NZTCA Franklin Branch July 2015 Newsletter

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER

In this edition...

Volume 36, Issue 3 - July, 2015

smallBlock Sunday Seminar

Forthcoming events...

Saturday 18th July - Bay of Plenty branch Plant Sale

Sat 25th July - Franklin Food Forest

Sat 25th July - Franklin Pruning W/S

Sun 23rd August - Franklin Grafting W/S

Sat 19th September - Franklin Food Forest planting day.

Conference2016 update

May Field day - a video

Bay of Plenty Branch Tree Sale

Saturday 18th July 10 am -12.30 pm @ A&P Showgrounds, Cnr SH2 and Major Street, Katikati.

2015 Franklin Pruning Workshop

Saturday 25th July, 1.00pm - Pukekohe High School orchard, Glasgow Road, Pukekohe A hands-on session limited only by the tools available to us, so please bring secateurs, loppers, and saws that are sharp and thoroughly cleaned to avoid any cross-contamination of wood.

Franklin Food Forest gathering

Saturday 25th July, 12 noon - Pukekohe High School orchard, Glasgow Road, Pukekohe.

Reminder All TCA members are welcome at other meetings so look at the web site to see Events coming up www.treecrops.org.nz

This 1-hour session immediately preceding the pruning workshop is to set out the project’s goals and schedule required to achieve them. We will make decisions on the existing orchard plants to be removed,/retained/relocated, and work through a list of suitable plants.

Articles appearing in this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part provided that credit is given to the Franklin Branch of the NZ Tree Crops Association and the Author.

Whilst we have a budget for plant purchases, we would love to hear from people who have trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials to donate. Details on the tools such as chainsaws, chippers, stump grinders and rotary hoes that could be available to help with the heavy lifting would be greatly appreciated.

TCA Branch Newsletters

Each area Newsletter Editor receives a copy of the other branches Newsletters by email. If you are interested in getting these forwarded to you, please let me know at john@WJohnAllen.nz

Welcome to New Members: Rosie Ashby, (Drury) Keith & Ann Barrington-Pace, (Pukekohe) Dennis & Carol Boucher, (Drury) Beverley Burmester & Dennis Burrow, (Pukekohe) Robert Mackenzie, (Waiuku) Linda McComb, (Pokeno) Talbot & Trish Murray, (Tuakau) Sallie & Trevor Savoury, (Drury) Grant Tetley, (Drury) Penny & Richard Twiss, (Tuakau)

2015 Franklin Grafting Workshop

Sunday 23rd August, 10:00 am start. At Ian Laing’s barn, Hunters Road, Patumahoe.

100 x MM106 rootstock are available at $5 each for grafting both eating and cider scion wood.

We also have 50 x BA29/BH quince/pear interstocked rootstock @ $8.00 each for pear and perry pear grafting.

Please phone (09 292 5051) or email (rjarkie@gmail.com) Raewyn to order.

These are available to members on a first come first served basis. Payment can be cash on the day or direct via Internet banking.

There will be various scion wood available, pear and apple, but please bring along any you have to share with others. If possible have a named variety. We supply grafting tape, wax and labels for you. You will need a sharp grafting or Stanley knife with a new blade.

This is your chance to learn to graft and to then take home and plant your new trees.

Interested in bud grafting stonefruits? We will have peach root stock available to a bud grafting workshop planned for February 2016. Mark-up your diaries now.

Franklin Food Forest Planting day

Saturday 19th September, 11 am - 2 pm - Pukekohe High School orchard, Glasgow Rd, Pukekohe. Spades, posthole borers, rakes needed as well as mulch, a bucket of garden worms (not Tiger worms) and lots of energy.

Franklin TreeCroppers

Franklin Food Forest a Tree Crops project

TCA Franklin newsletter

Letter from the Chair July 2015

Welcome to winter. In the next few weeks many of you will be pruning your fruit trees or maybe thinking about it. We have a pruning workshop coming up later in July so don’t forget to keep some scion wood if you want to graft rootstock at the grafting workshop being held in August. There is a very appropriate article in the latest TreeCropper, issue 82, page 48, on “How to harvest and store scion wood”.

Details of the grafting workshop are in this newsletter and if you wish to order rootstock, now is the time to do so.

2 July, 2015

Our 3rd Smallblock Sunday Seminar held on Sunday 21st June was another very successful day. We had four very interesting speakers, a wonderful raffle which consisted of items donated by Glenbrook Lavender, honey from the Franklin Bee Club, books from Lifestyle Block, plants from Seaflowers Nursery (Kate Jury). An auction of a full stalk of lady finger bananas, kindly donated by Pat Rowe, was won

by Lynda Hallinan. A very big thank you to all the people who made this day a success. A special mention and thank you to our major sponsor Customkit Buildings.

The Franklin Branch of NZTCA is certainly growing with membership now standing at 112, 8 being associate members from Auckland and Waikato. With such an increase in our membership I feel there must be some of you who can spare a little time and join the committee. It is not a huge task as we only have a meeting once every 2 months. We are a volunteer organisation and it is crucial that others step up to replace long-serving committee members as they step down.

