Country Life

How do you garden when you are blind? One of Taranaki's pioneering environmentalists shows his ingenious method using ropes to help the visually impaired continue to enjoy growing things. This story was first aired in February 2022.

This story was first broadcast in February 2022.

Ropes and posts are strategically placed around Graham Mosen's large Taranaki garden so he can continue to grow things despite not being able to see.

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"No matter where I am in the garden, if I walk in any direction I should eventually hit a rope and just like the thread out of a labyrinth I'll know how to get back to base camp."

The vegetable growing area is six-sided, based on the hexagon of a beehive, with rotational planting areas within a circle and paths bounded by ropes at thigh level.

"It's designed for a blind guy so he won't get lost in the garden," Graham laughs.

Graham, one of Taranaki's pioneering environmentalists, started losing his sight about thirty years ago but it hasn't stopped him doing what he loves.

The Inglewood property he shares with his wife Val used to be the headquarters for the Taranaki Environmental Education Trust which he helped found in the early 1990s.

That morphed into the organisation Sustainable Taranaki which is going strong.

A former woodwork teacher, Graham is still designing and building things as well as milling wood from the property.

He hasn't stopped educating either.

Every year a group of blind gardeners come to plant kumara and potatoes following Graham's rope paths and they are soon to harvest the crop.

"We're developing a garden to show that, no matter what your visual perception is, you can do anything."

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The story of a woman left to farm alone when her husband went to war, Ashburton's A & P show, gardening for the blind and the monthly wrap of conditions on the land.

Country Life goes back in time to meet a woman who farmed almost single handedly during World War II and revisits one of Taranaki's pioneering environmentalists who shows his ingenious method using ropes to help the visually impaired. Plus the main theme at Ashburton's A&P Show was bees, bugs and butterflies. "It's covers the local gardener through to the cropping farmer and everthing in between!" says show president Victor Schikker.

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Rhoda McWhannell ran her Waikato farm almost single-handedly when her husband went to war during WWII. She wrote a journal of her daily struggles, weaving in her wry observations about war and love of the natural world.

Rhoda McWhannell farmed the Waikato property Rozel almost single-handedly when her husband went to war during WWII. She wrote a journal of her daily struggles and successes, weaving in her wry observations of global and local happenings.

Her great-niece has been combing through these diaries, which are brought to life by actor Amy Tarleton for Country Life.

Listen to extracts from Rhoda McWhannell's diaries

Rhoda McWhannell is in a paddock, kneeling over a writhing, bloated ewe, carving knife in hand.

She has the grim task of relieving it of the gas which has built up in its stomach after eating too much fresh green grass.

"With grim determination," McWhannell writes, she plunges the knife into the sheep's side.

"Well, I expected gas to come whistling out, but it didn't. It came bubbling slowly in some blood, like a little pool of boiling mud at Rotorua."

She holds the puncture open for at least an hour until the ewe's breath eases and it can totter away. She wonders if the animal will be alive in the morning.

With no vet nearby, McWhannell's' medical training might have come in handy for some of her jobs on Rozel, the Waikato property she farmed - almost single-handedly - during World War II, after her husband Mac was called away to war.

But her own war effort - like that of many women - might have gone unsung if it weren't for the vivid journals she kept over the war period. She began writing aged 40 in 1938, in large notebooks, and continued for 50 years.

She donated her journals to the Alexander Turnbull Library in the 1980s.

McWhannell's great-niece Alex Shepard has been combing through the diaries and became entranced by McWhannell's wit, her writerly style, vivid tales of farming life and her painterly descriptions of the natural world.

As professor of gender history at the University of Glasgow, Shepard has a professional interest as well as a familial one.

"Rhoda at the time would have been classified as a housewife and, as a dependent, as a married woman, and her work wouldn't have counted or wouldn't have been seen to count."

But wartime saw growing confidence and independence among women as they learned new skills and gained a greater sense of autonomy, Shepard said.

"I think what's interesting is her writing shows just how vital her work was, not just to the war, but Mac depended heavily on her. There's no way that farm could have run without her."…

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Cattle prices have peaked and it's hard work selling sheep at spring fairs in Northland. In the Nelson region the late chill of August has set hops up well for strong growth.

Cattle prices have peaked and it's hard work selling sheep at spring fairs in Northland. In the Nelson region the late chill of August has set hops up well for strong growth.

Listen to On the Farm for a round up of conditions around the country

The ground's sodden on Northland farms after about 150 millimetres of rain earlier this week. Our contact says it's nigh on impossible to get tractors into paddocks to sow crops. At local spring fairs, cattle prices have peaked and it's hard work trying to sell sheep. Our contact says farmers are holding back from buying stock due to economic uncertainty and fears of drought.

