Commercial Kitchen for Lease

background noise and no wonder, with their increase in numbers by 275% since 2017. I worked amongst the flax flowers on the cliffs in spring and walked out sticky with nectar and now in autumn I shake flax seeds out of my hair ,whereas before rats and mice got to both nectar and seed. Abundant tūī now feed in spring and hopefully kākāriki and kākā will soon feel safe on Miramar to feast on the seed. I also have noticed the kawakawa leaves are now full of holes on the peninsula and am constantly shaking tiny caterpillars off my collar.

It is very satisfying to see the benefits of pest control but the work to achieve these results has been mind boggling and what was supposed to be achieved in 9 months is now 5 years on (and thousands and thousands of hours of labour and efforts by a dedicated team). In the meantime autumn is the time of year that the juvenile rats look for new territories as the summer’s abundance of food and warmth becomes harder to find and their siblings and parents compete for resources. So please do make sure your traps are tidy and working well ready for the coming rat catching season. And keep an eye out for kiekie fruit and astelia and some of the other things mentioned above as they are great rewards to be treasured.

- Sally Bain, MIRO Interested in helping MIRO?

Email: info@miro.org.nz

Garden Stuff with Sandy Lang

CUTICLES & STOMATA

May/June: Late autumn/early winter. The short, cold, damp, wintery days are upon us. Time to tidy, plan, prune and plant (cold and short-day tolerant leaf veggies and broad beans). If you want a new perennial, buy it early to get the best specimen – not other’s rejects.

Wet chemistry: Life started in the sea. Today, the ‘chemistry of life’ still goes on in waterinside every microbe, plant and animal. So: How did plants escape the watery womb of the sea, to invade the land where the soil is much less watery and the air is dangerously dry?

Water potential: Let me introduce a new term ‘water potential’ (WP). It’s a measure of the availability of water and has units of pressure ‘Pascals’ (Pa). Because 1 Pa is very small, we usually measure pressures in thousands of them (kPa) or in millions (MPa). Some examples...

Cold tap: The WP in a kitchen tap is about 250,000 Pa (0.25 MPa). About the same as the air pressure in a car tyre.

Pure water: The availability of pure water at the surface of a lake is exactly 0.0 MPa (by definition). Wherever else we look, the availability of water is usually less than 0.0 MPa, so WP is usually negative. Soil WP: This varies between 0.0 MPa (waterlogged) and -1.5 MPa (plants wilt, some die).

Applications For Grants

Closing date: 15 June 2023

Applications from Eastbourne-Bays groups are invited. Application forms are available on the website (see below) or from Eastbourne Librar y

Please refer to the following website for information on the Trust: www.ebct.org.nz

Contact the Parish Administrator, St Albans Church.

Email: office@stalbanschurch.nz

Contact: Gaby Brown 021 179 5311 or email: trustees@ebct.org.nz

Air WP: If you thought dry soil was dry, get this... At 100% relative humidity (RH) air WP is 0.0 MPa; at 99 RH it is -1.4 MPa; at 90% RH it is -14.2 MPa; at 50% RH it is -93.5 MPa and at 10% RH it is -300 MPa. The air is rarely as humid as 99% RH and often falls to below 30% RH.

But: How can plants survive on land when their life chemistry can function only in water?

Answer: Every outer surface is covered by a super-waterproof, super-thin (0.0002 cm [a polythene bag is 0.005 cm]) waxy cuticle. (Google plant cuticle)

But: How can a plant take in CO2 (for photosynthesis) and liberate O2 (photosynthesis biproduct) through such a highly impermeable cuticle? Answer: Plants have tiny valves in their skin (Google stomata). These open and shut depending on time of day and how much water the plant gets from the soil. They take about 10 min to open or shut. slang@xtra.co.nz