About us
Close to Home - March 2009
Meet the Minister
- Minister Phil Heatley.
New Zealand's Housing Minister is 41-year-old Phil Heatley. Being born, raised and educated in Whangarei, Phil has strong personal ties to the electorate with both his immediate and extended family residing there.
In 1990 he completed a Masters with honours degree majoring in Horticultural Engineering. In 1993 both Phil and his wife Jenny, a registered nurse, worked with an international relief agency aboard a nine-storey, 12,000-ton hospital ship. When in port, crew undertook medical, agricultural and construction work in developing countries.
After returning from overseas in 1995, Phil was employed as a professional engineer for a NZ Dairy Board subsidiary Nationally, Phil was responsible for working on behalf of the dairy industry in relation to the Resource Management Act (1991).
Phil's personal interests include carpentry, tennis, boating and fishing.
Phone call alert
Some tenants have received phone calls from people claiming to be from Housing New Zealand Corporation. The phone calls are introduced as 'surveys' but the questions asked include personal financial and banking details.
It is important not to give personal financial or banking details to people who call you on the telephone.
Housing New Zealand carries out regular customer satisfaction surveys by phone, and we use a reputable national research agency. The questions in our survey are about people's experiences in dealing with Housing New Zealand, and this gives us valuable information about our service to customers.
We do not ask questions about people's personal financial situation.
If you have given any personal financial information, such as bank account numbers, to someone on the phone claiming to represent Housing New Zealand, then please contact your bank as soon as possible and advise them of the situation. Please also call us on 0800 801 601 to let us know.
- Rachel Priest opens some of the entries in our 2008 Garden Awards colouring competition.
Popular colouring competition
Dozens of entries were received each day for our Garden Awards colouring competition, from all around the country. Thank you to everyone who entered for your time and creativity.
The Garden Awards and the colouring competition both closed on 30 January 2009, and the winners will be published in the June issue of Close to Home.
Prize winning chicken recipe
- Patricia Jensen enjoys cooking very much.
Patricia Jensen of Waihi was delighted to hear she won second prize in our recipe competition with her tasty chicken recipe.
Patricia enjoys cooking very much. She has three teenage grandchildren and they have huge appetites!
They love the taste of this dish. It's healthier and cheaper than takeaways, and it's really easy to prepare.
Patricia uses a bottle of ready-made butter chicken sauce from the supermarket. Patricia adapts the recipe depending on how many she's cooking for. Her own favourite version includes mushrooms and a little cream.
Congratulations to Patricia, who has won a Russell Hobbs slow cooker and cookbook valued at $100.
Better Butter Chicken (4 large servings)
- 1 bottle butter chicken sauce
- 400g diced chicken breast
- 1 diced red onion and red pepper
- 2 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes (optional)
- 2 potatoes, skin on, diced into 2cm cubes
- 1 kumara and 1/4 pumpkin diced into 2cm cubes
- 1 cup frozen green vegetables (peas, broccoli, beans etc)
- fresh coriander.
Using a large wok, frying pan or saucepan, fry the diced chicken in a little oil until golden brown. Add onion, red pepper and garlic, and fry lightly. Add the butter chicken sauce, and about 1 cup of water. To make this dish go even further, add a tin of tomatoes if desired.
Add the diced potatoes, kumara and pumpkin, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the frozen green vegetables, and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve over hot rice, and garnish with freshly chopped coriander.
Composting for healthy gardens
Composting is a great way of reusing your kitchen scraps and garden rubbish. Making a compost heap is easy and cheap, and your garden will really thank you for it! Compost improves the soil and helps grow healthier plants. Dig your compost into the soil in autumn or spring, or use it as a mulch.
Two types of organic material should be added to a compost heap - greens and browns.
Green materials have lots of nitrogen and include:
- clean grass clippings
- weeds (but not invasive weeds such as oxalis, onion grass and convolvulus)
- kitchen scraps, including coffee grounds and tea bags (but not meat or dairy products).
Brown materials have lots of carbon and include:
- sawdust (but not from treated wood)
- shredded paper
- straw
- vacuum cleaner dust.
- Compost feeds your garden by adding nutrients and texture to the soil and helps retain moisture.
Get the right mix
You need to get the right mix of greens and browns - too much green can lead to overheating and loss of oxygen, while too much brown can slow the composting process. An ideal mix is 1-2 parts green and 1 part brown (or 5cm of brown for each 10cm of green) in alternating layers. Using small quantities of blood and bone can speed the decomposing process, and help to keep the compost neutral.
Chop or blend
Chopping up the materials first will speed up the composting process.
Keep it moist
Compost should be moist, like a damp sponge. Too much water may result in a smelly, slimy mess, while not enough water will slow the breaking down process. If your greens aren't very soggy, moisten the browns as you add them. If you're not using a compost bin with a lid, cover your compost with carpet, sacking, corrugated iron or polythene - this keeps in the heat and helps prevent rain getting in or moisture evaporating away.
