About 30 participants attended Penny Woodward’s workshop. Drawing on her lifetime’s experience growing herbs and useful plants, Penny outlined the steps to establishing a garden as a haven of health and harmony, not destruction. A pond in the garden is important. Penny showed us plants, including sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, chives, aloe vera, savory, feverfew, pelargonioms, pennyroyal and how to use them in the garden, either to mask, decoy, repel, attract or directly kill pests. Most pest repellant plants are also edible and medicinal. We heard about natural sprays or barrier treatments that can be used as a last resort. After lunch Penny showed us welsh onions, eveready onions, shallots, potato onions (and donated some to the garden) and other alliums suitable for the backyarder and talked about growing garlic.
in the garden
from the newstead community garden
