We are getting into the weeds for our research for BioSignals.
Taking advantage of the long weekend for Waitangi Day, Kim and I have been working hard on our garden, plant research and experimentation (mainly with weeds) and lots of planning and dreaming.
Our old chicken run is slowly transforming into a new garden curated on the theme of on resilience, protection and regeneration. We have dug out the beds and cleared space for new plants. Kim is working on getting sensors out in the garden, but more on that later.
Live Signals
Background research is underway on different aspects of the project: types of plants (e.g. resilient plants (particularly noxious plants), plant properties, climate change and plants, IoT systems, plants in common between NZ, the Philippines and the UK, plants in space and speculative science fiction re plants.)
We have also undertaken a field trip to Botanica, our local botanic gardens and fern conservatorium (pictured left), sketched, and bought some plants at a local plant shop. It’s been a busy Waitangi Weekend.
Weeds, Weeds Everywhere
Since starting this project, Maggie has noticed how many weeds there are around their home and neighbourhood. Many of them are noxious! NZ has a number of acts of parliament covering weeds and pest plants one of the most well known is our National Pest Plant Accord, which sets boundaries around the very worst weed offenders NPPA and the control of weeds | NZ Government (mpi.govt.nz)
We will do some specific posts on weeds and on Maggie’s creative experiments in the future.
The images in the grid next to this box are: Weeds in the images were taken on our property of within a few metres of the boundary in the local neighbourhood and include (from left) Blue Morning Glory (Ipomoea indica), Moth Plant (Araujia hortorum), Climbing Asparagus (Asparagus scandens), Wandering Willie (Tradescantia fluminensis), Tobacco Weed/Woolly Nightshade (Solanum mauritianum) and Wild Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum )
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The British Council funds BioSignals via the #ConnectionsThroughCulture programme.