Growing Healthy Gardening Programme
The Growing Healthy gardening programme is an 8 module programme that is run over 2 days or as an 8-week programme. There are five theory modules which provide the information you need to understand how and why things happen in your garden and what you need to do to maximise production and minimise effort Three practical sessions teach you basic skills you need to build a productive home garden with minimal maintenance and maximum production.
THEORY SESSIONS
Module 1 explains the role of the freebies that nature provides: inputs that make up 95% of what you need to build a high yielding food garden. Freebies are provided on condition that you have the soil minerals available in the ratio suggested by Karl Albrecht. Your soil is home for a multitude of beneficial soil micro-organisms and you learn a little about the creatures that inhabit the soil food web whose job is to turn the soil ingredients into plant available food.
Module 2 teaches you about the minerals that are the building blocks for the structures of your plants: the stems, fruit, roots and leaves.
Module 3 explains the role of trace elements as catalysts that control the chemical processes of micro-organisms and plants and produce the energy for processes such as nutrient intake, growth, reproduction and photosynthesis.
Module 4 explains the biological systems which allow plants to take in the elements in the soil (plant food) and use them to grow and reproduce. The most significant of these systems is photosynthesis. Others include the inter-cellular communication and transport systems. You also learn about the immune system that exists in the plant world.
Module 5 deals with disease, weed and pest management. Pests and disease are treated as signposts that "something is wrong". Rather than attempting to eradicate the pests and disease, Bev suggests that you look to the cause and fix the problem rather than tackling the symptoms of the problem.
Practical Module 1: Seed propagation and transplanting.
Practical Module 2: Building a no-dig garden.
Practical Module 3: Developing a garden structure that incorporates both worm and microbe farms and growing areas to maximise productivity and fertility and minimise maintenance.
Each theory lesson is accompanied by a workbook programme to help you to integrate the comprehensive information provided during the Growing Healthy programme.
Background
Bev Buckley, workshop designer and facilitator spent 20 years turning unproductive land on Mt Tamborine in Queensland into an award-winning certified organic farm which produced avocados, limes, blueberries, ginger, rhubarb, turmeric and a wide range of vegetables. Subsequently, she developed the Green Shed market which provided a sales outlet for local growers. This was done with no prior knowledge of growing food. By applying the principles espoused by Karl Albrecht and by developing a novel approach of combining worm and microbe farms as an integral part of the growing process, Beverley developed a highly productive farm where she grew a large variety of fruit and vegetables .
The Growing Healthy gardening workshops are based on the Karl Albrecht concepts which is is very simple in its basic logic. Tests were initially done on soils that consistently grew the highest quality crop yields and it was found that these soils all had a similar chemistry with Calcium levels being between 60-70%* and Magnesium 10-15%*. Very definite levels were also established for N, P, K, S and the trace elements. Over seventy percent of agricultural crops and high production pastures grow best within this range of soil chemistry. It has been proven, again and again, that a balanced approach to soil chemistry is the key to successful plant growth and that when this occurs soil pH, aeration, drainage, structure and beneficial soil biology also improve. Thus, if we can balance our soil chemistry including the trace elements, improved productivity and plant and animal health will be a natural outcome. Additionally the soil food web is important because micro-organisms in the soil prepare the food that is required for plant growth. Thus understanding how to work with a garden to promote a favourable conditions for the soil micro-organisms and having a strategy to do that is important. The Growing Healthy Gardening programme provides you with the understanding and the strategies to us that will achieve these goals.
Cost: $12 per lesson or $80 for entire programme if paid upfront.
For information email: Growinghealthytoo@protonmail.com
SEED PROPAGATION
It takes a lot of concentration working with tiny seeds that need to be placed carefully within the furrows that you have created in your seed propagation tray. The Growing Healthy programme teaches how to maximise the germination of seeds and how to transplant them into your garden.