Grey Lynn gardening at the Women's Centre continues on August 18th with a seven week series of sessions to get your spring garden packed full of food and flowers. (Note: the venue is a 'women only' space)

We'll be making seed raising mix from scratch, potting mix from a range of inputs, and growing everything from seed, cuttings, or root divisions.

Spaces are limited, and these first tickets are available to people wanting access to every session over the eight weeks - it's a bit like a spring subscription ticket. You may decide to skip a few sessions, or perhaps just pop in for 15 minutes to purchase your next lot of soil, seeds or seedlings, and ask just a couple of questions.

You are also welcome to stay the full two hours each Wednesday and make the most of the time available.

My goals for you?

You'll learn to make soil, and never have to buy it in a plastic bag ever again.
You'll have an abundance of food and flowers for your garden, perhaps so much that your friends and neighbours will get some of your excess.
You'll see the entire seed sowing cycle and be able to plan your garden for summer and autumn - this could set up a cycle of self-sufficient abundance and dramatically reduce your dependence on garden centre seedlings.
You'll save seeds and gradually become less dependent on commercial seeds, instead creating a truly circular system.
You'll gain insights into a biodynamic approach to home gardening, and get to use CPP for all your seedlings.
You'll learn how to use a biodynamic moon calendar to plan your seed sowing and planting for spring and beyond.

What's included?

Self-paced online courses in seed sowing, container gardening, worm farming and hot compost. (Value $200)
Access to in-person support at the Auckland Women's Centre on a Wednesday from 10am-12pm each week from August 11th-September 29th. In the event of Lockdown restrictions, these sessions will be held on Zoom, and materials can be collected via contactless pick-ups from Te Atatū South. (Value $400)
Introduction Zoom consultation to clarify your spring goals for your home or workplace garden. (Value $200)

What's not included?

Seeds, soil, trays, seedlings. I find a lot of people have materials sitting at home that they want to use, and there are always different scales of growing, and different types of tools have appeal: plastic vs wooden trays, terracotta vs ceramic planters.
The actual gardening sessions tend to look like a crop swap - you bring your excess to share, and the excess plants I bring are planted up to create container gardens that get gifted to projects supporting a wide range of people in the community, or else sold as top quality seedlings - there are no Demeter certified growers selling plants in Auckland, but if there were, they would probably be double or triple the price of organic seedlings.