Greener Neighbourhoods is a competition that has been running through the Kāpiti Coast District Council for the past seven years. What is interesting about the programme is not only has it galvanised a large number of local neighbourhoods to reduce their environmental footprints, but it has also spiralled outwards into a wide range of unrelated ecological initiatives that have stood the test of time and appear to have gained a high level of community engagement.
Tag: Environmental
This tag is for ideas that have a strong environmental benefit.
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”
Make your groceries go 20% further using a home made stock recipe
Stock is one of the cornerstones of our civilisation, yet few households actually regularly make it part of their routine to create the stuff, preferring instead to harvest the supermarket shelves and pay up to $4 a litre for the privilege. Little attention has in fact been paid to the how much a regular stock habit can save you, as well as nourishing yourself and your family and making your grocery budget stretch further.
Continue reading “Make your groceries go 20% further using a home made stock recipe”
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.