Has anyone noticed the piles of vomit on our wood chip piles?

Is it dogs with diarrhea climbing to the top of our piles to relieve themselves?

Is it teenage boys, getting drunk and climbing to the top of our piles to throw up?

Is it rehearsals for Innermost’s first B grade horror movie?

No, it’s something far more intelligent. It’s SLIME MOLD! yay!

http://hiddenforest.co.nz/slime/what.htm
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Hidden-Taonga/Sci-Media/Images/Dog-vomit-slime-mould
http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/fungi-te-henui/slime-moulds.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmp1uopZKz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUQQmcR5-g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvRxoiiGCWY

Just a suggestion, maybe rather than having the watering roaster water the whole garden everyday or two, we could divide the garden into 3 or four groups of beds and then give that group a really deep soak once or twice a week?

When a plant is put in the soil, it needs a little amount of water, often. As the plants get bigger, they will need more water but they can really benefit from deep watering less regularly. The aim being to encourage the roots deeper into the ground. Encouraging a larger root mass. If a little amount of water is just put on the surface, that’s where the roots will stay.

Different plants need different amounts of water too.

Some examples of this up at the garden are:

The strawberries on the bank, looked like they were forgotten to be watered, occasionally. This was a very good thing for them. They showed great growth as they spent a higher percentage of their energy, growing roots to look for water. This meant when they got water, they had a much bigger supply of nutrients to grow faster. Also they were tastier, most of the time. When they were given a deep water the  strawberries were then watery tasting for a few days after this.

Another example of not much water, was the Cape gooseberries. Increased taste (Higher Brix), constant fruiting and little to no disease and bug attacks being the result of this form of watering. This is because it could access, deeply, all the nutrients that we gave them.

Using tap water with chlorine in it effect’s the microbe life in the soil and thus effects the nutrient quality and growth of plants.

Chlorine is useful at killing bugs. It has the second strongest “pulling” power of all the elements we know. That’s why they put it in the water supply. Water with chlorine in it may combine with ammonia to make many forms of Chloramines. They are bad guys. This uses up some of your soil nitrogen and the Chloramine also kills bugs. We all need Chlorine to survive but only if it is at trace element levels. It will not kill all the life in the soil because there is way too much bug life to do that. But if you shallow water often, then the percentage of microbes lost is higher, in that area on that top layer where those, now shallow rooted plants, roots, live. Chlorine can stick to other elements too, and ties them up so they are not available to plants.

To reduce this Innermost just installed a chlorine filter for our hose, unfortunately this happened about the same day as the Outdoor water ban begun.

Mulching your garden beds is important to keep the water in the ground and it protects any exposed soil surface from the weather elements.

With your beds mulched need to ensure when you are watering that you soak right through the mulch, into the soil.  Its hasn’t rained for a week up at the gardens at this stage and the plants still look good, this is in part due to all the beds being mulched and the water that was in the soil staying there. You don’t want to mulch too heavily though as this can cause to top of your soil to go anaerobic and grow fungi and other detrimental microbes.

In the garden this year some of the soil in the beds were too high in woody matter,this sucks up nitrogen, temporarily.

This doesn’t matter, if you are able to put nitrogen N back on. In these beds watering them with the leachate from our compost bins is perfect for this, as it is high in nitrogen has plenty of complimentary minerals in it too. Worm pee is better for this. Too much digging over the soil, too, will disrupt the soil structure and thus an increase of water loss, carbon and microbes.

Hope that’s some helpful insights!

James Richardson from Victoria University, with experience in running Permaculture Design courses in Vancouver and Sarah Adams the current Chair of Permaculture in New Zealand and Coordinator of Innermost Gardens have joined together to run our first Wellington Urban Permaculture Design Course (PDC). We also have several local tutors who will be sharing their areas of expertise and passion with the group. Near the beginning of the course there is an overnight stay in Otaki with Gary and Emily Williams, they have run their Permaculture property for over 20 years and taught on many PDC’s.Most of the rest of the course will be held on site at Innermost Gardens Mt Victoria.

