Yesterday was a positive day. Some of the Nelson Peak Oil Study and Action Group and I had a garden tour and working bee organised. The idea was to spend our Saturday going from one backyard garden to the next. I've found that no matter how experienced the gardener theres always something to be learnt by snooping around someone elses garden.
Saturday morning saw steady rain in Nelson, but a handful of hardy souls decided to carry on regardless. 5 people turned up at my place (which was the first stop on the tour) at around 11pm. Included in that number was Ted (the kite shop guy), Art (the worm farm guy), and three visitors to NZ, all the way from LA, USA. Art had very kindly brought me a 'starter kit' for my worm farm. We loaded up the old bathtub with old newspaper, compost, and food scraps, then released a big pile of Art's 'extended family', tiger worms, who went to work immediately making my organic fertilizer.
We then took a tour of my garden 'so far', then remulched the backyard again. For this we used the 'no-dig' method again. This involves laying down old cardboard boxes, as biogegradble weed mat, then a layer of peastraw. This is the second time this area has had this treatment and the soil is already much improved. The earth is much softer, and has much more life in it. By spring it should be more than ready for planting.
We did all the above in the steady rain, which made the hot vegetable soup I had made for lunch go down even better. After lunch we went to Teds place, where we took a tour of a very 'active' permaculture garden, and tackled a few little jobs for him. Thankfully the rain stopped while we were there. Then it was on to Annes place, a few blocks away, where we saw a little section crammed with all sorts of edible plants, removed an old gatepost, pruned a grape vine, and tried some homemade dandilion tea.
I got home just after dark feeling really good about how I had spent my day.
9:15:37 AM 
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