This workshop with Judy Keats is your seasonal crash course for how to care for your fruit trees at this pivotal time of year.

Following the summer harvest of stone and pip fruit, the upcoming autumn months present awesome conditions for pruning your trees. Edible trees need the right conditions to thrive and produce, starting from the root zone and continuing up into the canopy as they develop.

In this workshop, Judy Keats will teach you how to encourage growth with good timing and pruning technique. You will spend time in the gardens learning how to approach your cuts to shape a tree for increased production, ease of harvest, and overall beauty. Our food forest will be your outdoor laboratory to practise examining shape and condition, inspecting new wood versus old wood, and working with Judy to answer your questions and get to the bottom of caring for your trees.

Judy will also demonstrate tree planting and discuss ways to manage pests, disease, and what understory species to consider for guilds - or a group of companion plants that grow best with your trees.

Join us for this timely, seasonal opportunity to to learn and experience methods for caring for your fruit trees. Help make the most of this time of year, so that your trees are in the best shape to continue thriving for seasons to come!

Judy Keats is a permaculturist, organic systems educator, and community garden mentor and advisor, with more than 8 years experience establishing, coordinating, and teaching in community gardens across greater Auckland.

Judy is passionate about well-being for people and caring for the environment in which we dwell. She believes that by observing our plants and our changing climate, we can gain insight and a closer connection to the health of our gardens, which is key to the success and optimal yields of a sustainable food system. She is committed to working with communities to foster knowledge and experience towards mastering resilience.

At Kelmarna, we strive to make education accessible for everyone. So, where possible, we offer a 40% discount on our workshops to valid Community Services Card holders. If you book one of these tickets, please email us a copy of your valid Community Services Card, and remember to bring it along to the workshop. Please note that this option does NOT include Super Gold Card holders. Ngā mihi.