June 25, 2024
Look to stars, then look to compost
While some people are thinking of what to put on their Matariki table, a Tolaga Bay gardener is looking at getting the ingredients for the next fest into the gound.
Adrian Sutherland from Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ngāti Porou runs a popular One Minute Gardening Facebook page to encorage peole to grow food for their whanau.
Now the shortest day is over, gardeners are preparing their beds, including getting compost and other nutrients into the soil.
“The best thing to do is care for the whenua, put a bit of nutrients, put a bit of love back into it. It could be as simple as taking the kids around with some big bags and collecting brown leaves and just laying those over the garden because once the warm weather comes it will be all on and things will grow a lot easier,” Mr Sutherland says.
He makes use of the maramataka lunar calendar, but every region will have its own unique methods of getting the best from the soil.