Veganic – flowering bean organic gardens

I first interviewed Coral Remiro in 2024. At that time, she was the farm manager at Earth Stewards, an urban farm in Kirikiriroa, Hamilton. We had a fascinating chat about the successful polycropping method she’d implemented on the farm.

What is polycropping?

Polycropping is a technique that involves growing different crops together in a garden bed instead of using the more traditional monocropping planting method. It can be used in a small garden or larger growing system.

*Spinach, cabbages, radish and coriander growing in a polycropping system*

What are the advantages of polycropping?

Coral has found that one of the advantages of polycropping is an increase in the number of plants that can be grown in a small space. This has created more space to plant cover crops. She says, this has been a game changer as the cover crops reduce weed pressure, add a source of nitrogen, and provide more compost material.

Polycropping also increases biological diversity in and above the soil, directly helping to maintain a balanced system. Different insects, microorganisms, and other animals are attracted to the different habitats provided by different plants in close proximity.

Is polycropping complicated?

Polycropping is complicated until, as Coral says, “you can get your head around it.” She does not spend time these days considering companion planting so much as thinking about how plants grow. She explains that there are some key concepts to consider when grouping plants together including:

how much space is available around a plant as it grows
how long it takes for each type of plant to reach harvest size
light requirements for each plant
how different plants grow – vertically or horizontally
if the plants are root or leaf crops.

Hero plants

In her planning Coral thinks about how to create guilds – groupings of plants that support each other. She has found the best way to plan her garden is to organise plants into groups based on how long it takes for them to grow to harvest size: short, medium, and long-term. Plants like tomatoes and brassica take the longest to grow and she says these are the ‘hero’ plants. She suggests using these plants as a base to work around and then planting faster growing and smaller plants around these, for example, coriander and radish.

The importance of record keeping

Like all gardeners and growers, Coral has learnt some lessons the hard way. For example, she planted lots of beetroot plants around other plants without considering how much light they needed. She says, one of the keys to success in polycropping is observation and recording what works well and what doesn’t. I would also suggest taking a photo before you forget – seasons pass fast!

*Brassica surrounded by a range of plants including lettuce and coriander*

What I really appreciated when talking to Coral was her openness to trying new things in the garden. I also valued her approach to creating diversity. It’s always good to remember that in a garden, diversity can mitigate risk.

Visiting Earth Stewarts Urban Farm https://earthstewards.nz/ and chatting to Coral was an inspiration.

Happy Gardening

Building fertility in the garden, Garden design, Growing food, Uncategorized

Benefits of Crop Rotation: A Sustainable Gardening Practice

October 23, 2025October 24, 2025 Sarah Oliver

Crop rotation is simply organising plants into different plant families and rotating the plantings over time, or basically not planting the same annual crops in the same place each year.

Crop rotation does require some planning. If detailed planning is your thing, you can create a long-term rotation design with a detailed plan (probably more for a market gardener), or you can also keep it simple and incorporate at least some rotation around the garden.

Sprouting purple broccoli flourishing after a crop of potatoes

Healthier Soil, Better Harvests

Different plants require different nutrient levels, so rotating your crops can help reduce the number of inputs you may need to use. A crop that is a heavy feeder can be followed by something that requires less nutrients, and a crop with deep roots followed by a shallow rooted crop.

Another advantage of crop rotation is reducing the potential for soil-borne disease. This is because plants in the same family are more likely to suffer from the same issues. For example, planting brassicas (e.g., kale, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower) in the same plot every year increases the risk of club-root, because the fungal disease’s spores can persist in the soil. It’s a good idea to leave a gap of at least three or four years between plantings.

Rotating crops can help reduce insect damage by preventing a build-up of damaging insects in a crop year after year.

Another advantage is different crops work on the soil in unique way, for example, deep rooting crops can improve the soil structure.

Different plant groupings

It is useful to have some understanding of the different families of plants if you want to use crop rotation. I also find it useful to keep seeds stored by the different groups in containers.

Peas and beans (Fabaceae or legume)
Broccoli, kales, cabbages, cauliflower, radish (Brassicaceae, or brassica – cabbage family)
Beetroot, chards and silverbeet (Amaranthaceae)
Leeks, onions, spring onions, garlic (Allium family)
Courgette, melons (Cucurbitaceae)
Carrots, celeriac, celery (Umbellifeae)
Tomatoes, capsicums, potatoes, and eggplants (Solanaceae – nightshade family)
Corn and grains (Poaceae – grass family)
Kumara (Conolvulaceae – bindweeds or morning glories)

Developing a crop rotation plan

There are many different examples of rotation plans
available so I am not putting one specific one here and
it really depends on your own set up. You might choose a more complex rotation that runs over a seven-year cycle and incorporates a couple of years of fertility building with cover crops (more for a market gardener). Another alternative for a smaller plot could be based on grouping your rotations by root crops, brassica, greens and legumes, and alliums. You would then try to have a long gap between replanting in the same bed those that are more susceptible to disease like alliums, tomatoes,
brassicas and potatoes.

