Broke Gardening

A variation on our Beginner Gardening workshops. This is aimed at those without any (or much) gardening experience. A how-to on creating vegetable garden beds and (renter friendly) container gardening from scratch with as little money as possible, using easily found free and cheap resources. We will also cover easy to grow winter edibles, pest control methods and free and cheap fertilizers. 

Kids welcome with their caregivers.

Hot drinks and afternoon tea provided.

Registrations HERE

 

The RECAP AGM 2025

It's that time again: The RECAP Annual General Meeting for 2025 takes place on Wednesday June 11th, 7pm-9pm at the Village Valley Centre, 21 Guildford street, Ashhurst.

Everyone is welcome.

There will be a recap (pun intended) on our activities over the past year, and we will be electing our board for the year ahead.

A light supper will be provided.

We would appreciate an RSVP for catering purposes (email: chris@recap.org.nz)

Ngā mihi maioha

Orchard Management and Tool Care with Phil Stevens of Slow Farm

Phil will start by discussing ways of managing orchards that don’t involve mowing or putting up with rank grass: 

  • planting guilds (syntropic agroforestry style)
  • scything, which he’ll demonstrate
  • grazing livestock (including birds)

Then we talk about nutrition. Get an introduction to biochar on a backyard scale, using fruit tree prunings and a simply converted 44-gallon drum. Learn how to make charcoal, simple ways to activate it (turning it into biochar), how to use it when planting and how to add it to existing orchards. Then we discuss liquid fertilisers.

After lunch, we focus on maintaining pruning tools, specifically secateurs and loppers. Bring a pair of either with you and learn about correct use and how to care for them, including how to disinfect and when that's required. We’ll get hands-on with seasonal maintenance: Phil will demonstrate how to disassemble, clean and sharpen.

Diamond files will be available for purchase for those who wish to take one home. Order of topics may change depending on weather (we’ll be under cover while working on pruning tools).

BYO lunch and appropriate wet weather gear. Tea and coffee provided.

 

Sunday 15 June | 10am-2.30pm | Ashhurst, Manawatū

Limited numbers. Registration required. $25 pp or $35 for two from the same household.

Current NZ Tree Crops registered financial members have advance access to register. Numbers are capped at 30 and we expect this event will quickly fill up so be sure to register ASAP.

Registrations can be made HERE

RECAP news April/May

Kia ora koutou

A very quick update from RECAP this month.

New workshop alert!

Broke Gardening. A variation on our Beginner Gardening workshops. This is aimed at those without any (or much) gardening experience. A how-to on creating vegetable garden beds and (renter friendly) container gardening from scratch with as little money as possible; using easily found free and cheap resources. We will also cover easy to grow winter edibles, pest control methods and free and cheap fertilizers. Kids are welcome with their caregivers. Hot drinks and afternoon tea provided. $10 waged $5 unwaged and students. Please register at recap.org.nz

 

The RECAP AGM rolls back around on Wednesday June 11th 7pm at the Village Valley Centre (centennial room). All are welcome. Come see what we’ve been up to for the past year and what our plans are for the next year. If you’d like to get involved this is a great way to meet the board and other volunteers.

 

Ngā mihi nui to the kids that replanted the Ashhurst Library garden beds (around the back of the building) during the school holidays. It was a pretty rough, windy day and you all powered through to get the winter veg in the ground. Together we planted silverbeet, perpetual spinach, lettuces, spring onions, flat and curly parsley and celery. This garden is free for the public to pick from, so next time you need a handful of greens for dinner swing by.

 

Keep your eye on our socials and website as we’re working on another Preserving Workshop with the wonderful Supergans - looking like July at this stage

 

As always - a huge ngā mihi to all of the regular and casual volunteers who make up RECAP. The time and energy you give means we can maintain the projects and services that help make our community a wonderful place to be.

 

Photo from the April Crop Swap

The RECAP Seed Library

We're about to do a big restock of the Seed Library so we thought we'd do up a quick guide. Check in at the Ashhurst Library (where the Seed Library station is located) as we have a whole lot of fresh, locally harvested seeds for your Autumn/Winter gardens.

The RECAP Crop Swap

The RECAP Crop Swap continues in 2025 on the first Saturday of each month. Join us at the Ashhurst Community Library 11am-1pm. For those unfamiliar with the Crop Swap - this is an open sharing event where anyone can give or take items for free (‘swap’ is a bit of a misnomer as you don’t need to exchange things). Things we welcome at the Crop Swap: excess produce/fruit, seedlings, seeds, home baking, preserves, small gardening items, cuttings, small trees, plants, fertilizers (e.g. worm wee), fresh herbs e.t.c e.t.c. There’s always a lot of great kōrero around gardening topics as well. It's a great way to meet others in the community.

