Action Research Projects (January 2025)

It's time for a rebrand!

The Impact Projects (named last year in November) have a new personality as 'Action Research Projects'

Read on to see the list as at January 3rd 2025.

You're welcome to vote in one of two places:

1) on my Ko-Fi page, which is where I do the bulk of the crowdfunding for this work (head here to vote)

2) on a Google Form, which will get your email address, and I'll send you an update when it's time to refresh the list, and let you know how I got on with each of them.

At some stage I'll create a voting mechanism where people pay to cast a vote, but for now I'm more curious about the perceived relevance of each of these projects within the list.

Thanks for taking part!

(a note: these polls are for you to vote with the voice of the earth)

Here are the new projects:

1) HARAKEKE

  • The effective composting of Harakeke leaves, generally not accepted by ANY commercial composters in Aotearoa, and instead taken to landfill. This is a taonga... let's learn to care for all parts of the plant.

  • The creative use of Harakeke in the garden. Kind of like how 'KiwiFibre' are making snowboards, surfboards and racing cars, we don't nee to think of flax weaving as baskets and tablemats. I'm studying Raranga at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and have the full support of my teachers to explore ways to use the plant in my gardening and composting work.

  • Tuakau's Paa Harakeke - weeding around the plants and meeting with a wide range fo stakeholders in the community to discuss how we can elevate the status of this beautiful, historically significant collection of plants.

2) INDOOR WORM FARMING

  • Trialling creative ways to make soil inside, for the apartment dweller and also workplaces where things need to be odour free and aesthetically pleasing.

  • Developing a range of products to help people upcycle things they can find for free, or make themselves.

  • Sharing the research around vermicompost and what makes it so good.

  • Researching the qualities of wild ginger worm castings

3) GARDEN CLUB(S) FOR STUDENTS (OR TEACHERS) AT SCHOOLS OR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS THAT HAVE NO COMPOSTING OR GARDENING ON-SITE.

  • Tipene St Stephen's Boarding School in Bombay - composting food scraps and gardening with the teachers.

  • Te Wānanga o Aotearoa - supporting my weaving classmates to start a seed swap, crop swap, or other interim project while the plans for a maara kai on campus are developed.

4) WATER HEALTH - URBAN AND RURAL. MANUKAU HARBOUR, WAIKATO RIVER, WAITEMATA HARBOUR

  • Each of my customers currently has a relationship with one of the bodies of water above. Working with them, and the others sharing that connection to the local water to raise awareness of how soil health affects water quality.

5) TUAKAU MUSEUM POLLINATOR GARDEN (DAHLIAS)

  • Creating and maintaining a closed loop, fully circular pollinator garden in the middle of Tuakau, and picking the flowers to distribute in the community.

6) LEAF MOULD

  • Running a citizen science project (with the help of the Auckland Botanic Gardens Edibles Curator Angela Anstis) to look at different methods of making leaf mould and the qualities of leaf mould made from a wide range of trees.

7) GREEN WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANS: WHANGARATA HALL (WAIKATO) & ST LEONARDS PLAY CENTRE (DUNEDIN)

  • Helping create a fully circular, closed loop, non-toxic waste management plan, to eliminate the transportation of green waste as well as removing all toxic weedkiller from public spaces.

8) SOIL STORIES - EVENT WASTE COMPOSTING

  • To continue to process food scraps from events where my help is needed to create a fully circular, closed loop system.

  • Helping people all over the world work out a process that works for their community to tell 'soil stories'

9) BLUE BORAGE RELOCATION

  • It's time to leave this home, and I'm keen to take my teaching garden with me.

  • Work out the parameters of where I'm going, and how I'll move everything.

This is a quick draft - I'll come back soon and add some more images, links to more on each project, and the relevant online courses and coaching packages if you want to get involved.

Thanks for reading this far!

Katrina

If you want to stay in the loop, join my Ko-Fi membership (for as little as $5 a month), and you'll get behind-the-scenes updates: https://ko-fi.com/blueborage

Action Research Projects (January 2025)

    Blue Borage Action Research Projects strive to turn chaos into harmony, for ecosystem restoration. There is generally NO FUNDING available for this work, hence the request for Blue Borage followers to help out.