Pathways to Abundance Series Part 3: Tree Care and Tools

PATHWAYS TO ABUNDANCE SERIES
Permaculture in the City with Judy Keats

In this 5-part series with Judy Keats, learn in detail with 5 full-day workshops how to grow your own food, and live well in the city or on the land. Create abundance in your garden, using ecological and sustainable techniques, and design that works with nature. Each session provides a deep-dive into a focus topic, to give you all the tools you need to obtain a yield.

Judy is a permaculture & regenerative agriculture practitioner with considerable experience establishing, coordinating, and teaching in community gardens across Auckland. Judy is passionate about well-being for people and caring for the environment in which we dwell.

This course is suited to any skill level, giving new as well as experienced gardeners the opportunity to grow their knowledge and sharpen their skills alongside an expert tutor.

Course content:
PART 1: 27/4/25 - Introduction to Permaculture

• Learn how Permaculture can guide you toward abundance, in the garden and in wellness!
• Sector analysis helps you understand natural patterns to find useful outcomes. Learn how to interpret wind, water and sunlight as well as other natural and uncontrolled influences.
• Soil is the foundation of your garden. This first session will start with an examination of soil testing practices, methods of compost making, and strategies for managing natural additives to boost soil fertility. Find out what healthy soil looks like, come away with a better understanding of your conditions at home, and take practical steps to improve and maintain the condition of your soil.

PART 2: 25/5/25 - Forest gardens

• Incorporating tree crops in your garden bring yields in the long term. Discover how to select varieties that work for your site and climate, and how to support them for long term crop production.
• Learn how to design guilds of plants that work together to support, protect and nourish each other. Discover guild categories including nitrogen fixers, companions (for attracting beneficial insects or deterring pests), deep tap roots and ground covers.
• Food forests mimic the natural structure of forests with productive plants. Give yourself the best chance at success by looking at how to choose the most suitable specimens for your space, and for each strata in your forest garden. Learn from example in Kelmarna’s 25 year old food forest.

>> PART 3: 29/6/25 - Tree care and tools

• This session will cover pruning skills and tree training strategies to care for new and existing fruit trees in order to organically manage optimal production, and you'll have the opportunity to get hands on and put theory into practice in the Kelmarna food forest.
• Rely on the benefit of biodiversity to manage a healthy, productive garden. Focus on how to improve the health of plants by supporting biodiversity, in order to promote biological solutions for common pests and diseases. Judy will also cover a range of common strategies that use biology and ingenuity rather than destructive toxins.
• Learn how to use tried and tested tools, and how to care for them.

PART 4: 27/7/25 - Gardening with the seasons

• Maximise production by working with the seasons to optimise efforts in the garden all year round. This session covers fundamental strategies for planning your garden to manage the benefits and disadvantages of each season, to improve your understanding of when to grow certain plants, when to start certain processes, how to select seeds, and how to manage your time and energy to get the most from your garden at any given time of year.
• Raising new plants and getting them in the ground is the key to ongoing abundance. Learn how to grow plants from seed, from division, and using cuttings. Learn how to make your own seed-raising mix, to help you minimise inputs and maximise outcomes, and then you'll go through best practices for successfully transplanting your seedlings into the garden.
  

PART 5: 31/8/25 - Ways with weeds

• This session covers annual weeds, noxious weeds, and strategies for processing them, including making weed brews, to explore how to manage or even eliminate weeds from your system while avoiding waste and recovering resources.
  
•  Get up close and familiar with beneficial and invasive weeds in order to learn how to work with plants in both categories in a way that enhances the condition of your garden and nutrition of your crops, and how they can be used usefully for food and health

Tickets include:

• 'Complete Series' = Admission and guided instruction to all 5 x sessions of the Pathways to Abundance Series, including this session, with access to tools and resources at each session.
• 'Single Session' = Admission and guided instruction for this session, with access to tools and resources for practical activities on site.

Please bring your own lunch for this workshop. Snacks and tea will be provided.

At Kelmarna, we strive to make education accessible for everyone. So, where possible, we offer a 35% 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.

We look forward to seeing you on the farm soon!

Kelmarna Community Farm Workshops Program