Organic garden seminars

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 5

Organic garden seminars

Two public seminars related to organic gardening have been organised for next week by the Christchurch Polytechnic in conjunction with about 20 people working on experimental organic gardening plots.

The first seminar on commercial threats to the world’s genetic pool of plant material will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday at the polytechnic’s Sullivan Avenue seminar room.

The dangers of using artificial chemicals on crops and feasible alternatives is the subject of the second

seminar set for Friday, March 21, at the same time and place.

A Venezuelan woman, Mrs Ofelia Suarez Chambers, who has already generated much interest in her “tiny gardens of Eden” in Venezuela, will help run the two seminars. In November last year, she and 16 people working on the Young Persons’ Training Programme began work on two empty plots of ground in Opawa and Cashmere.

They have organised an open day on Friday, March 21, for the public to view their progress

with changing a section of the Opawa plot, at the comer of York Street and Hassals Lane, into a successful organic garden. Work on the plot was combined with study of the techniques involved, said one of the 16 people taking part, Ms Bronwyn Lundy. “We have converted about a quarter of the I.6ha land into a garden that is growing beans, courgettes, lettuces, radishes and beetroot,” she said. “The ground was originally so hard we had to break it up with a pick and apply some effective

composting methods. “A small tunnel house will be designed to enable people in wheelchairs to propagate and transplant plants at a level that they can reach,” said Ms Lundy. Less time had been spent on the Cashmere plot Mrs Chambers’ first ' model garden in Venezuela attracted a lot-of-attention and she was im ■ vited to advise the Gov- • ernment on the techniques used. She coordinated a national-pro-gramme called “Towards an Ecological Society" until she -- moved -to New Jealand in 1982. ' ■ . -