It’s been 13 months since we finished fencing our stream and had the first school group come for a planting day: Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Tupoho. Since then we have planted over 1,600 trees and plants with the help of three local schools, two community working bees, and 11 farm interns.

What a difference a year makes!

Last Year

This Year

All of the work has been carried out with help from the forward-thinking and generous funding schemes administered by Horizons Regional Council. The final bill exceeds $10,000, and HRC has paid half of that. Thank you!

Last Year

This Year

For the most part Regional Councils manage environmental quality in New Zealand with a particular focus on water quality and flooding. By encouraging farmers to fence riparian corridors and plant native trees Regional Councils achieve both of these mandates in a holistic rather than reductionist manner. Other benefits include wildlife habitat and increased biological diversity.

Last Year

This Year

Thanks to a wet summer last year and the help of our farm interns – who hand weeded the native trees four times between October and April – the trees have thrived. As you can see from the images, some of the natives have tripled and quadrupled in size – in one year! The Horizons rural consultants said they had never seen anything like it when they came to do an audit in June. Of the 1,600 natives planted we’ve only found one that died.

Last Year

This Year

Given the investment of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of labour, there is a huge sense of satisfaction seeing the plants thriving. It was a big decision to fence off 15% of our land from stock and return it to native bush – permaculture zone 5. Looking at it now there are no regrets.

You can support the further planting of native trees along the stream – still about 600 to go – by purchasing a copy of the 2018 Permaculture Calendar. 100% of the income from New Zealand sales goes directly to this project.

Orders: theecoschool at gmail.com

Peace, Estwing