With Whenua Kura students once again enlisted to gather seed from remnant kānuka stands at Te Whenua Hou, the future regeneration of natural farm habitats has a bright future. According to Ngāi Tahu Farming Project Manager Ben Giesen, the students play an important part in the restoration chain and with 16,000 young kānuka seedlings already germinated and growing on from last year’s seed collection, he is confident this year’s seed haul will ensure many thousands more. “We have 16,000 kānuka and mānuka plants to go in around the farms in May and we currently have another 45,000 growing at the nursery. We aim to grow the top 15 plants on the Lincoln-recommended plants list here at our nursery and we’re well on the way to that – we already grow some of the top five including kānuka, lemonwood, karamu, kōwhai and flax. We’ve made significant cost savings by creating our … Continue reading Sowing the seeds