This show first broadcast on 5th August 2014. Click here to listen to the podcast: GREEN TEA AUGUST 2014 SoundCloud

Avant Gardener Hannah Zwartz is our regular gardening expert on the show, but this month she takes front seat in my feature interview. Freshly returned from her 8 week trip to San Francisco, Cuba, and Mexico. Hannah started her tour attending a weeklong course in Berkeley at the Edible Schoolyard that was set up by Alice Waters, chef, author, and proprietor of the famous Chez Panisse. At the school Waters has instituted a one-acre garden, an adjacent kitchen-classroom, and an “eco-gastronomic” curriculum!

Hannah also travelled to Alemany Farm, a city funded, community run urban orchard, vineyard, and farm which was set up after the 1989 San Francisco earthquakes. From there she went on to see many smaller community garden plots, and another rooftop community garden in Tenderloin with beehives. And finally in Cuba, Hannah got immersed in the community gardening culture that permeates the streets of Havana and pops up in empty lots all around the city. She said the highlight of the whole trip was her visit to the Organoponico Vivero Alamar which sounds like an absolutely incredible experience, certainly their website is well worth a look at. Hannah is hoping to bring some of her newly inspired ideas to Paekakariki.

I have an interesting conversation with Anna Butterfield founder of Seedy Sundays, and Love Plant Life, about her latest endeavor; the Kapiti Seed Bank. Anna is both passionate and knowledgable about all things seeds and edible! We hear stories of seeds, growing stock, and a gifted trove of beans with more than just a tale of genetic heritage. The collection includes beans with such beautiful names as Tarahumara Dark Stars, Indian Hopi Beans, and Cherokee Trail of Tears which each come with incredible traditions and stories from the tribes whence they came.

A colourful selection of precious heirloom beans from the Kapiti Seed Bank.

Tina Pope is August’s organic gardening expert and talks compost-making in preparation for the coming spring. Time to copper-spray stonefruit trees, we hear of an upcoming fruit tree pruning workshop, early seed sowing, nasty psyilid bugs, frost protection, ‘hot lovers!’, companion plants, and more.

Brassicas and companion planting this month with gardening expert Tina Pope

The August playlist includes: Joni Mitchell‘s Big Yellow Taxi from 1970.

Title theme: Mardi Gras BB , ‘Down Down Down’.