I find it particularly successful if I have an area that has been in a cover crop or a new bed that has been in grass, to start with potatoes to break up the soil, then I will then grow a range of brassica depending on timing as they require more fertility; if it is later in autumn and too late to get the brassica in I may just pop in a legume after potatoes such as broad beans over winter. Lettuce I pop in wherever I have a gap. Another successful rotation I have had is planting broccoli after kumara.

There are loads of great resources on rotation planting, so again how you plant depends on what you are doing in the garden and how detailed you want to be. And keep a record of what you plant where, you’ll think you’ll remember, but two years later it can be different story – jot it down or take a photo.

Diversity is still key

Whatever you decide to do in your garden, don’t forget the other principles to incorporate, mulching well, well matured compost and adding in lots of plant diversity. Add in flowers and natives wherever you can to attract all those beneficial insects and increase soil life – remember nature loves diversity and flowers can lift the spirit on a gloomy day.

Happy growing.

Uncategorized

Veganic Growing at Shangri-la

October 23, 2025October 26, 2025 Sarah Oliver

This interview is from a visit to Shangri-la in Northland, where I spoke with gardener Magic about his experience growing food using a veganic system. The interview was inspiring and so I am now sharing it here.

Shangri-La is the New Zealand arm of Gentle World, a charitable trust in operation for 40 years with a base in Hawaii for the past 35 years.

To get to Shangri-La, I drove into the breath-taking Mangamuka Gorge and then down a long, winding driveway to a hidden valley of lush native bush and gardens. Along with the tropical weather of the north, I felt as if I had arrived in paradise.

Magic, has a background in growing commercially and organically, and now runs the gardens at Shangri-La veganically. He doesn’t use any animal by-products on the gardens, so no blood and bone, animal manures (except from one rescued horse, Isa), no slaughterhouse by-products or fish. The gardens continue to grow and flourish, with any animal inputs provided freely by the diverse bird and insect life.

How to build soil fertility with cover crops and compost

One challenge for all gardeners and growers is to build soil fertility. Vegan gardeners will sometimes say they cut out the ‘middleman’, or the farmed animal. Magic does this predominantly by relying on fertility that comes directly from plants. With green cover crops Magic explains, you are basically growing your own fertilisers.

When vegetables are finished in a bed, he plants a cover crop as quickly to keep the soil covered. In the past he has used lupins, which he found really good, until the pheasants discovered their love for them. So now he uses chia plants. He says chia is amazing and he interplants it in the beds in summer, as it has a long growing season. Once it is sown it will continue through into winter when it can be dug in as a green manure crop. From his experience, Magic has found that it’s really good for the soil if you open it up and let the green manures do their thing.

Magic is also a fan of making compost, so when he is planting heavy feeders such as cucumbers and tomatoes, he will open up a row, put in the compost, cover and plant so the seedlings will go down and get the extra boost as they get their roots into it.

For other amendments he occasionally uses a bit of lime when the garden needs it. He says he has used rock dust in the past, but not for quite a while as the soil he is growing on is a very mineral rich alluvial clay silt. It’s a good example of knowing the soil you are growing in. If he were in an area where the soil is not good, he says he would look at doing raised beds or no dig.

Rotating crops and interplanting

Magic uses crop rotation and says it is a more sustainable practice than growing the same crop year after year, which depletes the soil of nutriments. Rotation also reduces the risk of plant diseases that can build up in the soil over time.

Magic also interplants crops which he says is beneficial in a number of ways; you can grow more plants per square meter, some plants benefit others by providing shelter or shade, and it can help with insect and disease prevention.

Can you use cover crops in a small garden?

What about if you only have a small city garden? Magic suggests cover crops again and shows me a small 2 x 1 metre bed he has close to the house. With a small garden he suggests breaking it up into a number of smaller areas, rotating between vegetables and cover crops. Once the cover crop is ready, he would mow or weed-eat it down, cover it to allow it to decompose slightly, and finally dig it into the soil before planting.

Managing other animals

Magic says an important part of vegan organic growing is protecting your crops from birds, insects, possums and rats by using nets and methods like tree protectors and fences.

The possum shields on fruit trees at Shangri-la, show true kiwi innovation in action. At first Magic says they used corrugated iron around the trunks of the fruit trees and trained the tree high. However, eventually the possums figured out a way to jump up high above these iron sheathes. So, after much head scratching and experimentation they developed an aluminium shield on the trees and as the possums can’t see the edge of the aluminium against the sky, they can’t see where to jump and so don’t even try. The same method has worked around their gardens using fencing with an aluminium strip.

Magic says as possums are very territorial, if one is removed another one will arrive, so it becomes an endless cycle, so the best way they have found is to just keep them out altogether. From what I could see success of this method was certainly beginning to show with lush fruit trees and gardens.

Visiting Shangri-La

If you are interested to know more about Gentle World and Shangri-la, pop over to their website https://gentleworld.org/. You can also contact Magic through their website to arrange a visit.

