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Friday December 9, 2016
5 MINUTES WITH: Keegan Graham Personal Trainer at Kustom Fitness
Q A Q A Q A
What’s your most annoying habit? Hunting flies that enter my house…. One of my best holidays was… A Family trip to Cast Away Island in Fiji.
What’s your fondest childhood memory? Out bird shooting with Dad, he’s got a good aim and a quick draw, like something out of Wild West!
Q A Q A Q A
What’s your favourite meal? Venison steak and mash.
My guilty TV pleasure is… I don’t watch a lot of TV, but motocross or UFC always hooks me in. What’s your greatest fear?
Waking up bald!
Q A Q A Q A
How do you want to be remembered? A fun fella that helps people make their dreams happen. Who would you love to share a meal with and why? Steve Irwin. He was a top guy to look up to while growing up. Imagine his stories!! What is the one thing people don’t know about you? I’ve never had a brain freeze; I believe it’s a myth.
GARDENING
THIS WEEK WITH WALLY RICHARDS
Sunlight
James Wiley, Claudia Shore, Natalie White and Mary Bezant (of Wairau Hospital), Mayor John Leggett, Hunter Shore and Dearra Naidoo (Cadbury rep) presenting 150 Christmas gifts that were donated by locals to families spending time at Wairau Hospital over the festive season.
Trolley load of gifts for hospital By Celeste Alexander On Tuesday over 150 Christmas gifts have been donated by Blenheim and Rangiora locals to families spending time in Wairau Hospital over the festive season. Donations were made at the New World Blenheim and Rangiora supermarkets and were collected by New World and Cadbury as part of the nationwide Cadbury Christmas Tour. Mary Bezant from Wairau Hospital was at the store to receive the Christmas donations on behalf of the families and says; “We’d like to thank everyone who made a very generous donation. It will make a big difference to our families who are experiencing what should be a joyful time of year from hospital.” Cadbury Country Head
Joanna Redmond and son Tyler pictured with one of the Cadbury team members Althea Strydom at New World Blenheim on Tuesday.
James Kane says, “We are delighted to be able to partner with New World to bring the Christmas spirit to families going through a difficult time this festive season. Blenheim and Rangiora have been extremely generous and we would like to thank everyone who donated a gift for creating extra Christmas cheer
for the deserving families at Wairau Hospital.” The giving didn’t stop there. New World shoppers were also in for a special treat from Cadbury, as the New World Blenheim carpark was transformed into a pop-up winter wonderland on Tuesday with fun, games and chocolate on-hand.
Sometimes we can tend to forget how important the sun is for the well being of the planet and all life forces therein. The cloudy and hazy days of this spring has brought home once again the problem our plants have when there is not clear blue skies and many sunny hours. Plants require sunlight to enable their photosynthesis to work. When plants do not get sufficient sunlight they also get weak and are more likely to be attacked by diseases and pest insects. Lack of sufficient sunlight causes stretching of plants as they try to reach for light. Seeds germinated on a window sill will stretch to the window pane for more light making them weak which leads to the disease we call dampening off. Another example you will have seen is a cyclamen placed on a coffee table in the middle of the lounge that quickly loses its compact form as the flowers and the leaves stretch towards the nearest window. This weakens the plant and being in a likely warm room to boot, will bring about rot on the weakened parts through watering. In gardens as elsewhere in Nature plants are always competing for light, nutrients and moisture. When plants are very close to each other they will race upwards to dominate the amount of sunlight available, becoming stronger than their neighbors who eventually give up the fight and wilt. In the bush or in a tree stand (forest) we find under plants that live in the lesser light and thrive as they have evolved to do so. Not always but often these plants will have larger leaves which gives them a bigger area to collect what light is available. You will also notice that often their leaves are a much darker, richer green as they go full out with their chloroform converting low light to energy. This is also something to be aware of as smaller leaf plants require more light than
large leave plants and if either are in the wrong light situation they will not prosper. Large leaf vegetables such as lettuce, brassicas, cucumbers will do better in either morning or later afternoon sun rather than all day sun in the summer. The reverse applies in winter as the full sun situations will be better for them as the day light hours are shorter and the sun strength is weaker. Heartening lettuce grown in full all day summer sun will suffer from ‘Heart rot’ a disease that turns the inside of the lettuce to black rot while the outside looks ok. Grown in a more shade situation you will find that they will not have the problem in summer.
Problems ring me at 0800 466464 (Palmerston North 3570606) Email wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz Web site www.gardenews.co.nz