This year the Crop Swap poster doubles as a colouring in competition for local tamariki: pick up a copy at the Ashhurst Library, colour it in and we'd like you to name as many of the vegetables, fruits, herbs and fungi that you recognize on the back (and don't forget your name and contact details!). Drop it off to the Crop Swap and be in to win a prize pack containing seasonal seeds, some pots and growing medium for your seeds and a surprise or two. We will be running this all year.

RECAP news February/March 2025

Kia ora koutou from RECAP

An update on our projects, services and upcoming activities: 

Crop Swap - The RECAP Crop Swap continues in 2025 on the first Saturday of each month. Join us at the Ashhurst Community Library 11am-1pm. The first one for the year is this Saturday March 1st. For those unfamiliar with the Crop Swap - this is an open sharing event where anyone can give or take items for free (‘swap’ is a bit of a misnomer as you don’t need to exchange things). Things we welcome at the Crop Swap: excess produce/fruit, seedlings, seeds, home baking, preserves, small gardening items, cuttings, small trees, plants, fertilizers (e.g. worm wee), fresh herbs e.t.c e.t.c. There’s always a lot of great kōrero around gardening topics as well. It's a great way to meet others in the community. 

Summer Pruning - Our always-popular pruning workshop is happening on Saturday March 1st from 1pm at the Olsson Community Orchard in Ashhurst. Learn by doing under the tutelage of two knowledgeable instructors. This workshop is free, but we appreciate koha if you are able. Registrations are a must and can be made at  recap.org.nz.

Volunteer Library Gardening happens most weeks led by our wonderful deputy chairperson Suzanne. She updates facebook/Ashhurst Chat each week, so if you’re keen to get involved you can get in touch there or email: schelius@hotmail.com. Everyone - all levels of experience and ability - welcome. Come along as a one-off or as a regular.

Ashhurst School Garden Club The kids are back in the garden with Mondays for juniors and Thursdays for seniors. If your tamariki are keen on garden club (and you wish to keep their uniform shirts clean) please feel free to pack an old tee shirt - we do tend to get a bit muddy!

The Ashhurst Sharing Shelf - has a new facebook group you can join HERE. We are closing down the current facebook page as pages do not allow anyone outside of an admin to post. Groups are open so anyone can post what they've shared on the shelf. For those unfamiliar - the Ashhurst Sharing Shelf is a pātaka kai run by RECAP situated in the Ashhurst Library garden on Bamfield street.

UPDATED COMMUNITY KAI INFORMATION for 2025

We provide free rescued kai to people in the Ashhurst/Pohangina area each Tuesday from 3:15-4:15 from the back room of the Ashhurst Library.

If the weather is good - please queue outside, if it is raining you are able to queue inside the library.

Depending on donations, some weeks we are able to serve anyone who comes no questions asked. On weeks where donations are low we need to see a current community services card to access kai. We post on facebook/RECAP Community Kai at approximately 2:30 pm Tuesday to let you know.

You are able to come through and pick up what you need from what has been donated that week. Some items have limits so please read the signage.

Unfortunately we can no longer set aside bags for a later pick up. And only one bag per whānau, please. We can also no longer offer more than one bag for those picking up on behalf.

Kids and teenagers are not allowed to pick up kai unless a parent or caregiver has contacted us (you only need to do this once and we will note their name down) and on the weeks where a community services card is needed you will need to send a photo of this. Email: chris@recap.org.nz.

Please note that as this is rescued kai - many of the items will be past their best before date. We dispose of any items that we deem unfit for human consumption, but many items past best before are still good to eat. Please note, however, that this is at your own risk. Please use your eyes, nose and common sense if you are unsure. Please also note that use by dates are stricter than best before dates, so if an item says 'use by' this will need to be consumed asap. We will endeavor to let you know if items have been previously frozen or can be frozen.

Please be respectful of everyone else collecting kai and our volunteers. And please be honest when taking kai and do not exceed any limits that are on the signs - we are trying to be as fair in the distribution of this kai as possible.

Ngā mihi nui to our donors and volunteers, without whom we could not provide this service.

Chris Love

RECAP coordinator

Join us on facebook or instagram

(Image from the Ashhurst School Garden)

 

 

 

 

 

Our projects, services and green spaces.

We recently created this info sheet collating our various endevours and it's great to see the community impact our group has.

