March highlights

By Kerrie Subritzky

There’s a lot happening out there in our corner of Auckland, and this issue of the Beacon reflects the diversity of activity and interest in our community, and beyond!

March is traditionally a time when extra emphasis is put on our environment. Coming up this month we have the annual EcoFest West to look forward to, spanning from 21st March to 19th April. Check out our back page for more about the festival, and make sure you go to their website which has details about all the fabulous events you can attend. There will be something for everyone, young and old!

Speaking about the environment, we’ve included a snippet from an old Avondale Advance and Blockhouse Bay Beacon from October 1955. This rare, precious yellowed copy was found under the floorboards of an Avondale local and passed on to local historian Lisa Truttman, who kindly shared it with me. I found within its covers an article from the newspaper’s gardening editor, extolling the virtues of the chemical annihilation of garden pests, and providing several recipes for the use of the home gardener.
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Our ‘chemical dependence’ spans over a century, beginning in the 1890s and declining with the ban of many substances in the late 1980s. I’d like to say we’ve come a long way – and as products like DDT and lead arsenate are no longer available, we probably can say that to a point. However, the battle between the compost heap and chemicals continues. Use of chemicals is widespread among commercial growers, and even those of us who want to garden organically resort to their sneaky use at times.