During the past twenty five years of collecting old fruit trees and vegetables around the Kaipara harbour and the north, I am constantly coming upon old Dalmatian Orchards and gardens. I have come to have a lot of respect for these people, for the way they survived incredibly harsh and sometimes awful conditions, and for their wonderful skill as gardeners…read more!
On one of our bus trips in Jordan to visit Permaculture sites, I happened to be next to Ethan Roland. Ethan has visited the original Kazakstan apple orchards, and has been super inspired by the place, the very old man who is the caretaker of the orchard, and the apples. I asked him many questions and came to have a bit of a picture myself of what it looks like there…read more!
Koanga Institute Fruit Tree Collections
The summer catalogue is essentially to let you know as much as possible about what the news is around our fruit tree collection. The July catalogue is filled with the seed catalogue and seed news… mostly. I have always focused on the Northern Bio-Region as far as fruit trees go. Although I did major collection trips down the Whanganui River several times, visiting marae and old Maori gardens, we always left all of that plant material there with the marae and the locals whose material it was or with those whose ancestors planted it…read more!