Why We're Planting Cabbage Trees Near Our Containers (🔥 Risk Included)

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Another beautiful, stunning day to do some more planting.

[00:00:20]So on the planning today, on the plant planning, we've got some more Tī kōuka or cabbage trees, which we are going to be planting along the ridge.

[00:00:31]I've previously documented that we've directly sown flaxseed New Zealand flax or ha rakeke along this bank, all the way to over there.

[00:00:39]A bit of the soil trickles down every once in a while with heavy rain.

[00:00:42]You can see the darker patches versus the lighter patches.

[00:00:45]It's not too bad, but we do want to kind of keep it in this situation.

[00:00:49]So that's why we are using plants to stabilise this area.

[00:00:53]And that has to do with the fact that our little containers are over there and this is gonna be at some stage down the line, the living area and that kind of thing.

[00:01:03]So we wanna So we wanna stabilise this bank as much as possible.

[00:01:16]We've direct sown, the harakeke, and we're now going to be inter planting Tī kōuka or cabbage trees.

[00:01:21]I've got two additional thoughts that I wanna share with regards to the Tī kōuka that we are planting along this ridge line.

[00:01:27]The first one is we're doing a high density of planting, just like the seed-sown flaxes.

[00:01:33]A very high density of the  Tī kōuka growing together along the ridge line.

[00:01:37]That is mostly because they'll self prune probably.

[00:01:41]But also, the  Tī kōuka was a major staple crop for ancestral Māori.

[00:01:45]So I'd like to do quite a bit of research with reintroducing that crop as an edible plant, a perennial edible plant for us.

[00:01:53]And, experiment with how to do that and, go about eating it and processing it and those kinds of things.

[00:01:58]So even if all the  Tī kōuka that we plant along this ridge line, all of them take, and find a home here, that is completely fine.

[00:02:06]Because we can later on, go through and prune and thin them and then harvest those remains, and use those for, experimenting with, the edibility of that crop.

[00:02:15]And then the second thing that's on my mind, and this is also a very important aspect, the Tī kōuka is one of the trees that is quite flammable, so it is not very fireproof.

[00:02:25]In a landscape that is slowly becoming dominated by broom and gorse.

[00:02:30]We also want to be thinking about plants that are less susceptible to fire.

[00:02:35]And Tī kōuka cabbage tree is definitely not one of them.

[00:02:37]The dry leaves are very good tindle, and the plant itself is quite flammable.

[00:02:41]So we are entering the danger zone a little bit by planting the cabbage trees along the bank, which is relatively close to the living space.

[00:02:49]Even having the pathway in between.

[00:02:51]The cabbage trees are quite susceptible, but it's trying to find a balance between what is the priority.

[00:02:56]At this moment, we do want to prioritise stabilising the bank 'cause there's quite a bit of material that keeps washing down and coming onto the platform.

[00:03:04]And over time, this is only gonna get worse as the rain continues and the soil erodes.

[00:03:10]So I think at this stage we are prioritising planting the cabbage trees, for stabilisation.

[00:03:16]In combination with the harakeke, the flaxes.

[00:03:19]What we can do over time is under plant and either harvest the cabbage trees and then under plant with some of the low flammability species that'll provide a bit more fire protection.

[00:03:30]Or, selectively thin them and still under plant or take them all out completely.

[00:03:34]I don't know what that future trajectory is gonna look like, but at this stage, the stabilisation of the bank is the priority.

[00:03:41]The bank is actually not the only spot where we're gonna be planting the Tī kōuka, the cabbage trees.

[00:03:45]We're also gonna be adding them into the future food forest.

[00:03:48]So that's the area right behind me over here.

[00:03:51]It's close to the containers and the "living space".

[00:03:54]I've been planting quite a few things in here.

[00:03:57]You won't see them yet 'cause it's mostly broom and gorse.

[00:04:00]But I'll be under planting, transplanting quite a bit of the Tī kōuka in here as well.

[00:04:04]And again, that's twofold.

[00:04:06]So firstly, I'm hoping to experiment with the  Tī kōuka as a food crop.

[00:04:10]By having a high density, I can do a lot of experimentation and observation and interaction with this beautiful plant and see how we can use it and eat it.

[00:04:19]But then secondly, if those trials fail, that's not a worry at all because it can also just be a biomass plant.

[00:04:24]So if, um, for some reason we need to remove some of the plants, take them down, chop and drop them, those kinds of things, it'll just be biomass accumulation that we just keep adding to this future food forest over on this side.