Mild spring weather with sufficient rainfall has been good for growth in Pukekohe. Our contact says the light supply of most vegetables should no longer be an issue.

A commercial blueberry grower in Waikato says there's another two months of harvesting to go in his tunnel houses. In the outdoor crop, flowering's all but finished, but the cool and moist conditions were not great for pollination. Harvesting gets underway in seven weeks. Staff are busy planting new varieties, mowing and weeding and doing machine maintenance.

A Bay of Plenty avocado grower says his orchard's in the middle of the pollination phase. As the bees buzz around doing their thing, staff are thinning 30 to 50 percent of the fruit bearing flowers on trees. He says early avocados will be ripe for picking from late November onwards.

A farm consultant in Taranaki says pasture growth's doing well at around 70 kilos of dry matter per hectare each day and lots of silage is being made. Mating's in full swing on dairy farms with good submission rates.

It's been a beautiful warm spring in Te Tai Rāwhiti. There's plenty of moisture. The grass is starting to spring back. There have been some record-breaking docking results though the trick will now be to ensure enough feed for all. It wouldn't take long to dry out with the windy conditions they've been having. Farmers are just starting to be able to get in to do that heavy rehab work on dams and tracks and ensure water systems are ready for summer. They're being advised to try and break open dams if they can't get in to dig out the silt. Ensure animals have another water source and let out the dams dry out until you can fix them as stock could get stuck in the mud trying to drink…

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Bees, bugs and butterflies were the main theme at this year's Ashburton A&P Show.

The main theme at this year's Ashburton's A&P Show was bees, bugs and butterflies.

"It covers the local gardener through to the cropping farmer and everything in between," said show president Victor Schikker.

He was brought up on the family farm at Mt Somers and joined stock and station agency, Wrightson NMA, at the age of 17.

"And I'm still there 48 years later, with PGG Wrightson as a stock agent."

Schikker has been involved with the cattle section at local shows for more than four decades and was shoulder tapped in 2017 to preside over the 146th edition.

"I went to the (A & P Association) AGM and I think people had me lined up for it right from then."

Getting people to join the organising committee was challenging, he said.

Meetings are held throughout the year to organise the show.

"We do struggle with people moving up the ranks, but we've got the next six years covered."

The show hosts a two day competition for horses and dog trials and one-day competitions for farm animals and birds.

Sheep shearing, highland dancing, music and other displays are offered.

The Ashburton A & P Association was formed in 1877, when a meeting of farmers was held at Somerset Hotel. The first show was on 15 November 1878, probably at Tinwald.

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A rural addiction rehabilitation facility near Christchurch runs a farm-focused social enterprise that connects its residents with planting, growing and sharing.

Planting chillies, catching a whiff of a sheep's fleece and training cucumber plants are helping people working on a special farm near Christchurch deal with some pretty tough life crises.

One of them is Shannon, a mother of four from Tauranga, who was addicted to meth, alcohol and cannabis before arriving at Nova Trust's rehab centre on a 30-hectare property at Templeton.

The centre runs programmes for about 120 people a year based around a native nursery, tunnel houses for growing vegetables and social enterprise.

When Country Life visits, Shannon is planting baby cucumbers which, when fully grown, will head to supermarket shelves.

"Putting our magic in," she laughs.

"I love working with plants ... coming in, I had lost contact with how much I really love it. And it's a real joy to watch something grow. It's kind of like self-growth. You know, you get to learn to start from seed again and regrow. It's beautiful."

Listen to more about Nova Trust's on-farm rehab programme

Shannon chose Nova Trust's rehab programme specifically because it involved horticulture.

"This is actually the only rehab centre that offers you to put your hand in the dirt and get in touch with the whenua.

"It grounds us."

The charity was established in 1981, and founded by a local builder and businessman, Don Malcolm, with some colleagues from Christchurch.

Chief executive Steve Rossell said it aimed to create pathways and a better life and recovery for those

affected by alcohol and drug addiction and other life challenges.

The centre is funded by Te Whatu Ora and a small number of donors, alongside revenue received from social enterprises, farm produce and the native tree nursery.

Those operations are integral to the trust's rehabilitation work with its residents, Rossell said.

"They provide life and employment skills, opportunities for the development of skills around general life and living, whether that's cooking and cleaning, looking after yourself, but also, that experience of the workaday routines that fit

them very well for reintegrating back into the community post-treatment."