Here is an outline of the course:

Innermost Gardens has always been run as a Permaculture garden. The original design for our site Mt Victoria site was created at a community workshop run by Robina McCurdy a well known New Zealand Permaculture teacher, and the vision for Innermost is to be a model Permaculture garden in Wellington Show casing what people can do in their gardens using these techniques.

Our first Permaculture Design Course is a big step towards this. We are growing our Permaculture community, getting more people excited about Permaculture and providing a space for them to practise and share Permaculture tools. If you want anymore information or to register go to: http://permaculturedesignnz2013.eventbrite.com/#

The Council has donated 140 trees, to us so we can plant the neighbouring lane with Natives. This Sunday we have a community planting day from 11-2 to plant the trees. We are inviting people to come and spend the morning planting the trees and to bring a shared lunch which we will finish with.

If you have a spade please bring it along as we don’t have many.. If you want garden gloves we suggest you bring these too, we have a few but not many.. And if you can food to share for lunch would be great! Look forward to seeing you there!

The trees we will be planting are:

20 Five finger (Pseudopanax arboreus),

20 Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides)

20 Kapuka (Griselinia littoralis),

20 Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium),

20 Mapou (Myrsine australis),

20 Tree Hebe (Hebe arborea),

20 Kowhai (Sophora microphylla)

Plus a few others donated by members….

This was a difficult decision. We had asked the council if they were willing to top the trees as they shaded the garden over summer however they said they would rather remove them which came as a surprise. As  the sycamores take much of the water and nutrients from the soil, which will in the long term effect the orchard we planted last year and the native tree planting we  are planting on the 19^th we agreed to this. The cutting of the trees was then fast tracked due to the planting as the felling of the trees was onto the lane beside Innermost where the natives will be planted.

We have left two trees, one which was not cut at all, the other was cut down but we will leave to coppiced – this means as it grows back we will cut it branches use them for posts, stakes, and fire wood. The remaining tree we will also maintain. We decided to leave these two as we want to use them as examples of home scale ‘eco forestry’ ways people can use and maintain their trees at home.

The stumps of the three trees which were removed are going to be inoculated with mushrooms and left to the mycelium to break down over time.

Going up to the site after the trees were removed was a shock – the trees really protected our western boundary and it now feels very exposed to the neighbours and to the city below. Hopefully in time the orchard and natives will grow a little into their place – however they will never be as tall as sycamores were.

The removing of the trees was a sensible decision, yet it still feels a little sad and it really does change the feeling of the place. It is good to think we are planting 140 native trees down our neighbouring lane way to replace them!

• Fresh look and feel
• Updated header design from our graphic design talent, Clare
• Site is now easy to read from your mobile phone
• Google Calendar will be populated with our Events listing, so you can see what’s happening at a glance
• Contacts Form makes it easy for you to email us directly

This is stage 1 of our site update – stage 2 will have more changes to make it even more of a resource for us all.

Please let us know what you think!

The second reason is to avoid the depletion of soil nutrients and minerals. If plants that require similar nutrients and minerals are planted in the same location the soil can become exhausted and the plants won’t be as healthy. Different plants also add certain nutrients and minerals back into the soil, so rotation also nutritionally improves soil in addition to preventing nutrient and mineral depletion. A classic example is planting tomatoes after any type of legume, like broad beans. Legumes add nitrogen to the soil, while tomatoes are heavy nitrogen feeders, so planting legumes prepares the soil for the nitrogen demands of tomatoes. A third, less commonly identified reason to rotate crops is to create deeper, better aerated soils due to root penetration.

There are a few different crop rotation systems, but any one of them will be beneficial for your soil and your plants. Most recommend avoiding planting the same crop in one location for two to three years. One system divides plant based on botanical classification, i.e. Cucurbit family (cucumber, squashes, melon), Nightshade family (tomato, potato, egglant, peppers), etc. Another divides plants more broadly into three main types based on their nutrient demands; ‘light feeding’ root crops (potatoes, kumara, carrots) and herbs, ‘heavy feeding’ leafy and fruiting crops (tomatoes, brassicas) and ‘soil building’ peas, beans and other legumes. At Innermost we have divided beds into brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc.), nitrogen fixers and light feeders (legumes, salad, herbs, etc.), root crops (also light feeders), heavy feeders and green crops that are used to condition the soil (like lupins, mustards and grains). As we rotate these different crop types through the garden the signs will move with the, so keep your eyes out for moving signs!

