they are worried about anything and I’ll touch base again in a month or so.
No one answered the door at Sonia’s so I took a peek at the back and we spoke by phone later. Space is perfect with their property backing onto a reserve. Sonia talked of fond memories having chickens as a young girl, so is looking forward to having them again.
From here to Michelle whose garden is full of lush spinach, silverbeet and the last of the sweet 100 tomatoes which she said the mokos loved.
I said I’d share a self crusting pie recipe that uses a lot of spinach. She’s keen to get new seedlings started and has bought seed packets, but unsure where to start, so we went through that process and I’ll follow up with her. She’s also keen to get chickens so we walked around the back to where she showed me some large fencing pieces that will block between the shed and neighbours fence. We talked about how this would work and I suggested she get the fencing sorted and call me to pop in and check before I can order the chickens, so she’s going to work on it. They have a dog so I need to make sure the fencing is well sorted before we put any chickens in here.
Another productive day.
Rākau Tautoko 