Earl, cheers for kind words and great to hear what you’re up to in NZ. I’ve checked out your broad and prolific posts at your site before too. Yeah I agree, Linda Woodrow’s book is brilliant! (http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/18/pid/5785.htm)

Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma should be compulsory, shouldn’t it? A stupendous book.

We’re lucky to have a good-sized block in Coburg and found ourselves self-sufficient in vegies over the warmer months. We’re on the way there with fruit, too. And we found ourselves laden with Quinces, plums and grapes overhanging Coburg lanes.

I’m planning a spontaneous roof garden. There is now a post about your story here: http://greenroofs.wordpress.com/

The ratio of productive trees to ornamental is nuts (pardon the pun)

In NZ we have a great company called Incredible Edibles that is really pushing the boundaries of domestic growing of tress and bushes.

But the other thing about the in-fill housing in New Zealand is not strictly true. We have very substantial in-fill, my three back neighbours for example are all second houses on quarter acre blocks (one of them even bought a few square metres of my own property from a previous owner to qualify for the subdivision)

I live in a mostly state house area of Auckland and we do have a lot of the original homes and land plots around us, but our big problem is that they are occupied by people who have, in many cases, lost the knowledge and the ability to grow their own food. They are very often from the Pacific Islands so their family experience of food crops is completely inappropriate to their new environment. As is their diet.

I’m glad to hear about the 30×30 plot though, I can manage that. I’ve also come across a really great garden book called The Permaculture Home Garden – How to Grow Great-tasting Fruit and Vegetables the Organic Way – Free of Pesticides and Chemicals by Linda Woodrow.

Utterly brilliant, not least because she espouses enlisting nature to do the work and has such great advice on ending a spiel about companion planting as, “it really doesn’t matter that much, just make sure you have plenty of plants all mixed up and covering every inch of soil for a start”.

We are also experimenting with our 1,00 metre plot, growing lentils and mung beans for example, and I have started a Eucalypt coppice trial with the first 9 of 26 trees planted around the boundary.

Keep up the great job, even when the information isn’t applicable, the blog is an inspiration.

Interesting site about food and suburban adaptations in the face of climate change and peak oil. It has a focus on Australia and offers some great advice for all those concerned about an energy scarce future or are already in transition to a more susta…