October 1, 2020
Tree Planting on the Headland
The following article has been contributed by a young local:
“On a Sunday in August me and my dad walked to the Awawa track on Te Raekaihau by Princess Bay. We walked up to meet Brian, the person who invited everyone to this tree planting. I walked up to find the planting site while my dad helped Brian carry up more native plants.
I found the planting spot and started helping. My dad and I looked for free spaces to plant the new trees in the sun spot that had been cut by the Council ranger amongst the karo trees. My dad found another sun spot through some gorse and started planting up there. Brian’s dog, Whī, smelt a rat under the little abandoned shed I was sitting in, but she was tied up so she couldn’t go get it. We kept planting for a while. We planted: kawakawa, ngaio, tarata, taupata, harakeke, kowhai, mahoe and other natives. Brian let Fee go to search under and over the shed floor but unfortunately she couldn’t find the rat.
We got to have lots of yummy snacks made by Brian and the other volunteers. Brian told us about the health of the stream, why we planted the plants we did, about when Houghton Valley School was a dump and about the next tree plantings.
My dad and I walked home with Brian and Fee talking about so much stuff. It is exciting planting trees because there will be more birds in Houghton Valley living on the food they provide. Thanks to Brian and the other volunteers for all their mahi (and the cookies!).”
Isabel, 12, (student at SWIS, volunteer tree planter and cookie eater).
Seed to Feeds in Houghton Valley
Seeds to Feeds is happening again in Houghton Valley! We have a core team of people to help with growing food over the summer months, and cooking, hosting and coordinating a community dinner in early March. The team attended the offical Seeds to Feeds launch on September 21, along with 10 other keen suburb groups from around Wellington.
The local team is meeting this Saturday to start planning the growing, some related workshops and the event itself.
If you think you might like to grow some vegetables for the dinner, but are not sure how to go about it, two of the team members can come round to your place and set you up with an easy no dig or container garden in a sunny, sheltered spot. We will also have seeds provided by Seeds to Feeds (sponsored by Kings Seeds and Bunnings). If you would like some garden creation help or to be involved in any other way, please contact Sylvia, our team coordinator.
General Food Growing in Houghton Valley
Following on from the last Seeds to Feeds event and before the current one, there has been some discussion amongst the locals involved and some of the Seeds to Feeds organisers about how growing food in Houghton Valley could be more than just providing for an annual community dinner.
Houghton Bay Farm is a backyard enterprise, providing salad greens for Commonsense Organics. Our community gardens near the school and at Te Kawakawa Commons provide a modest supply of vegetables, and many individuals have their own garden beds. What if we could all combine to create a distributed urban farm, supplying vegetables to the local community?
Some discussions have included even bigger ideas, such as looking at using under-utilised Council land for growing vegetables on a larger scale, based on the Kaicycle model of an urban farm in Newtown. There has been an encouragingly positive response from WCC, but there are still many issues to sort out such as integrated recreation, soil quality, shelter and water drainage. But wouldn’t it be great to be able to buy a veggie bag filled with produce grown literally on your doorstep?
What do you think about these ideas? Things are at a very initial stage and we want to create a wider community discussion over the next few months. Something to talk about at Koha Coffee perhaps!
Houghton Valley School Fair
The school fair is coming up soon! This year it is on Sunday, 1 November from 10 am – 2 pm. As always, there will be delicious food, great entertainment, things to buy, and activities for all the family. The garden stall is run by the local community. If you are potting up seedlings, do them now so that they are reasonably established before the fair. More details in the next newsletter!
Koha Coffee is back in action: Andrew will host this Saturday, 3 October, from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm at the Community Hall. Come in and exchange news, make contacts, and discuss local events and issues. A warm welcome to new residents as well as the regulars.
Planning for Growth
WCC has two years to make changes to the District Plan, which sets planning controls and building guidelines. The first draft will identify target areas. Houghton Valley is not a targeted area, but we need to consider the parts of the city that we value and the changes that could happen.
This document gives some more information about the process. If you are interested in making a submission but need a sounding board for your ideas, drop into Koha Coffee on Saturday at the hall at 10.30 and Ken will provide as much information as he can.
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