Brittany Stembridge

A free 2-page planner for growing food and flowers through a dry, windy summer in Aotearoa. A very strong El Niño is expected to peak over this summer. For our part of the country, the forecast leans warmer and drier than normal, with more wind. This planner is what I'd want on the shed wall going into a season like that. What's inside Soil temperatures by month, so you sow when the soil is actually ready 37 crops and flowers: seed to transplant, transplant to harvest, water, sun and spacing...

Most people who join Return to the Māra think they're signing up to learn techniques. Seed sowing, composting, soil biology, the seven things we spend our workshops on. And they do learn those things. But almost without exception, what people tell us changed most by the end of the season isn't a skill. It's something quieter than that. They've started trusting themselves. One woman who went through the course last season told us, honestly, "Before the course I felt like I was stumbling...

There's a moment most growers remember. The first time you eat something you grew yourself and it actually tastes like something. That's usually the hook. Everything after that is just learning how to keep it going. If you're thinking about starting a small organic garden, here's what we'd tell you if you came out to the farm and asked us while we walked around the garden. Start with the soil, not the plants It's tempting to go straight to seedlings and seed packets. But the truth is, your...