Commercial organic gardener Shannon Wright grows fresh, health-giving produce to sell at her local farmers’ market. She shares her secrets to creating fertile soil filled with biological life, and how to create a nutrient-dense salad.

Words Nadene Hall Photos: Kelly Oliver Photography

Learn more about growing the most nutritious greens in the September issue of NZ Lifestyle Block. Subscribe here.

Watercress, chinese cabbage, and chard are the three most health-giving greens you can grow, but they’re only as nutrient-rich as the soil in which they grow.

Organic grower Shannon Wright (backyardjem.co.nz) produces a wide variety of greens on her Waikato block. She trained with garden guru Kay Baxter of the Koanga Institute (koanga.org.nz) and bio-intensive grower Jodi Roebuck (roebuckfarm.com), and now teaches organics herself.

She says her primary goal is to create fertile soil, full of biological life. She’s the first to admit it’s a complicated process. After five years, she is still working on it. But there are simple things that can be done to get started.

FIVE GREAT TESTS FOR NUTRIENT DENSITYTaste-testingShannon’s favourite test is also the easiest. “I’ve learned over the years to taste-test, so I have a baseline. Then I can tell how my produce could be better.

“Taste-testing enables me to become more in tune with my surroundings and senses. I can discover if a plant’s bitterness or sweetness works, whether it’s time for a plant to be removed and to grow something else.”

General soil health: basic soil test

This yearly test shows Shannon the total amounts of the five major soil nutrients (phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium) and the soil pH.

“I do a standard Hills Laboratory soil test to understand my base saturations: what’s in the soil, what’s high, what’s low. You want to see that the organic matter is going up, that the calcium and magnesium ratios are getting in check. Low calcium equals low energy and structure.

“Ideally you want seven-parts calcium to one-part magnesium, and usually you’ll see your calcium is out. You want to see that the potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) are right – 1:1 for veggies. High potassium replaces calcium and gives you low-nutrient foliage. Low phosphorus means low yields and lots of weeds.

“Those are the ones you want to concentrate on before anything else.”

Mineral health: Reams soil testA Reams test shows the amount of nutrients in the soil chemically available for the plants to use. This number may be a lot lower than the total amount of nutrients present in a standard soil test.

Shannon does twice-yearly Reams tests through Environmental Fertilisers, which then creates a custom fertiliser blend for her garden.

Bacteria & fungi: soil food web testA soil food web test shows the ratio of bacteria to fungi in soil. For vegetable growing, the rate should be about 1:1. “My soils are too bacterial, and it’s fungi that I want to increase in the soil.”

Nutrient density: Brix testingA Brix test uses a hand-held refractometer to measure the simple and complex sugar levels in a plant’s sap, a reflection of how nutrient-rich it is. Anything over 12 is classed as very good, depending on the fruit or vegetable being measured. Poor is 1–7; anything from 8– 12 shows good progress. The same test can also show if calcium levels are adequate.

“You’re testing the leaf, not the fruit,” says Shannon. “I put leaves in a garlic crusher and press them until juice runs out onto the refractometer.”

More fungi in the soil is required to improve Brix levels, says Shannon. “You need fungi attached to plant roots to be able to uptake nutrients. Fungi are so important to help retain minerals and moisture. And they’re vital to soil structure.”

There are different types of refractometer, and it’s important to get the one that will best measure your chosen plants. For example, there is a lot available for winemakers, but they aren’t suitable for vegetables. Shannon bought hers from the Koanga Institute, but there are other suppliers, including Environmental Fertilisers.

FIVE WAYS TO ENRICH THE SOIL

Compost

Shannon says her most significant discovery has been about compost. She was buying in vast amounts as she was unable to make enough, but she found it was causing a big problem in the soil.

“It was far too bacterial. We add too much greenery to compost, which is generally high in nitrogen, and that puts the soil out of balance.”

Compost will be too high in bacteria if not enough carbon is added, a common mistake made by a lot of gardeners. It’s essential to include carbon-rich ingredients such as dry wood chips, dry leaves, dry (already flowered) corn stalks, sunflower stalks, lupins, oats, cardboard, shredded newspaper or dry straw. In the right amounts, carbon helps to produce a compost that has the ideal 1:1 ratio of fungi to bacteria.