Raewyn Jarkiewicz

The establishment of a community learning and demonstration food forest in Franklin is all go with some the initial planning now completed.

A series of work days at the orchard will see the food forest preparatory work completed in time for a planned planting day on September 19th.

Community Learning and Demonstration facility The prime objective of the Franklin Food Forest is to establish a community learning and demonstration facility. This will be in the Pukekohe High School’s existing 2,500 square metre orchard.

That is not a lot of area in which to create a food forest. But being a demonstration facility, we are establishing not one but four forests.

One, the smallest at 128 square metres will be for urban applications - a productive, low-maintenance home orchard.

The other three will each be 256 sq m and will explore the design elements needed to achieve: an economic use on lifestyle blocks; beneficial companions in commercial growing operations; and biologically diverse shelter belt plantings.

You can follow the project at https://facebook.com/groups/FranklinFoodForest/

Like to help?

We need some one who can take over the importan t secretar y’s r ole for the Franklin Bra nch.

It ’s not too on erous - six co mmittee meetings per year .

Call Raewyn

We will commence the project in the hour immediately preceding the pruning workshop (Saturday July 25th) with a gathering to set the scope of the project.

This will be followed up with a series of working bees to prepare for the planting day scheduled for Saturday 19th September.

Do come and join us on the 25th at 12 noon.

Field trip report

3rd annual smallBlock Sunday Seminar 21st June 2015

Franklin TreeCroppers TCA Franklin newsletter

After all, we are not growing food non-biologically using test tubes or 3-D printers to manufacture sirloin steaks using protein “inks”.

I should qualify that by adding we are not yet doing this commercially. The technology is available now but the manufacturing process is too expensive to make food products that can compete on price with paddock-grown sirloin. For sure, that economics limitation will change over time as happens with most industrial processes.

The smallBlock Sunday Seminar touched on what biological growing is and the tools available to make it work.

Our first presenter, Micky Cunningham from AgNZ, demonstrated that we have the knowledge around growing crops using organic principles.

Whether labelled organic, biological, natural, or ecological, the growing of food under the principles Micky talked about is gaining wider acceptance by farmers.

Our second presenter, Bill Sinclair from Pacific Biofert, showed us some of the organic tools and products that can be applied to replace manufactured chemicals in our food production system.

Third up was Lynda Hallinan, editor-at-large for NZ Gardener, who presented very practical ideas on growing a wide range of citrus crops. Organically grown of course.

Bill Madsen from local surveyors Madsen-Lawrie, completed the seminar series with some insights in to the pitfalls and opportunities of rural subdivision in the Franklin area.

A take-out from Bill’s presentation was the unintended consequence of councils pushing for higher thresholds to permit rural subdivisions, actually reducing rural productivity and reducing the quality of food grown locally. It is clear that small scale organic farmers are more productive than large scale industrialised farms.

A biological approach to growing our food that replaces existing industrial agricultural methods offers multiple benefits. The environment will benefit from increased biodiversity and reduced use of poisoning ‘cides’. We will benefit from both improved food quality and value.

John Allen

July, 2015

It seems self evident to label the growing of food as a biological process, but what does biological growing actually mean?

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Biological growing was part of the presentations of last months Customkit Buildings’ smallBlock Sunday Seminar held at the Puni School hall.

Franklin TreeCroppers TCA Franklin newsletter

Field trip report

The Permaculture Orchard Beyond Organics Video screening 24th May 2015

The back room at Pukekohe’s Town Mouse café was full for this screening of Stefan Sobkowiak’s video.

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His video is full of practical tips with one of them epitomised by this graphic demonstration on training and pruning. To find out more about these questions, come to our pruning workshop on 25th July at the Pukekohe High School orchard.

The nearly 2-hour video starts with some permaculture principles: caring for the earth; caring for the people; sharing the surplus.

Divided in to seven chapters, Stefan covers Choosing your site (timeline @ 8:00 minutes) with a look at drainage and the depth of the water table.

Chapter 2 is about designing the orchard (@ 13:08) and covers NAP (Nitrogen Apple Plum...) and supermarket rows.

July, 2015

Do you want a tree?

Chapter 3 explores the planting and grafting of trees (@ 23:10) including training to limit the spread of non-dwarfing root stock.

Chapter 4 is about mulching for success (@ 52:00). Plastic mulch anyone?

Or do you want a fruit tree?

In chapter 5, Stefan brings in the permaculture aspect of biodiversity through shrubs and herbs (@1:03:40) or as I see it, a food forest applied to a commercial operation (one of the Franklin Food Forest areas).

Chapter 6 looks at working with your allies (@ 1:19:00) - who remembers the 60’s classic “let me tell you about the birds and the bees...”?

Finally, chapter 7 is about maintaining your investment and looks at training and pruning.

Overall, this video was full of useful tips for those starting out in permaculture orchards and is highly recommended.

