The team at Papatuanuku ki Taurangi were happy to help host a Biodynamic gardening workshop led by Peter Proctor and Rachel Pomeroy this weekend just gone.
Biodynamic enthusiasts are lucky to have two such experienced people to learn from in NZ. If you want to know more about Peter and Rachel, watch the documentary “One Man, One Cow, One Planet” which traces their work teaching farmers across India. Peter is also author of Grasp The Nettle, regarded as something of a bible for Biodynamic practice. The pair are warm, generous, down-to-earth folk.
The weekend was organised by the Auckland Biodynamic Group (thanks Diane) and kicked off on Friday night at Rudolph Steiner House. We learned about the seasons, good times for planting, and nipped out into the cold for some star-gazing and moon-watching.
Saturday morning the group met at the same place and got warmed up making a compost pile. Straw, manure, kitchen scraps and grass clippings were layered up. Peter kept us on our toes and made sure the pile was square and level.
“Making compost is one of the beginnings of good soil management,” Peter said, and he takes to the task with gusto. We added Biodynamic preparations to enliven the pile and blessed our handiwork.
Peter said the compost heap had now taken on its own personality and I had to say I agreed. “Mr Heap” was looking quite chuffed at his own existence. We'll have to check on progress in a couple of months.
We then hiked the short distance over to Papatuanuku ki Taurangi. Here the group prepared a new vegetable row, added compost, and lavished each seedling with a dose of diluted cow pat pit (a specially aged manure known simply as CPP).
The day concluded with stirring preparation 500 and applying it to the gardens.
We spent Sunday morning preparing a new garden from scratch. We chipped off an area of lawn, loosened up the soil and added plenty of compost before planting a green manure crop and splashing on a good dose of CPP.
Sister Rosemary will plant a mix of flowers and herbs here in the Spring.
Someone asked Peter if using a rotary hoe would be an okay approach too. Better to work with hand tools he replied. Avoids creating a hard pan under the top soil, plus it adds some spirit to the work.
“You're putting your humanity into it, you're putting your life into it and that will help it grow.”
We enjoyed a final lunch and wrapped things up. As well as all the practical knowledge we gained, the workshop will be remembered for good company and great conversation. That, and the heavy rain that waited until we had just finished before bucketing down. The heavens were kind.
By Wayne Erb
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Today we planted out Sister Rosemary's flower bed that was prepared from scratch at Peter Proctor's workshop in August. The compost had been incorporated well into the soil and it was looking very healthy. The green manure crops had done their work and there were lots of nodules on their roots, which were dug in to decompose and enrich the soil further.
Ping helped to design the semi-formal planting with an oval shape in the middle and four areas radiating out from the centre and the rest of the team got stuck into the planting.
The bed is a mix of flowers, vegetables and herbs with dahlias, foxgloves, irises, alyssum, pansies, amaryllis, Christmas lilies and love-in-a-mist, thyme, lettuce, chives and parsley.
As soon as we turned our backs, the spur-winged plovers and their three chicks came to investigate and eat a seed or two! Hopefully they don't help themselves to too much of the garden.
The bed will be enjoyed by the visitors from the rest home on site, and will provide beautiful flowers for picking.