A little fungi-rich soil or compost can help seed good bacteria and fungi into a new pile. Shannon also recommends watering a finished pile with liquid fish and seaweed fertilisers.

“I’m now making compost using the leftovers from the garden,” she says. “But to do that, I need a lot of carbon, so I’m getting wood shavings, untreated, from our local furniture shop. That way, I know it doesn’t include allelopathic pine*.

*Allelopathic: a natural chemical process that some plants use to affect the soil around them so other plants can’t grow too close to them.

“Otherwise, you can always get wood chips from a tree arborist. ‘White’ woods (e.g, species with white-coloured wood) are good; they’re great food for fungi.”

Vermicast

Worm castings (vermicast) can be produced in a worm farm or purchased. A worm farm with the right food and bedding should be mostly crumbly castings, with minimal liquid run-off.

“I put it on everywhere. I don’t use the liquid,” says Shannon. “It’s fresh; it smells like forest earth and doesn’t stink.

“If you buy in vermicast, you need to make sure it’s not fed any pine. Pine is allelopathic. Also, avoid humanure (made from human waste). You don’t know what antibiotics or other medications people have been on.”

Changing to using more vermicast has been transformative for the soil on Shannon’s block, visibly increasing levels of fungi and soil life.

“At one stage, I had high nitrates and low sulphur, and you could see that in the yellowing of a lot of my plants. When I introduced vermicast, the change was almost instant. I was impressed with that, and that was when I stopped using brought-in compost.”

Soil conditioner

Shannon adds organic gypsum (sulphur and calcium, or calcium sulphate) that is released slowly into the soil to help with structure and water retention. “You use calcium sulphate whether you have clay soils or sandy soils – you can still get compaction in sandy soils. It helps bind up excess potassium because often these soils have high potassium.”

Fertiliser

Shannon uses an Environmental Fertiliser’s product called Nature’s Garden. This is a blend of: – reactive phosphate rock (RPR) composted with fish protein and humic acid; – calcium carbonate composted with humates and fish; – paramagnetic basalt rock dust which is composted with beneficial soil bacteria and fungi.

“It’s quite crumbly. It’s not really like a fertiliser that you know from a bag that you sprinkle with your hands. It feels more like the earth.”

The mix she gets can include other additives, depending on what her soil requires.

Fish fertilisers

These are fed out in regular micro-doses through Shannon’s irrigation system. She says she used to spray it over her plants using a knapsack sprayer, but irrigating it is far less time-consuming.

Shannon also finishes prepping new beds with a fish hydrolysate from Pacific Biofert, a mix of finely ground-up fish and other additives that is cold-composted.

“I go along with a watering can with the hydrolysate in it to increase the fungal activity from the start.”

OTHER WAYS TO CREATE NUTRIENT-DENSE SOILFluff it up

Shannon’s garden is a red-and-green-striped mix of garden beds and tracks. The compacted tracks make for easy walking. The bedding soil sits 10 to 15 centimetres higher, and you can easily push your fingers into it, then your arm.

The almost fluff-like structure is created using a special fork Shannon employs to “crack” the soil. She doesn’t turn it over, except when initially creating a bed, but uses the fork to “lift” it slightly. Her custom-made one goes down 40 centimetres.

“It’s essential to create aeration in the soil, whether it’s sandy or clay. It allows the oxygen in – it’s like us breathing really – and that helps to increase fungal activity. It helps water get in; it helps soil life. The soil is easier to work with, especially when you’re seeding or transplanting.

“Don’t stand on your garden beds – that’s important too.”

Monitor progress

Shannon can see significant improvement when she compares her soil now with what it was five years ago. But the changes have been incremental and involved a lot of learning. She places value in taking notes and photos along the way.

“Note things down at the same time every year. If you can afford it, monitor with a soil test and Brix levels. Make sure to date the photos so you can reflect over two years, five years, and you’ll see how far you’ve come. Taste-test and record your findings.”

TIPS FOR A NUTRIENT-RICH SALAD

Shannon has dozens of fresh greens to choose from, so her salad mixes tend to be more diverse than most people’s. However, even a professional gardener’s salad is heavily influenced by her critics.

