Healthy Growing

12 lessons to abundant organic food

It doesn't matter if this is something you've never done before, if you've already tried to grow your own food and have failed miserably or if you are already giving it a go and aren't totally happy with the results you're getting. You're about to get your hands on the most comprehensive, step-by-step, why and how-to-do-it explanation of everything you need to know about organic growing: soil management, pest eradication, planting and caring for your garden of health-giving vegetables and fruit trees, faster than you ever dreamed possible.

"This is a system for organic growing of your own nutrient-rich food with no pest or disease problems.....guaranteed: live a healthier, happier more meaningful life."

Bev Buckley, who with husband Geoffrey, won the small business champion award for fresh food in Queensland in 2007 and was one of four finalists at the Australian Vegetable Grower of the Year Award in 2008, would like to make the following promise......

Give me four hours of your time a week for a minimum of three months and I will show you how to master the practical, organic growing skills you need to grow all the fruit and vegetables your family needs.

From Bev Buckley,8.30 p.m.

You are about to overcome the challenges that hold people back from enjoying the benefits that come from organic growing: eating freshly picked, organically grown food from your own garden. The Healthy Growing programme shows you:

How to get going in a way that will guarantee success right from the start, giving you almost immediate savings on your food bills so that the whole exercise costs nothing and ensures a continuous supply of home grown food through the year.
How to start a garden from scratch whether it be on your front lawn, on a weed infested slope, on the grass verge in front of your house, or a 5 hectare property in the country.
How to make sure that pests, diseases, birds and animals don't destroy your crops.
How to maximise productivity by eliminating turnaround time between harvesting and replanting, planning your planting schedule and building your soil to maximise the yields from organic growing of your own fruit and vegetables.
How to reduce the time you spend weeding to an absolute minimum.
How to create a balance between the nutrients, organic matter and micro-organisms in your soil so that you can savour the delicious flavour of foods you have grown yourself which are mineral rich, full of anti-oxidants and vitamins with long forgotten flavours and vibrant colours.
How to save money by having a large range of delicious food available every day that you can pick and serve immediately knowing that you are doing the absolute best you can for the health of your family ...... and if you wish, how to generate income to help balance the family budget.
How to improve your health, energy levels and vitality by having access to nature's pharmacy.
How to use the abundance that will be yours when you follow the organic growing guidelines.

You too can become a master gardener once you have access to my step-by-step, proven system.

Dear future Master Gardener,

You've always wanted to be able to wander through your garden to select crunchy fresh lettuce and tomatoes for lunch, some broccoli to make a soup with a fresh herb and spring onion garnish. You'd love to have a ready supply of leafy greens to put in your before-breakfast anti-oxidant "smoothie" your naturopath recommends you drink every morning.

For years you've read the organic growing and gardening magazines and watched the TV gardening programmes and it all looks so easy.

You're finally ready to start. You've decided where you are going to put your garden. You grab the spade and the fork you've bought specially and go out and dig the garden patch, fertilize it the way it is explained on the fertilizer packet. You've invested a small fortune in seedlings and seeds and you plant these and water them carefully. You're exhausted after all the effort but you feel elated because it's all done. Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for nature to take its course.

Next morning you leap out of bed and go out to the garden straight away to check how your plants are going. What do you find?

Nothing!

You investigate a little more. There's one small eaten stalk sticking up from the ground. That's all.

You're devastated. You did everything you were told to do and this is what happens.

Perhaps your experience hasn't been quite as bad as the scenario I've just described. Maybe your seedlings didn't disappear overnight, as I know they can because in the early days that's what happened in my garden. Perhaps some of them grew, but the weeds grew even faster and swamped your vegetables.

It may even be that with diligence and constant attention you've kept the weeds under control but now, when its time for your vegetables to start producing, the insects are eating them faster than you can harvest them, or they are keeling over under the weight of the powdery mildew that is spreading faster than a forest fire.

This is not supposed to happen!

