Topics from gardening to building at Whanganui learning festival

Nelson Lebo began holding Repair Cafes last year. Photo / Lewis Gardner

Covid-19 has encouraged people to garden and plant fruit trees - and they can learn more during a Permaculture/Festival of Adult Learning week this month.

The Ahurei Ākonga Festival of Adult Learning has a permaculture flavour and takes place from September 9-13 in Whanganui. It started as a regional permaculture weekend, organiser Nelson Lebo said, then with funding from Adult and Community Education Aotearoa (ACE), it joined with the learning festival.

This year's events include sessions on gardening, composting and basic fruit tree care, a presentation on resilience in suburbia, Lebo's first Repair Cafe since the March lockdown, a heritage seed swap and talks about building affordable and sustainable housing.

The basic gardening course is at the request of Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority, which has a whānau that wants to get started. The seed saving event is an annual one, and the repair session at Mint Cafe in Majestic Square at 2pm on September 12 will focus on minor bicycle repairs and replacing tool handles.

"If people bring that broken tool and a new tool handle we can drill out the old wood and pin and put in a new handle, put a bolt through it and tighten it up," Lebo said.

There is a fee for the two sessions on housing, but they will save people "thousands" if they are building or renovating, he said.

Lebo works for Palmerston North City Council as an eco-design adviser. He and his wife, Dani, have just received resource consent for their Eco-School in No 3 Line near Whanganui. The consent allows them to host workshops of up to 15 adults on the property.

The eco-thrifty house tour on September 13 is of their former Castlecliff property.

The school's mission is to remove the barriers to participation for anyone wanting any level of sustainability education, and it gears instruction toward its audience.

The Covid-19 pandemic has a "silver lining", Lebo said.

"It has boosted people's interest in community and resilience substantially. Seed companies around the world have sold out and people have been planting fruit trees in their back yards."

Most of the education sessions are free, and all the details are online at the ecothriftylife.com website.