{"id":320371,"date":"2026-03-09T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320371\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:42:08","slug":"country-life-lessons-in-permaculture-at-kahikatea-farm-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320371\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Life: Lessons in permaculture at Kahikatea Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo they attract pollinating insects, they\u2019re nitrogen-fixing, medicinal herbs, they\u2019re edible leaves, they\u2019re perennial vegetables. Yeah, they\u2019ve got to have a use. We don\u2019t grow what we call roundabout plants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo and her husband Aaron established Kahikatea Farm almost 20 years ago, taking its name from the kahikatea forest that would have stood at the site long ago, before it was converted to grazing farmland.<\/p>\n

The Duff family had a vision of working with nature.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe little earthen cottage is a particularly cool place to spend the hot Hawke’s Bay summers. Photo \/ Gianina Schwanecke, Country Life<\/p>\n

They created swales \u2013 water-harvesting ditches that follow the contour of the rolling hills \u2013 to plant the first fruit trees, which now form the upper canopy of their established food forest.<\/p>\n

Near the start of summer when the surrounding farmland is already golden brown, this part of the farm was a green oasis, layered with fruit-bearing plants.<\/p>\n

They established their own permaculture garden to feed themselves and the many helpers on the farm, including volunteers and those keen to learn from Jo about permaculture principles \u2013 earth care, fair share, and people care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vegetable garden supports our family and anybody else who\u2019s staying here at the time,\u201d Jo told Country Life.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe food forest kitchen bar offers a place to enjoy the progress of the surrounding trees and plantings. Photo \/ Gianina Schwanecke, Country Life<\/p>\n

The organic nursery was their main business. She said the certification process was relatively straightforward, as they grew everything in a potting medium that was bought-in and pre-certified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potting mix has got fertiliser to last it a good wee while. That\u2019s based mostly on seaweed, compost, and then a trichoderma, which is a friendly micro-organism, which aids with root development and just the basic health of the plant.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome plants vulnerable to the feathered helpers are stored off the ground. Photo \/ Gianina Schwanecke, Country Life<\/p>\n

\u201cMost things are out the door before really we need to give them an extra feed, and if we do, that\u2019s a seaweed fertiliser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the organic nursery really shone, though, was in its feathered friends, who helped with pest management, targeting larger snails and slugs that threatened the plants.<\/p>\n

They had three different groups of chooks – Rhode Island Reds, Black Orpingtons, and bantams \u2013 and two different types of ducks \u2013 Indian Runner ducks and Cayugas \u2013 performing different functions in different parts of the farm.<\/p>\n

Since they introduced the birds, Jo said it had \u201ccompletely changed\u201d the nursery.<\/p>\n

\"WhenWhen Country Life paid a visit late last spring, the gardens were filled with the sounds of new life. Photo \/ Gianina Schwanecke, Country Life<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who works here really loves having them around. It makes you slow down, because you just stop and watch what they\u2019re doing or have a laugh at some antics, and every spring comes around and you go \u2018oh my God, those ducklings are so cute\u2019 and the novelty never wears off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so busy in spring, it\u2019s so nice to have that lovely distraction and yeah, it does make you slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSo they attract pollinating insects, they\u2019re nitrogen-fixing, medicinal herbs, they\u2019re edible leaves, they\u2019re perennial vegetables. Yeah, they\u2019ve got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,2841,3233,25689,78,173234,25336,424,111,43,139,69,173233,25690],"class_list":["post-320371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-country","tag-farm","tag-gianina","tag-in","tag-kahikatea","tag-lessons","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-permaculture","tag-schwanecke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}