Volunteers are RECAP and it is an honor to work in and alongside our community to improve the quality of life for both humans and our local environment in our lovely little corner of the world.

Ngā mihi nui to everyone who contributes, in big ways and small. 

 

The RECAP Permaculture Garden Tour 2024

The RECAP Permaculture Garden Tour is back! We run this event once every two years and our date for 2024 is Saturday October 26th 10am-4pm.

Registrations are open now and can be made HERE. The cost is $25 per person, with free entry for those 12 and under. 

This is an opportunity to learn more about RECAP projects (The Ashhurst Community Garden, Olsson Community Orchard, McCrae’s Bush and our new māra rongoā) and visit a wide range of private properties and gardens. Enjoy a self guided tour around locations in Ashhurst and the Pohangina valley with access to discounts at local eateries and businesses.

This is our main fundraising event with all proceeds assisting our community projects, services and education. Ngā mihi nui for your support.

 

 

Permaculture principles:

Observe and interact.

Catch and store energy.

Obtain a yield.

Apply self-regulation & accept feedback.

Use & value renewable resources & services

Produce no waste.

Design from patterns to details.

Integrate rather than segregate.

Use small and slow solutions.

Use and value diversity.

Use edges & value the marginal.

Creatively use and respond to change.

 

RECAP news ~ June/July

Kia ora koutou from RECAP

Ngā mihi to those who attended our AGM and haere mai to new board member Kira Paul.

A note from the RECAP Seed Library:

We provide as much information as possible on the label regarding seed source, expiry e.t.c but as we receive seeds from multiple places (often anonymously) we sometimes don’t have a lot to pass on. As such, if you pick up seeds with little info we can’t always vouch for their viability. We’d recommend a simple germination test for these seeds: place some of the seeds between a moist paper towel, put in a ziplock bag and leave somewhere warm for up to two weeks. This should give you an indication of how many seeds you can expect to germinate before you put them in the soil. 

Also - as we have a mix of hybrid, commercially produced and open pollinated seed collected from people’s gardens, please check the info as you can not go on to collect seeds from plants grown from hybrid stock. We will make sure this info is provided on the labels where possible. We will also be transitioning into a different colour label for those extra special seeds that are grown and collected locally.

We are always looking for donated seeds - especially those grown in our area as these are acclimated to our conditions. They can be dropped off to the Seed Library station, within the Ashhurst Library. When donating, we’d love to know what they are, when they were harvested and where. Ngā mihi.

 

Volunteer Library Gardening happens most weeks led by our wonderful deputy chairperson Suzanne. She updates facebook/Ashhurst Chat each week, so if you’re keen to get involved you can get in touch there or email: schelius@hotmail.com. Everyone - all levels of experience and ability - welcome. Come along as a one-off or as a regular.

 

The RECAP Crop Swap - happens on the first Saturday of every month, 11am-1pm at the Ashhurst Library. This is a sharing event where people can give and take freely with no cost. It’s always a friendly group that gathers, with helpful kōrero on a variety of gardening related topics. 

Last month we thanked our wonderful Community Kai volunteers and donors. RECAP is by and for our community, and would not exist without the many volunteers who give their time, energy, skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to RECAP projects and events. In honour of Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu – National Volunteer Week (June 16-22) we’d like to say ngā mihi to the rest of our incredible current volunteers:

McCrae’s bush: Julie Doyle, Phillip Prujean, Margie Rogers (and former volunteers: Lance Fitness, Dianne McConnel and Peter Todd).

Māra Rongoā: Damian McGregor

Ashhurst Community Library Garden: Sue Pegrume, Jill Stewart, Amaya Piahana, Lucille Floyd and Susan

Phil Stevens

Hayden Smith

Ayla Bennett 

And our current board: Harvey Jones (chairperson) Anne Van-Brunt (treasurer) Suzanne Chelius (deputy chairperson) Aaron Roberts, Ellen Wansbrough, Jo Smith, Kira Paul.

In the 2023-2024 financial year, there were a total of 1399 volunteer hours donated in the following areas: 

Ashhurst Library Community Garden: 142 hours

Olsson Community Orchard: 82 hours

McCrae’s Bush: 232 hours       

Governance/meetings/administration: 151.5 hours                                             

Events (workshops e.t.c): 39 hours                                   

Trapping: 43 hours                                         

The Seed Library: 26.5 hours

RECAP Community Kai: 593.5 hours

 

Incredible stuff, team.

Noho ora mai

Chris Love

RECAP coordinator

 

 

 

 

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