Much more than anything else, this blog is just a repository for things that I learn, enabling me to cement the learning process by listing and recounting the steps involved in a new process. So I make no apology for the fact that the blog hops from topic to topic and appears to have no external consistency whatsoever.
Category: Gardening
A little clotting of different ideas for transforming useless plots into somehow arable sections.
Closed Loop Food Production
The words ‘Closed Loop Food Production’ came out of a recent meeting with the Feilding Council and while the words describe a practice already implemented by many households and communities, nonetheless represents something in my view that all households should aspire to.
What ‘Closed Loop Food Production’ simply refers to is the process of turning food waste into compost, compost into healthy veggies, healthy veggies into low cost home cooked meals, and meals into food waste – ie closing the loop as far as possible on each of the stages of the food production and disposal process.
Grow enough vegetables to feed your family every day of the growing season
When planning this article, I started by asking myself such questions as “how many onions does a typical adult eat each season” and “how much margin do I need to allow for yield problems such as pest control, weeds, poor watering etc” and finally “what percentage of adults actually eat onions”. Needless to say it was a very calculator-heavy method of divining the required yield for a standard household garden, and at the end of the day totally unreliable because the vegetable needs would vary heavily depending on the individual dietary preferences of each member of the household.
Continue reading “Grow enough vegetables to feed your family every day of the growing season”
Why let a spare window go to waste?
One thing I love about living in Otaki is that the town has a unique micro climate that is very conducive to growing a range of slightly unusual plants. This is part of the code behind the slightly ridiculous slogan ‘Welcome to Sunny Otaki’: the promise never seems to hold up when you’re actually physically present, but the region is nonetheless overall very conducive to gardening and growth.