Building fertility in the garden, Garden design, Growing food, Uncategorized

Woodchip to build fertility

May 18, 2024June 6, 2024 Sarah Oliver

In this interview, I chat to Iain Tolhurst from the UK about using woodchip
on his farm.

I discovered Iain Tolhurst’s work when I Googled Veganic in 2016. Tolhurst grows certified organic food on leased land for a box scheme and farm shop in the UK. He has been growing without using animal inputs such as manures and blood and bone, on just under 20 acres (about 8 hectares) for 35 years. His farm was described in George Monbiot’s 2022 book Regenesis as “a genuinely regenerative, organic system”¹ using no artificial or livestock inputs and creating a space for diversity and wildlife to return.

Tolhurst grows about 100 different varieties of vegetables on his farm. He uses a system of long seven-year rotations and times the planting of the various crops to fit their differing fertility needs. When a plot is at the end of five years, he takes it out of production for two years to build the soil fertility using green manures of legumes and wildflowers to which he also adds ramial woodchip.

It was his use of woodchip that I was particularly interested in when I asked for an interview. Woodchip offers a good addition to the growing toolkit of alternative solutions to using manures, other animal inputs or artificial fertilisers in gardens and growing systems.

Woodchip at Tolhurst Organics

While we are used to seeing woodchips around fruit trees, on ornamental perennial beds and in forest gardens, using it in vegetable beds often raises questions about nitrogen lockup and soil health. Nitrogen lockup can occur when a carbon-rich material, such as woodchip, creates an imbalance in the soil. However, Tolhurst agreed to the interview as he wanted to highlight the potential of using woodchip in horticultural growing systems.

At Tolhurst’s farm, they use woodchips in various ways; as a propagation substrate, a seedling mix, applying it directly to the plots to build fertility and as a weed suppressant on pathways in tunnel houses. However, he explains, the key to the system working and avoiding nitrogen lockup, is to use different forms of woodchip, appling it correctly, and timing the harvest of the woodchip.

Tolhurst sources the woodchip for the farm from local arborists and it comes from a mix of trees, usually from local gardens. Using local material also reduces the carbon footprint of transport, an issue with many fertilisers. Tolhurst explains that the woodchip is very different from wood shavings or sawdust, as using these would cause issues as they are difficult to compost.

Woodchips and composting

Once the woodchip arrives on the farm, it is composted in a long pile called a windrow. This is turned four times in the first year, after which it is applied directly in the tunnel houses as compost.

To make a seed-raising mix, they also keep some of this composted woodchip and continue composting it for another six months to two years. At this stage, it becomes very crumbly and there is not much visible woodchip left. They then grade it and add a little vermiculite. In Tolhurst’s experience he says, it acts as well as any peat-based material. Finding an alternative to peat-based material has been important in their search for alternative fertility-building materials, especially in potting mixes.

Ramial woodchip

Ramial woodchip is an exciting development in growing systems and growers are experimenting with its use. Ramial woodchip is chipped branch wood sourced from branches less than 7cm in diameter and excludes any wood from the tree trunk. The reason for using chipped branch wood is it has a lower carbon-to-nitrogen ratio than trunk wood and, as the chip is applied fresh, it retains many of the tree’s nutrients and energy in the chip.

Tolhurst explains that he uses ramial woodchip in very modest amounts and adds this into the green manure phase of the growing system. Because they are in the UK, most of their ramial woodchip is harvested in winter and this works well as many of their indigenous trees are deciduous.

At Flowering Bean Organic Gardens, we are exploring using ramial woodchip from introduced deciduous trees and may experiment with some branches from native non-deciduous trees. Not scientific, but certainly a fun to experiment to see what happens in our growing system.

A mixed cover crop that has had ramial woodchip added for fertility
Flowering Bean Organic Gardens

Woodchips on pathways

The other application of woodchips at Tolhurst Organics is the more traditional use of woodchips on pathways. The advantage, Tolhurst explains, is that the woodchip suppresses weeds and adds fertility as it breaks down and the fertility moves across into the beds carried by microorganisms. They lay it about 7cm thick and it reduces weeds for about 2 to 3 years before it is topped up again.

Spot the worm! Woodchip pile full of worms at Flowering Bean Organic Gardens

Talking to Tolhurst and learning more about the innovations on his farm, was certainly inspiring and I know there are many here in Aotearoa trying out new systems and ideas in both commercial and residential gardens. I hope this interview inspires and provides an introduction to the huge topic of using woodchips for fertility.

Happy gardening and growing!

Monbiot, G. (2022). Regenesis. Allen Lane ↩︎

Further information

For anyone wanting to do a deep dive into using woodchip in gardens and farms, I found the Woodchip Handbook, A Complete Guide for Farmers, Gardeners and Landscapers by Ben Raskin and published by Chelsea Green Publishing had lots of great information.

Don’t forget to always consider your safety when working with woodchip and compost materials. Here are some links to more more information about protecting your health when working with composting material.

Toi te Ora Public Health Protect yourself from Legionnaires’ disease when gardening

WorkSafe Legionnaires’ disease and legionellosis

Tag: Veganic

Understanding Polycropping: Benefits and Techniques