Produce from Nova Trust's tunnel houses and paddocks make it to supermarkets and My Food Bag deliveries via their own truck, commercial manager Boyd Warren explained…

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After being encouraged to drain wetlands on their farm in the 80s a Golden Bay couple are already seeing the benefits of transforming the land back to its natural state.

After being encouraged to drain wetlands on their farm in the 1980s, a Golden Bay couple is already seeing the benefits of transforming the land back to its natural state.

Tony Reilly and his wife Kathy have transformed 7,400 square metres of their Motupipi farm back into a wetland, over two stages since 2021 in a bid to improve the health of the tributary.

Listen to Tony Reilly on Country Life

"The catchment's quite large, it catches quite a bit of water, so when there's a rain event, and Golden Bay has quite a lot of rain, it comes up and floods right across the valley floor. The wetland is an area of about a hectare, or just under a hectare of land," Tony Reilly told Country Life.

A meandering creek was straightened into "a nice straight ditch" and "a whole lot of crack willows" were removed back in the 1980s. But now that is all changing, he says.

The regeneration has been made possible by Jobs for Nature with consent and technical support from Tasman District Council, Reilly says.

"The first stage was done a couple of years ago, which Kathy and I planted. And then the next stage was done last autumn and that was a bigger area.

"And so, folks came in and did the planting for us on that when we think it was about 7000 native trees, which were sourced locally, which was great."

One final stage this coming autumn will complete the wetland. Even at this stage of the project, Reilly says wildlife is coming back to the area.

"The dry creek ditch approach that I was talking about is now back into a meandering creek.

"And some of those wee small springs in the sides of the banks have been made into lakes and little wee ponds and lakes, we've always got heaps of pukeko and mallards, but the I guess the most significant one that we've seen as in the area has been some juvenile bitterns."

The whole project has been run as a collaboration, he says

"We've had the local iwi involved at stage two as well, with a karakia at the beginning of the project there. We've also had Project De-Vine have been coming in and they did the main planting as well, which is a wonderful group in Golden Bay looking at getting rid of wilding, pines and the banana passionfruit."

Having spent many years as a young man straightening the creek and cutting trees with a chainsaw, he's happy to see the land regenerating, he says.

"When you see it progressing like it is with the new growth for the last two years on the natives, it's a beautiful area now."

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Kingfish farming, returning paddock to wetland, and drug rehabilitation through farming

Country Life takes a tour of NIWA's kingfish farm in Northland where 600 tonnes of fish are harvested out of huge tanks, a Golden Bay farmer chats about the impact of restoring his on-farm wetland and Cosmo visits a rehab centre near Christchurch where farming is helping people recover from addiction.

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For over 20 years NIWA scientists have been researching the feasibility of growing fish on land - now they believe it's ready for commercial uptake.

In the heart of New Zealand's Northland region, a team of scientists and aquaculturists are cultivating kingfish like never before.

At NIWA's Northland Marine Research Centre (NMRC) in Ruakaka, a small-scale operation serves as a testing ground, but it's only a glimpse of what's to come.

This project isn't just about fish; it's about sustainability, technology, and changing the way we think about aquaculture.

The goal is clear: to prove that farming kingfish in tanks on a commercial scale is not only technically feasible but economically viable.

Tour the on-land kingfish farm with Country Life

The journey to this point has been a fusion of scientific discovery and practical application. NIWA established the research centre in 2002, with a primary focus on exploring the potential of aquaculture for high-value species like kingfish.

For 18 years, Andrew Forsythe has been part of the programme acting as the chief aquaculture scientist.

He explains: "Control is everything. Any farmer will tell you if they can irrigate, and manage the soil moisture and nutrients optimally, they get better performance.

"The same thing with fish.

"Managing the environment optimally is key to achieving the best results and avoiding pathogens and parasites."

Forsythe says for most of the past two decades, NIWA's scientists have been working on two species of yellowtail kingfish and hāpuku. At some stage kingfish became the centre of operations.

"Now we are in a position where we got the yellowtail kingfish - all the breeding, the nutrition, the growing, the rearing systems - to a point where we feel it's truly ready to commercialise properly.

"Land-based production brings a lot of benefits and it gives you total control of the environment. Because this is a warm-water fish, if you put it in a land-based system, and the temperature rises through the activities of the fish or the activity of the system, the fish grow faster, they grow better."

Recirculating aquaculture systems resemble gigantic aquariums. What sets them apart is their ability to reuse and treat between 95 percent and 99 percent of the water in the system.

And recycling doesn't stop there. The pipes used to bring in the water were once used for the Marsden Power Station in which the research centre now sits. …

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Rural news reporter Sally Murphy takes a look at the week's agricultural news.

RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy takes a look at the week's agricultural news.

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