The growing season here on Kaitiaki Farm has been fantastic so far. Plenty of rain and plenty of sunshine have resulted in abundant yields in the orchards, paddocks and gardens.
At the moment we’re flush with plums, goat’s milk, avocados, zucchinis, green beans , silverbeet, and eggs among other things. We’ve been busy preserving plums, making cheese, and freezing green beans.
We’ve got a great group of permaculture interns helping with all this and enjoying the fresh, healthy kai.
*One note, however, our garlic season was a bit ordinary because of a fungal disease on the leaves.
We’re also looking forward to forthcoming abundance in basil, potatoes, pumpkins, chokos, peaches, apples, feijoas, pears, persimmons and citrus.
Join us for a tour of restoration projects along with speakers on water quality, sustainable land management, and regenerative agriculture.
Kaitiaki Farm hosts a wide variety of landforms, site conditions and micro-climates within its 5.1 hectares. Holistic, integrated, and regenerative approaches are applied across the challenging landscape alongside extensive wetland, riparian and bush restoration work.
Speakers
Phill Hodges is Horizons land management advisor for the lower Whanganui region. The land management team works with landowners to aid with the mitigation of hill country erosion and sedimentation in waterways. We achieve these results through our Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) program, assisting with space planting of poplars, retirement of land and afforestation.
Scotty Moore is the Horizons Freshwater Coordinator for the Jobs for Nature Stream Fencing and Riparian Planting programme and is based in Whanganui. The Horizons Freshwater team work with landowners, farmers, iwi, hapū, trusts and community groups to improve water quality and native fish habitat in Aotearoa waterways and wetlands primarily through stream fencing and riparian planting grants.
Richard Pedley is a research student at Massey University studying if spiders are suitable biological indicators of soil health in the context of New Zealand pastoral farms. In particular, if spider diversity demonstrates a sensitivity to the impact of grazing practices associated with regenerative farming on soil health.
Coffee and Tea Provided. Please BYO lunch.
Notes for attendees:
Requires walking up and down hills.
Dress for the conditions, including sun hat.
Bring a water bottle.
Draft Schedule
10-10:30 Arrival and Morning Tea
10:30 Welcome & Safety Briefing
1045-12 Session 1
12-1 Lunch – BYO
1-215 Session 2
215 Thanks & Farewell
Free to attend. Registration essential: theecoschool@gmail.com
Despite a very wet winter the farm is looking fabulous and the animals are very healthy. These pregnant goats were shifted into this paddock for a good spring feed.
We’ve had a dozen kids born this season with one doe left to go. Sophie had twins on Sunday afternoon.
Mindy had a Mini-Me
The red shaver chicks we bought in the autumn have grown into hens and laying eggs with the longer days. Eight hens are laying 5 to 6 eggs per day.
The 100+ poplar poles we planted this winter are starting to leaf out.
The piglets are looking plump and healthy, while the sows and boars are keeping on top of the fast growing grass.
The garlic is up and going – almost ready to be mulched.
Plum and peach blossoms have been plentiful and we are hoping for good fruit set.
Avos are ready to be picked.
And tomatoes are ready to go into the ground.
So much more to report but also so much work to be done!
Earn a Permaculture Design Certificate on one of New Zealand’s best permaculture farms.
Our programme is unique in the world of permaculture in that it combines best practice teaching and learning along with best practice regenerative land management.
The programme balances content, process and reflection, while nurturing systems thinking skills. It’s about developing a way of thinking that recognizes the connections between diverse elements on the farm and how they interact, along with the hands-on skills required to work effectively with cultivated ecologies.
3RD JANUARY, 2023 – 8 WEEKS WITH A WEEK OFF IN THE MIDDLE. $850 CLIMATE RESILIENCE PDC IMMERSE YOURSELF IN ECO-DESIGN FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE – WORKING WITH NATURE INSTEAD OF AGAINST IT. THIS PDC FOCUSES ON ECOLOGICAL LAND MANAGEMENT, REGENERATIVE FARMING, WATER MANAGEMENT, ECO HOUSING, APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY, HUMAN-SCALE APPROACHES,AND TRANSPORT ALONG WITH THE FULL PDC CURRICULUM.
7TH MARCH, 2023 – 8 WEEKS WITH A WEEK OFF IN THE MIDDLE. $850 ABUNDANCE PDC AUTUMN IS A GREAT TIME TO BE ON THE FARM WITH HEAPS OF FRESH KAI FROM THE ORCHARD, GARDENS AND ANIMALS. THIS PDC FOCUSES ON GROWING, PROCESSING AND PRESERVING KAI ALONG WITH ANIMAL CARE, BUSH RESTORATION, AND SOME ECO-BUILDING PROJECTS.
