I thought I would write a little background introduction about how I ended up doing what I am doing today to earn my daily crust.

In June 2000 Roly and I decided as the children had grown and flown, we would go rural and so I set about finding us a small bare block of land not too far from Auckland because this is where my children live. We looked at many, most of those in our price range closer to the city ( it had to be North) had very poor soil, lots of ex pine country. I finally found what we were looking for - just north of Helensville, very old cow paddock with over 30 centimetres of lovely rich, slightly acid top soil, seven large poplars were the only trees on the property. The small two and a half acre block faces North and looks out over the Kaukapakapa River - as near perfect aas you can get for an organic nut.

We settled the purchase at the beginning of December 2000, packed up our city house and lived in a couple of tents for three months until the shell of our new home was habitable. I set about planting trees and getting my vegetable garden up and running. Roly worked off the property until 2002 when we decided to set up our organic seedling and herb nursery. Tragedy struck in May 2002, Roly died suddenly from a massive brain haemorrhage. (being into recycling, he was kept on life support until such time as recipients were found for his liver, kidneys etc.)

I was “it”. If I wanted to stay put, I had to get the nursery up and running and sell plants. My first sales where made in June 2002 and from these very small beginnings my business has blossomed. We are now fully certified organic herb and vegetable seedling growers ( certified under the auspices of OrganicFarmNZ) distributing to retailers in Auckland, email orders to out-of-towners with big gardens, a regular since it’s inception at the Orewa Beach Sunday Farmer’s market and also have many buyers visiting the nursery.

In this last year I registered my brand, married my new partner Joe and we are in the process of franchising, setting up satelite nurseries to supply other areas, we do not want to expand our nursery and use a lot of food miles to move plants all over the countryside. We are looking for organically minded growers to be part of and supply their local communities.

click here to contact me