Cultural experience visiting Betsy Kettle's organic garden

I had a great day visiting Betsy’s organic garden. Not only was it enjoyable but also a huge learning experience.  The group of women participating and sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge about not only growing things but growing things in an environment without the use of harmful chemicals.  It is a supreme effort, but justification for this is the end result; a future of ‘well-being’ not only for the land but for everything and everyone that lives off it.

The garden course organised by ‘Home builders’ of Warkworth. is free.  Betsy Kettle, a registered organic grower, takes these Permaculture classes and she is excellent value.  She provides written material not only of practical plans for an effective organic layout, but also the principles of Permaculture where every element is placed in relationship to other elements so that they assist each other.  This kind of learning gives one in-depth information about plants, vegetables, the importance of crop rotation and its nutritional benefits, chooks and their environment, where and what to grow in an orchard, those industrious little slaves, ‘the earth worms’ and the many other functions that plants provide for us.

This group of six classes is designed around field days, where Betsy makes sure the group gets stuck in and learns by doing. Last week it was Small Space Gardening, where we cleaned and replanted the Homebuilders garden for spring. This week it was designing zone 1 which is the most intensively used area of your property and the versatile use of Bamboo. Betsy enlarged on the selecting, harvesting and curing of this material and for building fences, pergolas, screens, and more basically, trapping snails.  She invited Kim, also belonging to the organic Pod, who very effectively demonstrated the use of using Bamboo as a support when growing beans. This was done in the afternoon, and with several others we had to husk the stakes before they could be used-I decided despite the usefulness of Bamboo, I would give it a miss in future.

During the morning Betsy clarified the importance of zone 1, which is in close proximity to the house.  She then took us on an informative tour of this zone- herb garden, chooks, citrus orchard, subtropical orchard and the veggie garden.  It was great.  I learned so much about so much and was gobsmacked at the sneaky use of how to thwart their ‘Broody cycle’ when one wants ‘eggs, not chickens!

The day began at 10 a m and finished at 2.30 p.m.  Every one brought a plate for a shared lunch - it was Yummy! And, also gave everyone an opportunity to review the morning session in an informal and relaxed environment.

Next week we are all looking forward to visiting Connie’s place in Puhoi to learn about, ‘Feeding the Family; how big should the garden be that feeds the family, what to grow, organic weed control and crop rotations.’ 

Another cultural experience, how good is that!

-- Annie Glancey.