29/05/2026
Big day at Edible Streets today 🌱
We cleared out a compost pile that had been sitting right in the middle of what is now our second nursery extension space. The pile was made up of leaves dropped around the nursery, w**ds, and mixed organic material collected and slowly composted over the past year.
After a long, slow breakdown process, it became beautiful microbial-rich compost full of life — what you could really call “black gold”.
In collaboration with Canterbury Permaculture Institute , we spread this compost across the front half of their hugelkultur beds to help kick-start soil biology and accelerate system development from the ground up. The back half of the bed is still bare lifeless topsoil awaiting coverage, which makes a clear contrast in the photo between living soil and raw soil still to be built.
These beds will now be cover cropped while the system continues to develop and stabilise.
Eventually, this space will be planted out with fruit tree guilds 🌳
A guild is a plant community designed to support a central fruit tree. Instead of planting just one tree, you build a small ecosystem around it. This can include nitrogen fixers, ground covers, herbs, flowers, mulch plants, and dynamic accumulators. Each species plays a role—feeding soil life, improving fertility, attracting beneficial insects, suppressing w**ds, and helping the whole system function as a resilient, self-supporting system.
Slow, living systems building food resilience and soil health together 🌿