Garden, foraging, preserving.
by Brie Sherow
Photos Jade Cavalcante
I first met Fiona Stewart when she and her business partner Bailey Perryman approached me with their idea for an inner-city farm situated on a lot left vacant by earthquake demolition. The organisation that I was working for at the time, Life in Vacant Spaces (LIVS), manages private property on a rolling monthly basis while the landowners work through their future plans. Full article “Cultivate Christchurch”
Food for Soil, Bugs, Plants, Humans.
The clay seed ball has been used for thousands of years as an effective tool and technique for the growing of agricultural crops and re-greening large areas of land. In recent times, they have been popularised through the Guerrilla Gardening movement. Full article “Clay seed balls – à la seed truffles”
By Lydia Veltman
A dyed-in-the-wool maker and an artsy type by trade, Jess Hemmings has a magpie’s eye for lost things. “It’s so ridiculous,” she says, “but I always come home from places with all this stuff in my pockets.” Full article “Object”
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
— Mexican Proverb Full article “Saving Seed”
Last weekend ‘for the love of bees’, a city bee collaboration / social sculpture in Auckland put into action their mission to turn Auckland into “a biologically robust ecosystem” and the safest city in the world for bees. Full article “for the love of bees – biking bee”
by @thenextmeal – Will Bowman and Jane Lyons
We’ve always had a tangy-tongued approach to food, constantly craving the power of sour that pickles and ferments can bring. It’s only recently on our own bacteria-driven journey that we’ve developed a new appreciation for what can be done with some salt, water, vinegar and a bunch of beautiful produce. Full article “Preserving the proceeds of summer”
“The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.”
— anonymous protest poem from the 17th century.
Daniel Kamp makes beautifully designed everyday objects, designed with the explicit intent that they will last and be so beautiful that you’ll never want to let them go.
Photography by Fraser Chatham
Viv from Breakbread recently put a call out on social media for volunteers to help Julie Heffernan break ground on an inspiring new organic garden in West Auckland. With a gift of land she is able to continue the work she did with and for women at Kelmarna Gardens. She explains in her own words below.
Public Share is a collective of six New Zealand artists working together to engage in ideas of production, sharing and exchange. Public Share make objects with site specific clay which they then share in events designed to punctuate the day with pause, reflection and conversation. Full article “Public Share”
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
Full article “Guerrilla Gardening”
by Laura Verner
Illustrations: Erin Ellis
Many useful and nutritious plants growing around us are treated as botanical outcasts. Weeds are characteristically fast-growing, and usually in areas people don’t want them. But their abundance and resilience means we are growing free food without even trying. Thinking of weeds differently opens up a new world of plants that are edible and/or medicinal. Full article “Eat Your Weeds”
I’m still learning in the garden. I guess even the most experienced gardener will always be learning but I wouldn’t call myself an experienced gardener, rather a slightly obsessive advanced amateur. Full article “Urban Garden Hacks”
“I don’t want to waste the waste” Full article “HARVESTED”