Search site

Stoney Ground Herbs

Beautiful, strong herbs for NZ gardeners and herbalists of all levels

  • Home
  • About
  • Herb plants
    • Basil Mint
    • Bergamot, Scarlet
    • Bergamot, Wild
    • Borage
    • Catnip
    • Chamomile, German
    • Chamomile, Roman
    • Clary Sage
    • Elder, Black
    • Feverfew
    • Lemon Balm
    • Motherwort
    • Mugwort, Chinese
    • Peppermint, Chocolate
    • Peppermint
    • Rue
    • Sage, Common
    • Sage, Purple
    • Self Heal
    • Soapwort
    • Southernwood
    • St John’s Wort
    • Sweet Violet
    • Thyme, creeping
    • White Sage
  • Dried herbs
    • Catnip, Nepeta cataria
    • German Chamomile, Matricaria Recutita
    • Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis
    • Lemon Verbena, Aloysia citriodora
    • Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca
    • Nettle (Lesser), Urtica urens
    • Peppermint, Mentha x piperita
    • Sage, Salvia officinalis
    • Self Heal, Prunella vulgaris
    • Yarrow, Achillea millefolium
  • Ordering Your Plants
  • Maramataka Māori
  • Blog
You are here: Home / Gardening Styles / Matahiwi ~ A Food Forest

Matahiwi ~ A Food Forest

May 20, 2018 By SandRa Timmins 1 Comment

Our local home ed group had a picnic at Garry and Ali Fosters‘ food forest, Matahiwi, this week.

School building coverted to studio

This is the old school house, now a live in studio rented out by a local artist.

Their property just out of Masterton used to be a school that closed down in 1971.  They’ve been there for 30 odd years, brought up their three children there and in the last four years Garry has been developing their food forest.

For those not in the know a food forest is the ideal permaculture garden where all layers from the top most canopy to the roots (seven layers in all) live in a symbiotic relationship feeding and protecting each other whilst also providing for you and ideally the community.  Go here for an article about 5 pretty amazing food forests from around the world.

No digging is involved here part from the action of harvesting roots and tubers like potatoes, yams, kumara (he harvested one beauty that weighed 2.4kg!), chinese artichokes and yacons.

Garry pulling up some yams

Garry pulling up some yams

The amazing thing about their food forest aside from the diversity of plants they have is that a lot of it was built on top of a carpark (school carpark) and/or old riverbed, so the “soil” is actually arborist mulch.

Garry showing us the bounce and beautiful spongy-ness of the mulch/soil.

Garry showing us the bounce and beautiful spongy-ness of the mulch/soil.

Garry is actively (and joyously) crushing long held gardening myths – firstly by growing in mulch alone.  (In regards to his fruit trees he scratches into the mulch til he hits soil then plants the trees and lets their roots do the work).  He doesn’t dig, doesn’t need to hoe (the weeds easily pull out from the mulch, though he does have the dreaded Italian arum).  He doesn’t even make compost..but he does have a chook yard that gets moved year about, putting his mulch gardens on top of the scraps and garden rubbish that the girls have dealt with.

The chook yard..but check out those solar panels!

The chook yard..but check out those solar panels!

bonnie hen

This hen “Bonnie” is impressive in size!

You could say Garry is a biological permaculture gardener whom believes the most important thing is the micro and macro organisms within the growing medium rather than the medium itself.

Garry Foster, renegade gardener!

Garry Foster, renegade gardener!

The fungi and bugs do their job, deep rooted plants bring up nutrients alongside shallow rooted plants doing their business, nature is left to her devices and the reward is a bounty of produce.  A lot of people aware of the importance of those micro-organisms often bring them in with EF products but Garry does it alone with his mulch and his mulch alone.

Their crop of Austrian Hulless pumpkins

Their crop of Austrian Hulless pumpkins

Everything works together so well at Matahiwi and is quite the inspiration, particularly for us folk that live on impenetrable clay ground or old riverbeds.

We’ve been working on our grounds and honestly it feels more like mining than gardening.

Gardening on an old riverbed, the sound of grinding stones stays long after you're done!

Gardening on an old riverbed, the sound of grinding stones stays long after you’re done!

We’re using a spade to get the turf off then it’s all crow bar baby.  At least my garden beds are making their own borders!

gardening on rocky ground

Team Timmins on the job!

But after our visit here at Garry and Alis’ place I’m re-thinking how I might do the rest of the garden areas.

Garrys’ other horticultural passion is Aotearoa’s native flora.  This time round I didn’t get a full gander at them but I did see the biggest Muehlenbeckia astonii I’ve ever seen, they’re usually so wind blown it’s rare to see them at their full 2.5m height!  Its seeds are designed to be spread by lizards.  In turn it provides food and shelter from birds for them.  Natures design is incredible.

Did you know New Zealand has 5 endemic species of mistletoe?  I didn’t even know we had one!  The one Garry showed me is Ileostylus micranthus.  In rongroā (traditional Māori medicine) mistletoe bark was pounded and used to treat “the itch” caused by a type scabie known to the Māori as hakihaki.

New Zealands mistletoe

Ileostylus micranthus

There was plenty of Poroporo Solanum laciniatum around Matahiwi too; when the berries are ripe (yellow-orange in colour) they’re a nice snack for people and birds, similar in flavour to the Cape gooseberry.  The expressed juice of the poroporo was sometimes used in tattooing and again “the itch” could be treated with poroporo leaves.  You can also use the leaves as a hair shampoo.  You boil the leaves and use the water for washing your hair, leaving your locks lovely and shiny as well as apparently dandruff and grey free!!

So it was a great day in all – oh, the kids had a good day too!

Adventuring in the food forest~

Adventuring in the food forest~

Beehives in the background there

A little help needed getting off the tree overhanging the meandering river

Where once there was a carpark…

Look forward to going back in summer when everything is in full swing!

The mighty oak tree out the back

The mighty oak tree out the back

 

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Gardening Styles Tagged With: Ali Foster, biological gardening, chook yard composters, food forest garden in Wairarapa, gardening in pure mulch, gardening on stoney ground, Garry Foster, hakihaki, Ileostylus micranthus, Matahiwi, native shampoo, old riverbed gardening, permaculture, Poroporo Solanum laciniatum, rongroā (traditional Māori medicine), symbiotic gardening, yams

« The Italian Siren
Hard Times »

Comments

  1. becominghealthynz says

    May 20, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    Love it!

    Reply

Share your thoughts! Cancel reply

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Stay up to date with blog posts and announcements here!

You can also follow me on…

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Beautiful, strong herbs
for gardeners
and herbalists
of all levels.

Grown
with passion
and persistence.

Categories

  • Animals (4)
  • Care and Maintenance (45)
  • Gardening Styles (37)
  • Herbal Lore (20)
  • Herbs in Use (23)
  • Indoor Plants (2)
  • Kokedama (3)
  • Maramataka Māori (13)
  • Moving Gardens/New Gardens (12)
  • Pretty Pictures (16)
  • Recipes (8)
  • SGH updates (40)
  • Tomatoes (11)
  • Uncategorized (28)
  • White sage (9)

Contact/Inquiries

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your Message

    Friends

    Becoming Healthy Ltd NZ

    Supporting Busy People Becoming Healthy

    · Copyright © 2022 · Great websites for great ideas - Help Me Net NZ ·

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.