“My salads are about 50 per cent lettuce – that’s more just for my children. I don’t follow a recipe. I just pick a whole lot of different things. It depends on what flavours you like and those that you don’t ]. I’ll include mizuna, tatsoi, mustard, endive, rock, spinach, kale – all baby leaf because they are tastier.”

Microgreen pak choi, kohlrabi, red cabbage, cress, broccoli, and others are included for their high nutrients, along with raw carrots, beets, and turnips.

But the ingredients that take Shannon’s salads into the wild side are the added extras.

“I like adding herbs – parsley, chives, chervil, celery leaves, coriander. The more bitter things are, the healthier they are for you. I like calendula, heartsease – it’s like a mini version of a pansy – nasturtium, borage, even rosemary flowers, all chopped up.”

The big avocado fan adds chunks of it to the greens, then her other nutrient-rich extras. “I sprinkle sunflower and pumpkin seeds through it. I soak mine to remove phytic-acid because that can block absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc.”

Shannon soaks seeds in bulk. She half-fills a one-litre preserving jar with seeds, tops it up with water, then leaves them to soak overnight. The next day, she drains the water and puts the seeds into a dehydrator. She then stores the dried seeds to use in salads – “add in what you like, there’s no measurement” – nut slices, and bread.

The final touch is a little natural dressing. “I love squeezing juices over a salad: lemon, lime, orange. I use the zest as well. You could add olive oil and apple cider vinegar too, or make up a vinaigrette with garlic, mustard, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.”

Carrots are crunchy, tasty, and highly nutritious. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. They are also a good source of several B vitamins, fibre, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants.

Orange carrots get their bright colour from beta carotene, an antioxidant that your body converts into vitamin A.

Carrots are found in many colours, including yellow, white, orange, red, and purple.

They also have a number of health benefits. They’re a weight-loss-friendly food and have been linked to lower cholesterol levels, improved eye health, boost the immune system, and the list goes on.

What’s more, their carotene antioxidants have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer.

Carrots go well with

Herbs & Spices: chervil, parsley, cinnamon, clove, allspice, mint, ginger, dill, & thyme

Sweets & Dairy: cream, cream cheese, browned butter, butter, rapadura, maple syrup

Produce: garlic, potatoes, raisins, daikon, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, sweet potatoes, onion

Savoury: rice, pasta, beef, chicken, walnuts, oatmeal

Carrot Serving Ideas

Raw carrots can be eaten on their own, or used in salads and appetizers. They are often used in cake, cookies, cupcakes and muffins.

Cooked carrots make an excellent vegetable side dish, and they are often served with cream sauce, glazed, or dressed with a little rapadura and butter.

Carrot tops are rich in minerals, and can be chopped and added to soups, salads, sauces and pesto.

Try making oven roasted parsnips and carrots for a tasty side dish or a snack! Dip in some peanut butter, humus or pesto as a delicious after school or after work snack that’s tasty and good for you. Vitamin A, fibre, vitamin C…what’s not to love?

Serve a sweet side dish like these roasted carrots with clover honey with a holiday meal for an extra special take on an otherwise classic dinner dish.

Carrots add colour, parnsips bring sweetness, apples provide crunch, and walnuts inject protein and meaty flavour in this simple fall-inspired salad.

Recipe

ROASTED BROWN BUTTER HONEY GARLIC CARROTS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium saucepan add the butter and cook over medium high heat. Continue to whisk for a few minutes until the butter starts to become frothy and brown. Add the honey and garlic and remove from heat.Bake for 15-20 minutes or until carrots are tender. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.Brown butter is just that extra step to adding a rich and nutty flavour to what you are making

Ingredients

900gms large carrots cut into 5cm pieces (baby carrots will also work)1/2 cup butter3 Tablespoons honey2 garlic cloves choppedsalt and pepperparsley chopped for garnish

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. In a medium saucepan add the butter and cook over medium high heat. Continue to whisk for a few minutes until the butter starts to become frothy and brown. Add the honey and garlic and remove from heat.In a large bowl add the carrots and drizzle the sauce on top. Toss until coated and spread evenly on a large baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper.Bake for 15-20 minutes or until carrots are tender. (see note) Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.

Know how your food is grown, we have your back with health!

How do I take my daily vitamins? Microgreens for life!

Microgreens are tiny plants harvested very young, remarkably robust but tender and packed with flavour and nutrients.

