Author: Rory Harding

Vegetable Growing (+more!) Workshop

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Join me (Rory) here in George Street Orchard for this comprehensive vegetable growing workshop.

We will be demonstrating and teaching a no-till, permanent-bed, compost-as-mulch system. Sounds a bit wordy eh, but it’s really simple, allowing us to spend more time planting and harvesting and less time weeding.

Beyond any particular method of garden establishment, no-till (or no-dig) is a year by year system favouring soil health, high yields and work efficiency. Most famously and wonderfully taught by the legendary Charles Dowding , variations of this system are now practiced by leading local and international organic market gardeners.

If you are keen on a diverse, high density, fruit forest garden, this is a great system to get you there whilst providing high yields in the short-mid term.

During the workshop we will cover garden design and establishment, composting, propagation, harvesting, planning for all seasons and more.

Sunday 12 December 1-4 pm, with an optional orchard tour 4-5 pm as a bonus. $40 per person.

Please email registrations to Rory @ georgestreetorchard@gmail.com.#nodig #notill #noraisedbeds #urbanfarming

Open days 24th and 25th April

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After cancellation last year due to Covid, the Wild Dunedin Festival is trying again and we are looking forward to hosting these tours as part of it. $5 entry, 12-4pm Saturday 24th and 1-4pm Sunday 25th. There will be a few plants for sale on the day. Please expect to park a few blocks away. Check out the links below for more details. Please share with anyone you think may appreciate it. Hope to see you here!

https://hail.to/wild-dunedin/publication/Jn9cZIN/article/Fpj3KP9?fbclid=IwAR2SeENNkiyxJNigCvbQiuasaqfNev7Psi4sUG8dfIFneGNVbJfYbyI4uik

Autumn 2020 Events

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Hello website followers! It’s been almost a year since I last contributed to my site, and you can blame Instagram (click the logo at the top and centre of this page). It’s very convenient for sharing a few photos with minimal text regularly, plus it reaches a different audience. Any long form content (should it ever materialise!) will still be posted here, as will all event notifications. I don’t want you to get another email just to see a few photos that you’ve probably seen before in a past season. However, each season is a new iteration of the familiar and there have been some exciting changes, so I promise a decent update soon.

Meanwhile here’s a poster for some upcoming events. If you can’t make it to the open day here on Sunday March 22, there are two more on the Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 of April as part of the Wild Dunedin Festival, both 12-4 pm and $5 entry. Hope to see some of you then!

 

 

Autumn 2019

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Click to view as a slideshow

Persimmon
Grape and fig
Kiwi
Pineapple sage
Perennial brassica (one cutting!)
Winter greens
Thinned summer sown beets
Passionfruit
Japanese myoga ginger
Puzzles
Boskoop
Blackboy peach
Myoga
Myoga
This orchard still has room for a few spuds
The record holder 255 g
Winter greens underplanted the toms
Persimmon above cape gooseberry

Sap rising, fruit set and first fruits

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Thanks to everyone who visited George Street Orchard on Sunday as part of the Valley Project and Otago Girls’ High School fundraising tours. It was great to see familiar faces and I enjoyed meeting lots of new people so keen to grow. Thanks also to those who purchased some of my plants – it really helps to keep my nursery habit alive!

Lettuce and Shungiku. No dig 75cm bed, 45cm path. Yes, I measured. Modern standard dimensions for no dig market gardening and to me it’s the best
Rhubarb and Sweet Purple asparagus
Haskap berries

It’s such a fun time of year – watching blossom slowly turn to fruit, seeing perennial herbs construct themselves again, launching new ideas and patterns, and witnessing the emergence of crops you’ve been waiting on a few years…

Nursery courtyard
Moorpark apricot
First time persimmon flowering
Marionberry
Haskap
Mini market garden
Conference pear
Loquat
Nursery
Orchid
Sea kale
White paint dramatically improves your equivalent sunshine hours
William’s bon Cretian pear
Woodchips for paths, mulch, compost…call an arborist today and get heaps. Leave it in a pile to age if you want or use it as you need. After a year or so on a pathway you can rake it up for adding to a potting mix
Liberty apple
Brown Turkey fig. Permanent framework is now mostly established. One to two year shoots grown and cut back off this as figs only fruit on new growth (main crop) and last years wood (Breba crop).
Loquat well under way at a garden nearby
Sea kale root cuttings
Chicken roost and nesting box under construction
Covered compost and chicken run connection