Workshop to help gardeners develop their growing spaces

JULIA WADE

13 Feb, 2023

Having a bountiful garden full of edible leaves, flowers, fruit and vegetables only a few steps away from the kitchen is a pleasure for many as well as beneficial to mind, body and soul – as well as the financial pocket. Locals wanting to get more out of their patch of dirt can now sign up for some expert guidance with a gardening guru.

Due to an increase in interest of self-sufficient gardens based on organic permaculture techniques, a new workshop ‘Resilient Edible Ecosystems’ [REE] is coming to Mangawhai, designed to support and inspire keen gardeners and budding green thumbs alike to create healthy and fruitful green spaces.

REE is facilitated by permaculture practitioner and organic systems educator Judy Keats, who has over a decade of experience working in various gardens and Auckland’s urban farms, including market garden manager for Kelmarna Gardens, an organic community farm in Ponsonby. She also teaches gardening programmes as well as offers consultations and individual coaching in private gardens.

“For 12 years I have been growing organically across multiple sites, in which time I have retained a keen interest in soil and plant performance,” says Judy. “More recently, I discovered the art of polycropping and farming regeneratively, and since then I haven’t looked back, applying these principles to five-hundred square metres of growing space.”

Held at a private Mangawhai Heads property on Sunday February 26, through practical demonstrations, Judy will cover a range of methods to help develop healthy and productive land-spaces, from building fertility from the ground up, perennial weed management strategies, to fruit tree care including guilds and water conservation and plant health.

“I enjoy the creative process of ‘guilding’ or grouping plants together in a forest garden setting or an annual bed, and in each case plants stack comfortably as community dwellers, just like us. The more gaps we fill the more we stimulate the soil microbiome, retain moisture and suppress weeds, and crop performance is significantly outweighed.

“The time is ripe for more gardeners to be taking note of this methodology, it needs to become normalised, it is less labour intensive as there is no digging involved, carbon is sequestered in the soil and health is enhanced in the edible eco system,” Judy says.

“I really do enjoy gardening, it’s a real learning opportunity and for me, being immersed in nature is therapy.”

n For more information visit events.humanitix.com/resilient-edible-eco-systems

Experienced permaculture practitioner and organic systems educator, Judy Keats, is in Mangawhai to guide local green thumbs to create their own sustainable and fruitful greenspaces. PHOTO/SUPPLIED