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Gardening events in May

Please see a summary of our May events below:

  • Wednesdays 9.30- 12.30: Weekly working bees 
  • Saturday 8th May 10.00- 11.00: Growing Point workshop. Measuring brix levels as an indicator of plant health. 
    This is a great way to understand what the sugar levels in your plants are doing which indicates the health of your soil. We’ll suggest ways you can wake up your soil food web to then grow nutrient dense food.
    Please share with your friends and family who might be interested.
  • Sunday 30th May 10.30- 12.30 pruning working bee followed by…
  • 12.30- 2pm shared wood fired pizza. BYO topping and drinks.

It’ll be great to see some of you at the garden, nau mai, haere mai.

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The RLTP’s core flaw: “holding VKT steady”

Submissions are due on the draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) this Sunday (2nd May). I outlined what is needed back in February: A Climate-Ready RLTP – No Litigation Required.

The sooner we fix this city’s transport system so that it’s quiet, sustainable and safe so our kids get their freedom to walk, scooter and cycle, the sooner we start to reap the benefits of more socially connected communities and more healthy, active people. There are some good projects in the plan. As usual, it fails to deliver cycling infrastructure at anything like the rate required, and it fails to reduce emissions in line with our commitments.

The plan proposes investments that will increase emissions by 6% by 2031 (or decrease them by 12% if government makes policy changes around biofuels and EV uptake):

Auckland Council, on the other hand, laid out in the Auckland Climate Plan that a 64% reduction in transport emissions is required, and the 1Point5 Project believes Auckland’s transport must be largely decarbonized by 2030.

In this post, I want to explore Auckland Transport’s technical misunderstandings that have contributed to this failure.

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Garden April News

We’ve had a lot going on in the garden planting in our Autumn guilds – please see our schedule for this month below:

  • Wednesdays 9.30- 12.30: Weekly working bees 
  • Sunday 25th 10.30- 12.30: Monthly Working Bee followed by Shared Pizza 12.30- 2pm
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Climate Change Commission (CCC) – submission due 28 March

The closing date/time for submissions on the Climate Action is this Friday March 28, presumably midnight. The Government Climate Change Commission (CCC) submission form is very simple (much easier than the Auckland Council one), people can either fill in some/all of the spaces under any one or all of the six headings as following:

  1. The Pace of Change
  2. Future Generations
  3. Our Contribution
  4. Role and Type of Forest
  5. Policy Priorities to Reduce Emissions
  6. Technology and Behaviour Change

Here is a template from the Greens – if you would like some ideas. Or you could write a simple general submission and send it directly to Dr Rod Carr, Chair of the CCC.

Because the government submission form has a special designation of “Young Person” a member of our group has sent in her 7 year old granddaughter’s thoughts (all her own she assures us ;>) on what we need to do to help the climate: 

  • Stop creating rubbish   (Last year she went on a school trip to the city rubbish dump & it affected her greatly!)
  • No more cars/buses/trucks that use petrol – change to electric
  • Use solar and wind power for factories
  • Don’t cut down trees – plant more trees
  • Make toys for kids out of re-usable materials, like wood
  • Use paper cups and straws and wooden spoons at parties, not plastic (and no balloons, because they are plastic and when you let them go, the fish eat them and they die)

Even if all you do is to ask your children/grandchildren their thoughts, and just put only those into the form, you will be taking some action on behalf of the planet in this way. Please do something – it takes such a tiny amount of time.

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Garden March News

In March we have following sessions to offer. However, please note that all events will be canceled in levels 3 and 4. Also please scan in on the Covid tracking app when you arrive at the garden.

  • Every Friday in March 4.30pm – 6pm: working bee.
  • Every Friday 6pm -7.30pm: Shared kai BBQ.
  • Sunday 14th March 2pm – 4pm: Growing Point workshop, how to make a static pile compost. A fun and hands on workshop where you’ll learn how to utilise your garden trimmings and weeds to minimise waste and increase your soils fertility by feeding the soil food web.
  • Sunday 28th March from 4pm – 7.30pm: Neighbours Day Garden Party.
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Garden February News

Welcome to our first garden calendar in 2021 🌻📜

In February we have following sessions to offer:

  • Wednesday 17th 12.30pm – 1.30pm Growing Point workshop, hands on experience building a static pile compost
  • Sunday 28th 4pm – 6pm Working Bee then 6pm – 7.30pm Shared Kai Pizza (BYO base and toppings)

Reccurring events:

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Garden December News

Despite the weather threatening raining us out, we had a lovely working bee and shared kai pizza on Sunday. We braved the weather and the oven put through 27 pizzas, thanks to Countdown Pt Chev for the bases, cheese and sauce – please see photos below the calendar.

This week we have 3 sessions:

  • Wednesdays 9.30 -12.30 working bee
  • Fri 9.30-11.30 composting
  • Fri 5-7pm working bee with shared kai BBQ (last for 2020 weather dependent)
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Kai Tahi and Monthly Meetings 2021

At the end of a tumultuous year 2020 we came together for another kai tahi on 11 November at the Community Center in Point Chev. Again, the food was delicious with hot baked beans, couscous and herbs, a tasty spinach/asparagus salad, heaps of guacamole and fruit salad. After a yummy dinner and tidy up we retreated to our monthly meeting discussing our Mission Statement for Transition Town Point Chevalier which we would like to review on our last meeting of this year on 9 December – we hope you can make it!