WELCOME TO DUNEDIN'S INTERACTIVE ORGANIC GARDENING HUB

 

Otepoti Urban Organics is a non-profit network of gardeners, community groups and businesses who have an interest in fostering and engaging in organic food growing activities, and other sustainable practices, in the Dunedin area.

The primary purpose of the network's existence is to increase the quantity and quality of food grown by people in their own back yards or other locations, and to make these activities more enjoyable, productive and efficient for all involved. We also run a seed savers exchange for open pollinated and heirloom vegetable varieties for Otago gardeners.

 

This site is the hub of Otepoti Urban Organics. Once you get a username and password (takes about one minute) you can join in discussions in the forums, add content to the gardening guide and networks pages, create blog entries and message other users. You can still browse the site without being logged in. We strongly encourage input from anyone who has some gardening knowledge to share, a question to ask, a project to promote, etc.

 

Here is some more information on the main sections of the website to get you started. These can be navigated to from the top of any page or from the left hand navigation menu.

-DISCUSSION: A web forum where we can discuss ideas and methods of obtaining the best yeilds, sustainable gardening practices, what to grow here and when to grow it, creating new gardens, guerrilla gardening, etc. Here you can ask any question you have about veggie growing in the Otago area.
-OTAGO GARDENING GUIDE: A 'wikipedia' style system whereby ideas and concepts that come out of discussions from the web forum or elsewhere can be compiled into user friendly instructional resources for the home gardener. Anything from the most basic beginners advice, to ultra-geeky gardening methods, companion planting, mulching, composting, seed saving, etc. Kind of like an online gardening book, that is made by all of our members, and is continually refined and improved over time as we learn more and experiment with new methods.

-SEED SAVING: We have established a seed savers network in Dunedin, whereby we collect and distribute seeds from open pollinated and heirloom vegetable varieties suited to growing in Otago and Southland. The network is run by voulnteers and we rely on you - local gardeners - to continue to save seeds and donate them back to the network to keep the seed stocks strong.

-NETWORKING: Listing of contacts who may be useful in your gardening endeavors. From places to aquire seeds, soil, and other gardening resources, to experts you can turn to for advice, to project coordinators who are behind various interesting grass roots initiatives in our fine city, etc.

Contact person is Bart Acres. He can be reached at otepoti.urban.organics@gmail.com

 

Call for seeds, and other news

Sat, 14/08/2010 - 17:53 — bart

Now that we are past the threshold of winter solstice and they days are again getting longer, it's high time that plans for the spring and summer, distant as they may seem, start swirling around in our heads...

AUTUMN SEED LIST AVALIABLE NOW

Fri, 05/03/2010 - 23:05 — bart

Well folks, it has been a busy summer for many of us on the gardening front, with a rather below average early season picking up for a decent 2nd half of summer. I hope that your veggies are growing well and that you may potentially have some plants going to seed to save and contribute to the Otepoti Seed Exchange! If you do have seeds to donate, just email us at otepoti.urban.organics@gmail.com, and we'll give you an address to post to or arrange to pick them up.

Otepoti Urban Organic's 'Dunedin Seed Exchange' update

Wed, 26/08/2009 - 02:05 — bart
DUNEDIN SEED EXCHANGE

For the past few months we've been laying the ground work for a new seed exchange based here in Dunedin, through Otepoti Urban Organics.

Closing the Loop: Composting with local restaurants and cafe's

Wed, 26/08/2009 - 02:03 — bart
CLOSING THE LOOP: COMPOSTING WITH LOCAL RESTAURANTS & CAFE's

A couple of Otepoti Urban Organics members who reside in a flat on George street, have begun a great initiative to encourage restaurants to compost their vegetable scraps.

350 Spring Food Festival: 24th October @ Dunedin Train Station!

Wed, 26/08/2009 - 02:01 — bart
Coming up on October 24th is the 350 Spring Food Festival. It's happening in conjunction with the Otago Farmers Market, down at the train station. 350 is part of a global day of action centred around awareness raising about climate change. The number '350' refers to the threshold of CO2 (in 'parts per million') that we can safely have in the atmosphere without risking serious climate chaos. Unfortunately we're already at 382 ppm so the whole world needs to act fast to turn this around.

Summer draws to a close

Mon, 16/03/2009 - 23:17 — bart

Hi all,

It has been a while since the last email, and I hope that you've all had productive summers in your gardens, learning many new things and furthering your gardening knowledge.

As the seasons change, it is important for the gardener to reflect back on what you have achieved over the season, considering the successes, failures, and in-betweens, and the possible reasons for why things went well or not so well. It is through this process of reflection and pondering that you will become a better gardener over the years. (Click 'read more' to see full article)

Critic Rough Gide to Gardening

Thu, 12/03/2009 - 15:27 — bart

Critic, the University of Otago's student magazine, has this week published a story by Chelsea Verdonk about growing veggies in Dunedin. Some good topics are covered, and Otepoti Urban Organics even gets a mention! It's great to see this info being made readily avaliable to students. They included a pull-out centre fold of gardening through the year in Dunedin, which can also be found in the PDF version of the issue of critic (http://www.critic.co.nz/new_virtual_critic/pdf/59/Critic_2_web.pdf) The article can be seen online here: http://www.critic.co.nz/about/features/177

Dunedin Veggie Growers Club November meeting: Urban Organics

Thu, 06/11/2008 - 23:44 — bart
Urban Organics is the focus for the November meeting of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club (See network section of webpage for details on the club). I will be the guest speaker and I'll be giving a general outline of the ideas and concepts behind urban organics initiatives, and the role that they play in a sustainable city / nation / economy / civilization. It would be great to see some more OUO members there to discuss ideas and meet other keen gardeners.

Transition Towns

Thu, 06/11/2008 - 23:43 — bart
There has been a recent flurry of activity around the idea of setting up a Transition Towns initiative in Dunedin City. Transition Towns is basically an international movement, whereby people get together to discuss, design and implement strategies for the long term sustainability and resilience of their particular ciy / town. For more info check out www.transitiontowns.org.nz

Welcome to the new Otepoti Urban Organics home page!

Fri, 03/10/2008 - 15:20 — bart
Hi everyone, Work has begun on getting Dunedin's urban food growing resource up and running, hopefully in time for the main growing season. I'm still getting my head around how to set all this stuff up so for the first little while this page will likely be quite minimal. The purpose of this web page is to provide a hub, or central communication point, for those interested in growing food organically in the urban environment. The main focus is on Dunedin, but of course most of the growing advice etc. will be applicable to most of Coastal Otago and Southland.
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