Working Bees

Food Forest Garden working bee

We’ll be at the Community Garden and Food Forest this Saturday:

Date: Saturday 12 June 2021, 10 am to 12 noon (ical)
Place: Food Forest Garden, Muri Reserve (map)

Feel free to come along as we’ll be working on the berry area and usual maintenance, plus the usual cups of tea from the thermette. If available, you can bring gloves and hand tools, and green matter for the compost bins (e.g. veg scraps). We now have two regular mornings in the garden:

  • 2nd Saturday of the month
  • Last Wednesday of the month

We look forward to catching up with you soon,
Pukerua Bay Community Garden & Food Forest members

Food Forest Garden working bee Read More »

Taupo Swamp volunteer planting and weeding day

Friends of Taupo Swamp & Catchment need your help – even an hour will make a difference! They are ready to go to get another 1800 wetland plants into the ground this season, having raised the money and ordered the plants from local nurseries. Stage two of the Taupo Swamp Wetland Restoration starts this Saturday, June 6.

When: 9am, Saturday, 6 June 2020 (ics, Facebook)
Where: Taupo Swamp, via Ulric Street, Plimmerton (map)

Work this weekend will be continuing to weed last year’s planting (some trees are now over 2 metres tall) and preparing the ground for the upcoming planting season. Gloves, gear and a morning snack can be provided thanks to Roger at Plimmerton Deli. Want to get in touch? Contact the organisers at tauposwamp@gmail.com or +64 21 263 9844 (?).

Taupo Swamp volunteer planting and weeding day Read More »

Waikākāriki Wetland Weed Whackers Working Bee

Now we’re in Level 2, if you’d like to help Ngā Ururoa Kāpiti Project with their first working bee clearing weeds in the Waikākāriki Wetland, please let Andy McKay know by text or email. Do not just show up on the day, please read the details below around Level 2 restrictions.

Sunday 17 May 2020 at 9am – 11 am (ical)
South end of Escarpment access track (not the Escarpment Track itself), Paekākāriki

Walk along the Southern end of the access track to the Paekākāriki Escarpment Track to the meeting spot (not the actual Escarpment Track!) The exact area is shown in the map:

Meeting place, on the Escarpment Access Track, Paekākāriki (map)

During Alert Level 2 things will have to work differently. There is a limit of 10 people, so do not just show up, please RSVP to Andy McKay by text or email first. Other things to be aware of:

  • Minimise the spread through personal hand hygiene, gloves and other personal protection equipment
  • No sharing of equipment or tools
  • Physical distancing of 1m will be maintained
  • No sharing of food, drinks or cutlery
  • It is important anyone feeling unwell stays home
  • Shorter time frame 9am-11am to fit to 2 hour limit on gatherings

If you can only make it for a short time that’s totally fine, drop by at any time, just text before hand!

Waikākāriki Wetland Weed Whackers Working Bee Read More »

Call for Litter Survey helpers, March 2020

Are you interested in being a part of the Litter Monitoring survey here in Pukerua Bay? This is a Citizen Science project. It’s a bit different from a beach clean up in that we pick up litter in the same area each time, classify it, weigh it or count it and then add the data to the nationwide project. The site is already chosen, and a few surveys have already been run, in June 2019 and December 2019. It’s not difficult terrain, and it is done four times a year. There is training for this project and our first survey will be in early March. See litterintelligence.org for more information, and if you’re keen to participate, please contact Gillian Candler with the form below.

Call for Litter Survey helpers, March 2020 Read More »

Beach clean-up

Our thanks again to Sustainable Coastlines and a group of staff from ANZ who got together today to give a bit of love to our beautiful stretch of coastline between Pukerua Bay and Hongoeka Bay. Together they managed to remove about 1000 litres (50 rubbish bags!) of litter from the coastline, including a 30 metre long piece of PVC pipe.

Beach clean-up Read More »

Community Garden and Food Forest progress

Last Friday we had a couple of hours of working at the gardens – weeding, cutting grass and a bit of planning. I think 8 of us were there – sorry we didn’t get you all on the photos. This week activity is planned for Monday from around 4pm – everyone is welcome to come along and join in / have a chat about what we are doing. Things to do this week include planting Comfrey and other support plants around the trees to help them with fixing minerals, nitrogen etc. It would be great if we could do something together every week – so message your email if you would like to be put on the emailing list – and let us know if you would like to ‘take ownership’ for one week or more – to make sure things keep moving ahead.

Community Garden and Food Forest progress Read More »

Summit Club Adventures Beach Cleanup

Beach Cleanup at Pukerua Bay: come and help clean up our amazing stretch of coastline!

10 am – 2 pm, Saturday  24 November 2018 (ical)
Pukerua Bay Beach car park (map)

This event is organised by Kathmandu and Sustainable Coastlines, and they would like you to sign up as a volunteer here if you wish to participate.

What to bring:

  • Sturdy, closed-toe shoes that you don’t mind getting a bit muddy. This is critical for health & safety: those not wearing closed-toe shoes will not be able to participate.
  • Warm and waterproof clothes. At least one warm top layer and a rain jacket.
  • Sun hat and sunscreen.
  • Reusable water bottle (filled up and ready to go)
  • Your old or unused mobile phone to recycle. As a charity partner of the RE:MOBILE phone recycling scheme, donating your old mobile helps us raise critical funds for freshwater restoration.
  • A camera (optional). We would love to see your event photos! If you use Instagram, use the tags #loveyourwater, @kathmandugear and @sustainablecoastlines to let the world know.

Summit Club Adventures Beach Cleanup Read More »

Community garden progressing well

It’s been a busy month in the community garden — we’ve had three working bees and made a lot of progress.

Today we finished the first phase of planting in the garden for this year. So far, we have:

  • planted feijoa trees between part of the garden and the neighbours as a screen that will also produce delicious fruit
  • planted all the fruit trees — apples, pears, nashis and plums
  • planted the support trees around the fruit trees to provide protection and to help fix nitrogen in the soil for plant growth
  • mulched around all the trees to keep down weeds and help the soil retain water over the driest part of the year.

We still have to put in some wind breaks by the trees to protect them from the wind that comes from the northwest, which can be pretty strong at times. Of course, we’ll need to keep the grass down, but we’ve got a scythe and some keen users so we can do it without disturbing the neighbours with noisy machinery. Spring and summer will be busy with making sure the trees are OK, and well watered during the dry season. Fortunately, the council installed a tap for us when they built the access onto the site, so we have a permanent and reliable water supply.

We also have to start planting the smaller support plants, which will help accumulate minerals for the trees and build up the soil health, and we’d also like to get some berry plants in there, too. We’re trying to follow permaculture principles to create an ecosystem that has a wide range of plants, soil biota and insects that all support each other.

It looks like we have got more funding from Porirua City Council under their Village Planning programme again this year, so we’ll be able to do more planting over the next 12 months. We’ll look at establishing a different range of plants from the pipfruit trees we’ve planted so far — perhaps more stone fruit, or maybe some citrus. We can’t wait!

Community garden progressing well Read More »