Residents in Aotearoa

I've decided on a different sort of topic for my post today.  I think it's rather interesting but the pictures won't be as beautiful as they sometimes are. Here's the explanation.   

I had gone back to our old neighborhood on Harvest Drive to get a haircut several days ago from a guy who has a shop in his home.  I've been going to Peter for many years for my trims and see no reason to change, just because we now live where we do. It's only about a 15 minute bus ride to his place from the main bus stop across from the Court House in Henderson.    

Anyway, as I was waiting for the bus to arrive for my homeward trip, I spotted a new sort of recycling bin in front of the houses along the street.  It was collection day and as I watched, the truck came along to pick up the waste. I was so impressed that I spoke briefly to the truck driver. More about this sort of recycling toward the end of the post. It was because of this event that I decided to do a post about recycling at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village.  

I thought that I would start by showing you the range of efforts here. Waitakere Gardens has earned a couple of prestigious environmental awards in the past and continues to lead the other retirement communities in the Auckland area. Several times, representatives from other villages have toured ours and were showed what has been accomplished.   

I think that you can read that both awards were presented to the Residents Group. I want to stress that it was the residents who have done most of the work in building the gardens here and organizing the recycling plans. The management has assisted, and supported the residents to a tremendous degree every step along the way, but it was a group of residents who had the vision and spearheaded the work.  

Let's take a look around the village.  

This is the closest recycling room to our apartment. 

This sort of recycling only represents the tip of the iceberg here. What I really want to show you are the other efforts.

Let's start here, with this innocuous little container.  You'll find them all over the village. It is in these containers that many residents deposit their vegetable scraps for our worm farm. Yes, we have a worm farm, and worms don't like things like onions, so their food is kept separate from the other kitchen scraps that are destined for the compost bins.  

Some people bring their containers of worm food down to the farm themselves, but we also have a team of volunteers who come around twice a week and empty the worm farm containers for those residents who are less mobile.    

Here we are approaching the worm farm. You'll notice that no area of land in the gardens is wasted. Those are pansies planted to the side of it. Behind the worm farm are cabbages and a few broccoli. Beyond the farm you an see the upper end of the hydroponic beds with lettuce that is approaching harvestable size. 

If you look 'skin-deep,' our worm farm is not a thing of beauty, but it is gorgeous if you consider the wealth that it provides to our gardens and the hundreds of pots of plants on balconies all over the village. 

Look at what our worm farmers produce. These are bottles of 'worm juice' that residents can take and use to fertilize their houseplants.  

Believe it or not, this miracle tonic for plants is held in such high regard that a man from outside the village was sneaking in and stealing it as it was collected and was full strength. (These bottles each contain a small quantity of concentrated worm juice and are meant to filled with water before using.)  

If you'll look back up to the previous picture, you'll see a small, rectangular box behind and below the level of the farm. This is the collection point for the concentrated worm juice and is now protected from thievery by the locked container.  

Now lets jump over to the composting efforts. We have bins like the one below at several locations around the gardens.  Notice that the gardening crew is very specific about what not to put into the compost.  

Other things go into the compost too.

Some things do not go into the compost.  

Our composting bins

There are four compost bins at varying stages of maturity. Bin 4 is full of mature compost and Jeanne and her crew are currently using the compost to replenish the lower garden plot. After the compost is dug in, she will plant a green manure crop there (oat grass, lupin and mustard) which will slowly grow over the mild winter. John will dig it in next September. Fully fertilized now and ready for the new growing season, this plot will be planted with potatoes, which will be ready for harvest by Christmas.  -jmf

We also have two 'tumbler' compost bins. 

This is an 8,000 liter water tank for rainwater.  We had an older tank that was sold. We are purchasing another, larger tank that will be used to collect rain water as well.  

The Waitakere Gardens Village complex was built over 22 years ago. At the time, it was considered a pioneer in providing an active lifestyle model for retirees. Not a rest home, but a place to be active, enjoy life, make new friends and continuing to contribute to society. Many of the original villagers were in their 50's and still working at jobs in the community.  Inspired by the residents featured in this display, they envisioned a village that was sustainable and eco friendly. The information provided on this display is also in a booklet which is given out to new residents so they know what a remarkable legacy they are inheriting.  

Recently, the Auckland City Council has allocated funds to promote a more sustainable life style for the entire city and they looked to Waitakere Gardens for inspiration. The mural below was a result of this new sustainability measure. It is planned to become a visually attractive notice board. Additional removeable "leaves" can be added with written text on them, to educate villagers on ways they can contribute to recycling, conserving energy, and saving natural resources.

Our village mission statement is "We care about the life our children, grandchildren and all generations will inherit. We at Waitakere Gardens envision a future where all of New Zealand is loved like a garden." - jmf

At the beginning of this post I mentioned seeing new recycling bins in our old neighborhood. The following pictures were taken then. 

Auckland has begun a new composting plan.  They are collecting food waste; things like  bread, meat, bones, cooked foods, and nearly anything else and anaerobically composting them. These systems are sometimes called digesters because they work very differently than a normal aerobic (with oxygen) compost pile.  The digesters work without oxygen. They don't generate the heat that aerobic systems do, and so do not destroy dangerous microorganisms that way. Instead, the 'germs' present are killed because of the very acidic environment that is developed in the giant digestors.  I'm sure we'll all be hearing much more about this process in the future.  

The driver told me that this collection process started just two weeks ago.  

Within the next few months, our village will also begin food scrap collection. We will begin with an educational effort to let every member of our village know about the process, what food scraps to include, and where to put it. The Tree Mural will have lots of informational messages on added leaves to help.  -jmf

Well, there you have it.  A very brief look into what has taken decades to produce and continues to be improved.  There is so much more to tell about this amazing retirement village but that's for another day.  I want to thank my wife Jeanne, who is the one of us two who has taken a very active role in the gardening and environmental activities here and who has today written parts of this post.  Thanks for the help, Hon.    -djf