Farming and Horticulture

On the fertile soils of South Canterbury, near the foothills of the Southern Alps, sits ViBERi, the award-winning organic blackcurrant operation of Tony and Afsaneh Howey. Jeff Smith pays a visit.

Willowmere Organics is a new twist on a traditional organic farming operation, as Mary Ralston finds out. Extensive use of cover crops and compost, microbiological inputs and finely tuned fertiliser applications ensure high value vegetable, grain and leaf crops.

Dr Tim Jenkins explores the ways that organic farming practices, including resilient agro-ecosystems, can help prevent and adapt to the major challenge of our times: climate change. 

This is the fifth article in a Soil Doctor series by Dr Tim Jenkins. This time we look at the issue of patchy pastures and crops. The content below is available with a print or online reader subscription The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Malkiat Singh is a man of many talents and wears many hats (well, turbans in his case). He has an engineering degree, an advanced diploma in mechatronics, and a graduate diploma in project management. Over the last decade or so, he has worked as a licensed immigration adviser under his company Carmento (care plus mentoring)…

This is the fourth article in a Soil Doctor series by Dr Tim Jenkins. This time we look at the issue of pesticide residues in soil.  The content below is available with a print or online reader subscription The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Anne Gastinger meets Dominique Schacherer and Logan Kerr of Streamside Organics, and finds out what’s made these self-taught market gardeners resilient and successful.   The content below is available with a print or online reader subscription The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

This third article in the Soil Doctor series by Dr Tim Jenkins looks at the issue of compacted soils.  In this series we look at some of the common problems facing soil health. We explore the symptoms you might notice, how we can diagnose the root causes and what treatments, and indeed cures, can be implemented. Scroll down to access the full article  The following content is accessible for…

Trudy Kessels finds out about AgriSea’s sustainable harvesting of seaweed for fertiliser, and research into other uses of this taonga.   “Bring the kids!” Tane Bradley, managing director of AgriSea tells me on the phone. “We’re all about having the kids around!” So I arrive, two children in tow, and am warmly invited into the staff lounge, where a spread of delicious muffins is laid out before us.  “Tane doesn’t do anything without…

By Jeanette Fitzsimons  Most of New Zealand’s pastoral hill country is badly infested with gorse. Brought by early settlers from the British Isles to make living fences for stock, in our climate it quickly spread everywhere. A small plant left alone can be a large bush in a year and a few of them can cover…