Microgreen have higher levels of phytonutrients, concentrated active compounds (ascorbic acids, carotenoids, phylloquinone, and tocopherols) than are found in mature plants and offer significant health benefits. Compared with the nutrient concentrations in mature leaves recorded in USDA National Nutrient Database, microgreens possessed higher nutrient density.

Green Broccoli – add them to everything, has antioxidants and anti cancer compounds, full of goodness. Super tasty with an impressive nutritional profile. Health benefits of broccoli are enormous. It has twice as much vitamin C as spinach and as much as lemons, thus being an excellent support to our immune system.

Red Cabbage - New science reveals that red cabbage micros contain 40 times more vitamin E and six times more vitamin C, aka ascorbic acid. That's a lot of colds prevented and inflammation decreased.

Coriander - Contains very high levels of the carotenoids lutein/ zeaxanthin, violaxanthin and beta carotene, which are fat soluble antioxidants important for organ function and protecting cellular structures from damage. Contain 3 times more beta carotene than the mature leaves.

Kale - Has antioxidant properties and its ability to stimulate collagen production, packed with vitamin C can also help keep your skin supple and your bones strong. Has significant cancer-fighting potential due to their ability to induce phase 2 detoxification enzymes. These beneficial enzymes have been shown to promote the elimination of potential carcinogens from the body.

Radish - extremely low in calories, they are rich in beneficial nutrients- such as enzymes, antioxidants, protein, minerals and vitamins- and provide a sense of fullness after eating.

Pea shoots - are the freshest greens, bright tasting notes and sweet crunchy pea taste, a great compliment to any dish. Cancer Prevention folate, antioxidants and carotene. Folate helps produce/maintain cells and protects against DNA damage. Helps the body fight free radical damage. Carotenes help inhibit antioxidant activity. High In Antioxidants One cup of pea shoots provides about 35% the daily value of vitamin C and 15% the DV of vitamin A. In comparison, this is seven times as much vitamin C as blueberries and four times as much vitamin A as tomatoes. They are also an excellent source of vitamin K, providing 66% the DV from a one cup serving.

What do microgreens go well with?

Everything. Try them with everything you eat, find the best for you, eat at every meal.

Might not go well with cereal though, let me know how you get on if you game to try 😊

Serving Ideas

Microgreen are a great addition to many dishes: pizzas, roasted veggies, pasta, soups, stews, smoothies, eggs, sandwich, salad etc... microgreens add colour, flavour, texture and nutrients in every meal.

Know how your food is grown, we have your back with health!

What does turnip go well with?

Produce: potatoes, carrots, parsnip, apples, sweet potatoes, lemon, and onion

Herbs & Spices: chives, sage, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, garlic, ginger, vinegar, tarragon, mustard, thyme, olive oil, paprika, and salt

Savoury: bacon, roast beef, turkey, chickpeas, and rice

Dairy: butter, cream, parmesan cheese, and mild cheese

Serving Ideas

Use them the same why you would use a potato.

Serve them sautéed in a stir fry with some carrots, mashed with potatoes, steamed with other root vegetables and butter, raw and sliced thin in a salad or into matchsticks for a garnish for any dish, for a platter, stews, soups or roasted with other root vegetables.

Slice young turnips and eat raw with dip or peanut butter or add to salads and coleslaw

Use the turnip greens as an alternative to cooked spinach or collard greens! They’re delicious sautéed or steamed as a side dish with garlic, onion, olive oil and lemon, or as an addition to soups, stews and pasta.

Or you can always ferment them for an extra health kick! But most of all enjoy them the way your would like them.

Recipe

Ingredients

8 cups of chopped turnips (about 10-12 medium turnips)bone broth or water for boiling400g of bacon2 tablespoons bacon fat, or lard, or duck fat2 tablespoons butter melted¼ teaspoon garlic powder or fresh to your liking⅛ teaspoon onion powder or fresh to your likingsea salt and pepper, to taste2 tablespoons fresh chives, snipped or chopped

Instructions

Put diced turnips is a large pot and fill with water or bone broth.Bring to a boil and let simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until tender.While the turnips are cooking, cook your bacon in skillet over medium heat until crispy.Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon grease and then crumble your bacon.Once turnips are done simmering, drain well.Return turnips to pot and add all remaining ingredients, except the bacon and chives.Mash to desired consistency. Then fold in bacon.Top with fresh chopped chives. Enjoy!

