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Update: After this article was published it was announced that the composting event, to be held at Leigh Hall on April 9, will no longer take place in person and will instead be done via Zoom due to Covid-19. Info: https://compostcollective.org.nz/events/composting-zoom-workshop-leigh/
The annual EcoFest North event, which encourages people to reconnect with nature and learn new skills, is well underway with a range of in-person and online options to keep gardeners busy.
The Compost Collective is running two introductory courses in the north – at the Puhoi Centennial Hall on April 2 and the Leigh Hall on April 9. Both workshops run from 10am to noon. The sessions will cover the three basic composting systems that can be used in the home and garden – traditional composting bins, worm farms and bokashi buckets. A Vaccine Pass is required for the workshops.
Also on April 2 is an online workshop which will be held from 10.30am to 12.30pm with mycologist Barton Acres. It will explore the biology and life cycle of fungi, the roles that they play in the ecosystem and how to utilise this knowledge to grow mushrooms at home.
Acres will cover the main culinary and medicinal species of mushroom that can be cultivated in New Zealand, and some basic cultivation methods for them. This includes growing mushrooms on straw, making mushroom logs, and creating outdoor mushroom beds in the garden. There will be a half-hour Q&A session at the end.
On April 17, a course to kick-start growing veggies at home, underpinned by permaculture principles, gets underway. The lessons will be applicable to any site, large or small, and the methods will be suitable for all climates.
The course takes up to six weeks to complete, although it is self-paced. Once registered, you will have until November to complete the course. Each lesson has a practical component designed to take you a step further, from a bare patch of land, to a fully-fledged vegetable garden.
For more information about these events and others, or to book a place in one of the workshops, go to: https://kaipatiki.org.nz/
