Courses

We usually run one four day Introduction to Permaculture course a year in the July school holidays and two weekend Food Forest Workshops, at Queen’s Birthday weekend and again late winter/early spring. Seed Sowing workshops are usually in spring and autumn, the former being part of a longer propagation workshop which can be combined with the food forest course for a three day weekend. We also run Start Your Own Edible Garden Workshops for beginners at various times.

We can also tailor courses and workshops to your specific needs. Whether you are a business, kindy, school, community garden, marae, group of home gardeners or mums with littlies, let us know your wishes and we can arrange times, content and costs to fit. To keep up to date with our course and workshop programme, please subscribe to our newsletter (see sidebar).

Jo has a background in teaching and teacher training (Bsc Hons Linguistic & International Studies, Dip. TESOL, Cert. NCALNE). She studied Organic and Biodynamic agriculture in Melbourne and has two PDCs (Permaculture Design Certificates), studying under Morag Gamble at Crystal Waters Ecovillage, and Geoff Lawton in Taranaki. She has been teaching permaculture, sustainability and gardening courses since 2005 for organisations such as Environment Centre Hawke’s Bay, Taruna Organics & Biodynamics Certificate, the Building Biology & Ecology Institute and Lotus Holistic Centre. She taught horticulture at Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) for four years, and has run courses and workshops here at Kahikatea Farm since 2010. She is currently studying for a Certificate in Kai Oranga – the practice, protocol and language of growing healthy, ‘clean’ food according to Māori tradition.