When it comes to starting to grow your own Nutrient Dense Food from home it can be quite overwhelming with the amount of information there is out there. So we have pulled together our top tips for starting out based on our experience and thorough learning and research done over the past few years.

The biggest piece of advice we can give you it to empower yourself and others with the best information and knowledge. Making informed decisions helps to change your patterns and strengthens your life. Learn, talk and teach everyone in order to change lives.

“Everything is connected, so growing great soil and microbes will have positive effects for plants, animals and humans. All this is shown in nutrient dense food which in turn is reflected in our health and wellbeing (body, mind and soul).” – Shannon Wright

Our top books/resources to get your hands on before starting out:

- Change of Heart: This is a recipe book with an excellent understanding about traditional eating based in New Zealand

- Koanga Garden Guide: This is the complete guide to starting out with you learning. It covers everything from bed preparing, which seeds and trees to choose and understanding the foundations around regenerative gardening. This guide can be found at the Koanga Institute.

- Garden Planner: This planner covers a wide variety of information from helping design the bio-intesive crop rotation, the best planning and spacings for a small area, timings and potential yields etc, but most importantly how to grow your compost heap also.

- Growing Nutrient Dense Food booklet: This is the booklet we recommend to people who are not able to afford to buy the Koanga Garden Guide but will give you a great base for starting to grow and understand nutrient dense food. Also available from the Koanga Institute.

For those eager to get started and are after some additional resources to review these resources have also been a great help to us starting out:

- The Wholefood Pantry by Amber Rose

- Love Bake Nourish by Amber Rose

- Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

- The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care by Sally Fallon Morell and Thomas S Cowan MD

- The Truth About Cancer, A Global Quest (Documentary series, so worth the 13hours of watching, information and solutions about everything!!!)

- GMO's Revealed (Documentary series, so much more than GMO's, really eye opening, informative about what is being done to our food!!!)

- Prosperity Film (Well.org - Real solutions and changes happening and how you can play your role in a better world!!!)

Along with some background research to help you feel prepared when taking this step, or perhaps helping you to make the decision on whether this is the right fit for you and your family, we also would like to equip people with tools to help you learn and identify various things in your garden.

We outlined a lot of the key tools we use in our own backyard in our blog here.

All of these resources, tools and steps gets you heading down the right path to Bio-intensive gardening and nutrient dense food production. This helps you to sequester carbon, fight climate change from your backyard, create community and become more self-reliant with an aim of long-term sustainability and regeneration for the environment and people.

Isn’t it amazing what a garden can do!?

Never forget to; Learn, Learn, Learn, Teach, Teach, Teach!!!

Our mission is to empower society with the best information and knowledge to allow them to make informed decisions, which change their lifestyle patterns and strengthen their life on a whole.

Here at Backyard Jem we are passionate about teaching and helping others to grow in a way that is beyond organic; it's bio-intensive, biological and it restores and renews the soil. We are learning a path which optimises healthy soil, microbes, minerals and vitamins in the best ratio and form which in turn increases the capacity for all plants, animals and humans to absorb.

This is what gives us our Nutrient Dense Food.

Growing this way is more than organic and conventional intensive agriculture. It involves managing minerals, microbes, plants and pests with a positive impact on our environment. If we have a pest problem it means we have a deficiency of minerals in the best ratio and form. We have to treat everything as a whole circle, everything has an impact, taking one element and enhancing or changing it needs to be helpful in many areas in a positive way.

It sounds complicated – by now we hope you are still interested in learning more about how to achieve this in your own backyard. The biggest thing to remember is that if you are more aware and mindful and start making small changes one step at a time, you can achieve it in a healthy way that fits in with your lifestyle.

So what do we use to grow Nutrient Dense Food in our backyard?

We use:

Reams soil testsEnvironmental Fertilisers Refractometer for Brix testingBio-CharHomegrown compost

What are all of these things we use, and how can you apply them to your backyard?

Reams soil tests – These tests help you to measure the nutrient content in your soil and allows you to understand what is available for the plants to uptake themselves.