We’re excited to be working with Horizons Regional Council and the Whanganui Learning Centre to develop a programme based around community climate resilience in the areas of whare, whenua, and whanau.
2022-2023 Schedule
These events are free for residents of the Horizons region. Partial funding comes from Horizons Regional Council. Spaces limited. Register: theecoschool@gmail.com
Family meet-up: Bike, Bus to the Beach January 7th, 11:00-3:00 Two-wheeled hikoi from the city bridge to Castlecliff Beach, or take the bus from Trafalgar Square. Then a big play day in the sand! (Bus leaves Trafalgar Square at 11:45 and leaves Castlecliff at 3:00.)
The Low-Carbon – High Efficiency – Affordable Home January 15th, 2:00-4:00. Registration essential. This workshop helps demystify the home-building process for climate resilience and affordability. Topics include passive solar design, super-insulation, high performance windows, and where to claw back cost savings. Keeping Cool During a Heat Wave January 18th, 5:30-7:00 Whanganui Learning Centre, 232 Wicksteed St. Too hot to sleep? We’ll share some ideas on how to keep your home as cool as possible without breaking the bank.
Family meet-up January 22nd, 12:30-2:00
Meet at the Silver Ball sculpture on the riverbank.
Join us for a fun walk around the Great Whanganui Play Trail. Feel free to stay later for a dance party at the Riverside Shindig event.
Love Your Land Day 16 February, 10 – 2:30. Registration essential. Come along for a farm tour and speakers. BYO Lunch. Topics include: holistic land management; regenerative agriculture; riparian corridors; bush restoration; growing browse for stock; carbon credits; more
Building Resilience on Your Land April TBD. Registration essential.
Healthy Homes for Healthcare & Social Workers April/May TBC Whanganui Regional Health Network This programme helps healthcare and social workers to empower families improve the health and comfort of their homes. Register with Angela Weekly at the Whanganui Regional Health Network.
We’ve been practicing a form of permaculture we call “Eco-Thrifty” at our two homes in Whanganui for well over a decade. When we started our first blog in 2010 we thought the idea would catch on. It didn’t.
Twelve years later we are still at it and are reaping the harvests of avoiding the inevitable price rises in food and energy. Despite heading into winter and some seriously crazy weather, our farm is thriving and producing plenty of healthy kai while resisting the ravages of climate change.
Here is a visual update from yesterday.
Jerusalem artichoke off just two plants among hundreds. Guavas tart and full of vitamin C to stay healthy. Persimmons – my favourite! Plenty of leafy greens. These are apples in storage. More vitamin-C-on-a-treePlenty of avocado trees laden with fruit. Speaking of trees, here are some natives along with tree lucerne in a corner of our nursery. Planted a few hundred garlic yesterday. Found this little girl first thing yesterday morning. Watched this kid being born yesterday afternoon. And still had time for yoga.
Over the last few years I’ve been blogging less and writing for publication more. Below are some of those articles about our holistic approach for farming and home renovation that are available online:
Saturday 2 – 5 pm: Farm Tour of Gardens, Intensive Orchards, & Farm Buildings (Permaculture Zones 1-2). Includes integrating farm foul into fruit & veg production and what are the best tools to use for low-input/high performance systems.
Sunday 9:30 – 12:30: Farm Tour of Paddocks and Hillsides, Non-Intensive Orchards, Stream Restoration, Bush Restoration, and Browse Block (Permaculture Zones 3-5). Includes water management, preventing slips, managing gorse, silvopasture, integrating poplar and willow, managing goats and kunekune pigs.
Sunday 1:30 – 4:30: Eco Design/Build for Sleep Outs, Tiny Homes, Minor Dwellings. Includes passive solar design, ‘super-wall’, retrofit double-glazing, building code changes, wastewater compliance, compost toilets.
Choose any combination: $50 each or $130 for all. (Couples $240)
Meals and accommodation also available – please enquire.
The farm is thriving with fruit and vegetables at the moment – we can’t even keep up with it all. The gardens have been going great all summer and now the autumn fruits are ripening in the orchards.
The plums and peaches are past us at this point. We’ve been picking lots of apples. These ones – called akane – are naturally disease resistant and have a great taste.
Pears have done well also.
There are too many figs to pick let alone eat. In the foreground are guavas not yet ripe.
And grapes! So many grapes!
Feijoas will be the next crop and it looks like a massive one. Alongside them will be persimmons – YUM!
Olives will be ready in winter along with most of the citrus.
And avos will be ready in spring.
Update: Persimmons nearly ready at the end of April!
Update: Our loquats are flowering for the first time! Loquat is quite unusual in that it flowers in the autumn instead of in the spring. The fruits are usually ready in December.
Eco Thrifty Living 