Turn, turn, turn
Turn your compost regularly if you can, so that oxygen gets in to aid the breakdown process. Composting takes about 3-4 months if the heap is turned and up to 9-12 months if it is not. If you can't turn the compost, you can:
- put a pipe with holes in it through the middle of the compost to let air in
- add twigs and small branches as you build your pile.
Look after yourself
Compost and soil contain living organisms that can sometimes cause illness or allergies (especially if people already have weakened resistance or breathing difficulties). So always take these precautions when working with compost:
- wash your hands afterwards
- protect broken skin by wearing gloves
- work in an open space with plenty of fresh air
- keep compost moist to prevent spores and dust problems.
What works?
- a pile of material, covered with carpet or polythene.
- buy a plastic bin or make your own from timber or concrete blocks.
- materials are placed in a drum that is turned regularly to mix the composting material and provide oxygen.
- for big gardens, bury kitchen scraps in trenches in your garden, cover with plenty of soil and plant on top.
Get Ready Get Thru
By Marguerite Verheul and Ian Gall
High winds, heavy rain, slips and snow...we had some amazing weather last year. If you got caught up in a disaster, would you know how to 'Get Ready Get Thru'?
- Photo from Marlborough Express.
Roads, power, water supplies and homes took a battering last winter as storms swept the country. Remember those TV pictures of flooding in Picton and North Canterbury, or a large tree in Nelson toppling over, just missing the car driving past? Very heavy rain and flooding resulted in civil defence emergencies in Marlborough and Kaikoura, for example, while emergency operations centres were activated in Waikato, Gisborne, Manawatu-Wanganui, Wairoa and Hastings.
Civil Defence doesn't have a large full-time team ready to step in the moment there's a disaster.
Civil defence staff at the Ministry and at local authorities work together with Police, Fire, Ambulance, the Army, and volunteers to coordinate the emergency response as needed. They can also evacuate or restrict entry to buildings, private homes and towns, and close roads.
In a major emergency, help may not get to everyone as quickly as they need it. That is why it's vital for individuals and families to plan ahead, and to be prepared.
- Make sure you know what to do - start by reading the survival guide in the inside cover of the Yellow Pages.
- Make an emergency plan for your household - including pets.
- Make up a survival kit so you and your family can cope on your own for up to three days - there's a list of emergency survival items in the Yellow Pages.
- Listen to the radio for civil defence updates on conditions and evacuation details.
Your local council has more information specific to your area; or you can go to the website www.getthru.govt.nz. It's in several languages and you can even download a copy of their Household Emergency Checklist and Plan.
What if my Housing New Zealand home is damaged in a disaster or bad weather?
- If the phones are working, contact Housing New Zealand as soon as you are able - call freephone 0800 801 601.
- Please be patient - the phones might be very busy if other Housing New Zealand properties are affected.
- Our contractors will do the most urgent jobs first - where people's health and safety are at risk - as soon as it is safe to do so. In some cases, that might mean a temporary repair until the full job can be done a bit later.
Gardening Diary
March
- March is the time to plant seedlings of beetroot, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, spinach and silverbeet.
- Sow seeds of carrots, parsnips, radish, lettuce, spinach, silverbeet, beetroot, (mild climates only), swedes and turnip directly into the garden. These will need thinning later.
- Seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts are best sown in trays for planting out later.
- Plant herbs in pots or the garden. Parsley can be grown from seed sown now. Perennial herbs like chives, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage and marjoram can be divided and replanted. Basil should be harvested before the cold weather and dried or frozen.
- In the flower garden it's time to plant spring bulbs.
April
- April is the time to tidy up summer flowering annuals.
- It's also a good time for planting trees and shrubs.
- Plant primulas, cinerarias, nemesias, iceland poppies, calendula, stock, pansies, violas, polyanthus, penstemon, snapdragon and hollyhock.
- Harvest late-summer veges like pumpkins, marrows, potatoes and onions. Sow seeds of beetroot, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots, onions, radish, spinach, swedes and turnips.
- Sow vacant areas of the vegetable garden with a green crop such as blue lupin or mustard for digging in later.
- Rhubarb can be divided and replanted into compost-enriched soil.
May
- May is your last chance to plant spring bulbs.
- It's also time to dig up dahlia tubers and gladioli corms and store in a dry place.
- In the kitchen garden, plant seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, silverbeet, spinach and spring onions.
- Plant garlic and shallot bulbs, and strawberries.
Pool safety update
If you have any kind of pool in your garden that can hold more than 40cm of water, or if you want to get one, you must talk to your local council.
The council may need you to register the pool, so they can check it complies with the law on swimming pool fences.
If you buy an inflatable or freestanding pool it is your responsibility to make sure it is properly fenced if needed, and it's the council's job to look after pool safety in the community.
This updates a December 2008 article in Close to Home.