The video is available for down load in full HD from http://www. permacultureorchard.com/product/the-permaculture-orchardbeyond-organic-digital-download-english/ .

Enjoy, and no I do not get a commission from sales John Allen

Franklin TreeCroppers Franklin: Fertility...Food...Future More of our speakers have confirmed their attendance and this issue, we introduce Andrew Boylan plus Robert and Robyn Guyton.

Dates: Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th April 2016 Venue: Wesley College, Pukekohe Theme: Franklin: Fertility...Food...Future

5 July, 2015

Our focus for Conference2016 is on Franklin and there are a number of local innovators being featured either as speakers or in field trips. So if you know of a local speaker with something to say around our conference theme, please contact Heather Douglas.

The conference web site is live at http://TreecropsConference.nz and will be open for bookings from August 15th.

Our goal is for 200 delegates from around the country. Some of our visitors will stay at the Wesley College halls of residence and some in local motels.

We would also like to offer personal hosting of visitors so if you are happy to billet someone (Thursday to Sunday/Monday), please let us know (email: franklin@treecrops.org.nz).

Known as Southland’s “food forest” couple, permaculturalists Robert and Robyn Guyton had their Riverton forest garden featured in The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia online publication last year.

They are thrilled to be recognised internationally for their work and really happy to see a growing following of people interested in permaculture and in food forests across the globe.

Andrew Boylan was made redundant from his job in Drury in 1996 and shifted to Tauranga with Fiona and 3 children, aged 5 to 5 weeks old, to manage Tharfield Nursery. In 1997 he and Fiona bought Tharfield and in 2000 released incredible edibles® and began specialising in fruiting plants.

They now run 2 nurseries and supply commercial growers and retail garden centres. They specialise in berryfruit, blueberries, feijoas and many of the more unusual plants like cherimoyas, casimiroas and Japanese raisins.

Their six hectares of gardens provides a haven for bird life, bees and visitors to wander through and gives them lots of experience in grafting, pruning and seed raising.

Andrew Boylan Tharfield Nursery Ltd http://www.tharfield.co.nz/

TCA Franklin newsletter

Conference 2016 Organising committee report

Food forests are more commonly developed in tropical areas rather than temperate climates such as Southland’s.

In combining food foresting with permaculture, which is the design and maintenance of a multi-layered garden focused on producing food in a sustainable way, Robyn and Robert have a great perspective for us to reflect on.

The first tree was planted in their garden 23 years ago, making their forest garden a well-established one compared to others around the world.

So their experience in both the design and maintenance of a working food forest is invaluable to us as we seek to develop the Franklin Food Forest and it is this practical experience that they will talk to.

Franklin TreeCroppers

Field Day driving directions.

TCA Franklin newsletter

Franklin Branch Committee Chair Raewyn Jarkiewicz 09 292 5051 Email rjarkie@gmail.com Hon Secretary franklin@treecrops.org.nz vacant - want to help? Contact Raewyn.

Hon Treasurer Ian Laing Ph 09 236 3796

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Vice Chair Heather Douglas Ph 09 232 1103 Email heather.douglas12@gmail.com

July, 2015

Newsletter Editor John Allen Ph 09 238 1357 Email John@WJohnAllen.nz Membership Coordinator Stephanie Coles 09 236 3554 rosscoles@xtra.co.nz Field Day Convener: Stephanie Coles 09 236 3554 rosscoles@xtra.co.nz

The date on your NZTCA newsletter label shows the renewal date of your membership.

To log on to the membership section of the web site http://treecrops.org.nz, you will need your membership number which is also given on the newsletter label.

Birds are an essential component of the permaculture orchard

SAFETY DECLARATION. For the purpose of Field Days, the properties we visit are designated as work places. As there are multiple hazards, please take particular care.

Parents are responsible for their children.

A Field day at your property?

This can be useful if you have something you would like to show us, some problem that we can discuss and help with, or you need ideas of what to plant.

Please have a chat with someone on the committee or just let us know that you would like us to include your place, and the best time of year for you.

Fr a n k l i n T r ee C rop p ers Not ic e s Buy Se ll & Swap

Franklin TreeCroppers To ad ve rt is eh C o n ta ct H ea er e, fr ee to m em b er s, th er D o u g la s at H ea th er @ co ld o u co ld o u g .c o

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TCA Franklin newsletter

Used food-g rade 20 litre buckets - $5 contact Hea each ther at H ea th er @

7 July, 2015

on RadioNZ Listen to Stefan Sobkowiak’s interview This is a . ram National’s Saturday morning prog . very interesting 34 minutes

Member web sites: Do you have a Web site that we can put a link to on the Newsletter? Please email us and we can add it on the next Newsletter. Include a short note on what the web site is about.

RuralConnect.org.nz Assisting rural people and businesses in the broadband society

In this edition...

Report on May and June field days

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS

Advice of Field Days in July, August, September

FRANKLIN BRANCH

Snippets from other Branch’s newsletters Franklin Food Forest 2016 NZTCA Conference organising committee

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER Secretary: P O Box 1200, Pukekohe 2340