Environmental Fertilisers – This brand is the one we have used at Backyard Jem for 5 years now. In that time what we have found is a lot of our fruit trees in our food forest have been saved due to the fertilisers we have been using from Environmental Fertilisers. They are certified organic (dependent on certain products or custom blends) and it gives great results for the soil, microbes and plants.

Refractometer for Brix testing - Brix testing is the measure of the concentration of sugars, vitamins and minerals dissolved within the plant (sap sugar levels in a plant). Sugar levels tell us the mineral levels (nutrient density) of the plant.

A brix level less than 12 means the plant has simple sugars. Simple sugars is food for fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects. The digestive systems of insects and most microbes can only digest simple sugars, NOT complex sugars.

A brix level higher than 12 means the plant has complex sugars and the proteins tend to be complete proteins, this is what we want to achieve with our food. It is the complex sugars and proteins (nutrient dense food) our DNA needs to be nourished and function at its best.

Bio-Char – This is a charcoal product that is used as a moisture regulator in your garden. It helps to build humus levels in the soil, and retain the moisture and nutrients until the plant is able to use them; before and after soil bacteria have worked on the plants.

It is important to not overuse this as it can create poorer quality, insect pressure and a drop in brix.

Homegrown compost – This is one of the easiest things to make as a first adjustment in your lifestyle. Instead of sending all your household food scraps to the rubbish bin, instead begin to start collecting them and putting them into a compost bin. Watch how quickly they grow and how easy it is to get you own compost right in your backyard!

With homegrown compost you need to take into consideration crop rotation as it plays a big part in growing awesome plants and creating high quality materials for the compost pile. If you are growing nutrient dense plants, then the compost you grow/create is recycling the right nutrients instead of deficiencies.

This is how we have achieved our Nutrient Dense Food in our own backyard and we want to help see you achieve the same results. We hope this has encouraged you to learn more about the food you are eating and to empower you to want to learn about traditional, wholefood eating.

To get in touch with us or ask a questions, contact us today.

In October we opened up our own project for the community to come and view/listen/learn/teach/ask questions about our example of an Urban Garden and Mini Food Forest.

We covered everything from soil, compost, food forests, animals, cooking etc. We had a guideline for topics to teach but found that discussions lead to other things too, as everything is connected!!!

It was a great way to learn to about sequester carbon and how to fight climate change from your own backyard.

Please remember this is what I had learnt over many years, courses attended recently, and learning is still happening. It is always changing, every garden is different, but my focus is on improving the soil for our health, and helping others garden/nourish in a more easy to follow way as the skills have been lost from previous generations.

On the 22nd September 2016 after completing a Permaculture Design Course with Koanga Institute I approached Marea Verry (Weston A. Price Foundation Hamilton Chapter Leader) to see if her family would like to transform their backyard into a working example of an Urban Garden and mini Food Forest to show/teach others that they can create/grow their own nutrient dense food.

Once the Design plan was completed, on the 2nd of October 2017 we started the transformation. Moving fruit trees, chickens, marking out gardens to double dig, unplanted the fruit trees for the food forest area, dismantling the compacted raised gardens etc.

I am giving loads of support, from planting plans, fertiliser plans, daily/weekly/monthly tasks and on-going working visits and advice. This is a learning experience for everyone.

Please see all our before and progress photos and keep an eye out for our next learning session.

BACKYARD BEFORE PROJECT BEGAN - TAKEN 2 OCTOBER 2016

UPDATED PROGRESS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 20 OCTOBER 2016

Gardens beds are just about all complete, with some already being planted. The mini food forest is starting to look wonderful with stepping stones to wonder through to pick and enjoy eventually.

UPDATED PROGRESS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 20 NOVEMBER 2016

Water Tanks are in place, wicking bed complete ready to plant, mulching paths to keep grass down.

UPDATED PROGRESS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 21 DECEMBER 2016

UPDATED PROGRESS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 6 JANUARY 2017

UPDATED PROGRESS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 1 FEBRUARY 2017

UPDATED WINTER PHOTOS ON PROJECT - TAKEN 217 JUNE 2017

The winter garden was a bit late going in so there has been slow growth with the cooler weather.

If you are interested in learning how to do this yourself, or would like to ask us some questions on how we could work together on a project like this then contact us today.