If you don’t have enough space in your own garden for a full crop rotation, don’t worry. Just try to avoid planting the one crop in the same location year after year, and make sure that you replenish the soil with plenty of compost between plantings. If you would like more information on crop rotation most gardening books have at least a short section devoted to the subject, and their are many resources online, like the one below. Happy gardening!

Crop rotation article from the NZ Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10640992

Garden Maintenance:

• You can keep your tomatoes in till they look pretty much dead and the tomatoes will continue to ripen. You need  to trim back any dead leaves on your tomatoes and any excess foliage that is preventing sun getting on your tomatoes (make sure you leave some leaves though!)  For any that don’t ripen making green tomato pickle is a tasty option.
• It is also a good idea to trim back the excess foliage on your pumpkins too, you want the plants energy to concentrate on the fruit now and not on continuing to produce leaves and flowers.

Compost:

• It is also a time you will be making a lot of compost, the end of your summer crops all need to be composted and to be sure you create a healthy compost you need a 40/60 carbon/nitrogen or brown to green ratio. Carbon is always hard to find in urban areas.  You can collect brown leaves, dry your lawn clippings, use brown cardboard/ paper bags, buy straw, collect untreated saw dust Best used in small quantities and with other carbons)  or go to your local coffee roaster and ask if they have coffee husks, these are a caramel, light, great smelling  husk which make a great urban carbon. To help build up the nutrient content of your compost and ensure you are growing healthy soil add seaweed, comfrey leaves and/or compost additives from your garden store.
• Put any extra compost into your garden beds before you plant your winter crops.

Planting:

• To give plants enough time to grow and for them to grow large enough before the weather gets cold and sunlight hours are reduced it is important to get your winter crop in the garden in the next two months. All the winter vege can be planted now. Broad beans, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, parsley, silverbeet, chard, Miner’s lettuce, mesclun, endive, cress, rocket and Chinese greens.

• With your staple plants like lettuces, silverbeet, celery and others you use frequently, planting a small crop in March and another later in April will create a constant supply, if you want to have these throughout winter successive planting every two weeks will enable this.
  • You can direct sow: Broad beans, coriander, rocket, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, green crops
  • Sow into trays:  winter brassicas, parsley, celery, silverbeet and salad greens.

• The great thing about winter gardens is that they require a lot less maintenance as it cools plant growth slows down (which is why it is important to get your plants in now), insects are less active and you generally don’t need to water.  If your garden doesn’t get much sun over winter or if you are using a crop rotation planting a “green crop” of Lupin, Mustard or Peas is a great way to improve the soil, whilst doing very little.

Innermost Gardens has a workshop series coming up on Thursday evenings and a few longer ones on Sundays  at the Mt Victoria site, end of Lawsons lane. The evening workshops will finish at 8 with a cup of tea and informal chats to follow.

Workshops,  6:30-8 pm Innermost Gardens Mt Victoria

Mar 1 Gardening with a black thumb/ Intro to Gardening basic’s – Sarah Adams

Mar 8 Composting and Nutrient Dense food – Grant Lyon

Mar 15 Fruit trees – Tim Packer

Mar 22 Container gardening – Richard Self

Mar 29 Preserving – Sally Edgar

April 5 Seed Saving – Matt Whiting and Margaret Earle

April 12 Intro the permaculture – Sarah Adams, Tim Packer, Richard Self

Weekends:

March 4^th 2:30- 4:30 Urban foraging we will finish this with a classic Maori Boil up! -  Nga

April 1^st  10:30 – 12:30 Kid gardening 5-10 yr olds- Sarah

April 1^st 2:30- 5:30 – Coastal Forage we will finish with a boil up of some of our coastal goodies!- Nga

Cost: $10 waged, $5 unwaged

Please book your place at InnermostGardens@gmail.com