You're not alone. I've seen these sorts of things happen. I've lost plants overnight. I've had my garden overwhelmed by weeds and seen my vegetables attacked by pests. My zucchini have been decimated by powdery mildew and I've had absolutely no idea where to start to stop it happening.

Of course, I've learnt from these disasters but it has taken a lot of time, hard work, much disappointment and a lot of patience to get me to the position where I have no doubts about the process that I need to follow to guarantee success. The good news is that you don't have to spend years, like I've done, experimenting and perfecting ways of organic growing that really do work. Over a period of 15 years, working as a full time gardener, I gained the knowledge and developed the easily replicable techniques that I am going to share with you. We have been teaching others how to grow for over six years. Look at all the testimonials and publicity.

It's sad but true, but most of the people who are planning to grow their own food are going to fail unless they find out exactly what they need to do to be successful.

Here's why.

Like everything, its easy to do something when you know exactly what to do but we've lost the knowledge that our grandparents had about how to grow delicious fruit and vegetables. We've forgotten the tried and true strategies that were successful in their day and we've not learnt the more up-to-date strategies that guarantee our food is nutrient rich and resistant to disease and insect attack. It's become too easy just to go to the supermarket and buy "instant" pre-packaged substitute food that often has virtually no nutritional value and lots of preservatives and chemical substitutes. We've been brainwashed into believing that huge corporations are the best people to be in charge of food production. Most importantly, we've fallen into the trap of thinking that organic growing of our own food is not realistic in today's world.

And where has relying on large governments and even larger corporations to take responsibility for our wellbeing brought us?

We've got major health problems.

Toxic residues in our daily diets exceed 500% of the recommended daily maximum, which is not surprising because in the US alone, 1.2 billion kilograms of pesticides are used annually.
No matter where they live, the average person has between 40 and 75 man-made chemical residues stored in their fat tissue.
Governments aren't coping with the cost of providing health care.
Children with so-called mental disorders such as ADHD, ADD, autism and symptoms of physical conditions such as digestive disorders, eczema, asthma, bed-wetting, chronic cystitis all of which are symptoms of deficiencies in vital nutrients, amino acids, essential fats, minerals and vitamins and missing gut micro-organisms.
Our bodies are having to cope with enzyme deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies and hormonal imbalances and which leave us feeling tired and lacking energy.

You and your family members may not have experienced ill health but do you know that:

In Australia, 1 in 3 men and 1 in 4 women will be affected by cancer before they are 75 years old and in the USA the figures are worse.
The total number of type 2 diabetes sufferers in the world is 246 million.
25% of Australian children are overweight or obese and in the USA 98 million people are overweight or obese.

More and more, studies are showing that food grown conventionally with genetically modified seeds, the use of glyphosate, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are causing many of our health problems.

Many of the health problems we are experiencing were not a major problem 50 or 60 years ago before we started to "corporatize" food production, which leads us to ask "Is there a connection between the quality and type of food we eat and our health?" Otto Warburg, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for Medicine in 1931 and 1939 for finding the cause of cancer thought so. He demonstrated that cancer cells only grow in an acidic cell environment. The type and quality of the food we eat determines the acid/alkaline balance of our body's cells so we can prevent and even cure cancer by changing our eating patterns. Organic growing of our food makes a huge difference to our health.

We've got horrendous food problems.

The price of corn rose from $2 to $5.62 per bushel in 2008 and food stockpiles are inadequate.
Seventy million people in 78 countries depend on food aid from the UN World Food Programme.
Studies have shown that fruit, vegetables and meat contain only 20% of the nutrient value the same food contained 60 years ago. Conventional wisdom tells us that we can only solve the world’s food problems by producing food on bigger and bigger farms. The truth is that small growing areas produce between 2 and 10 times more per acre than the amount produced on large scale farms.

We've got disastrous environmental problems.

We're experiencing the effects of global warming with more and more frequently occurring climatic extremes, the result we are told, of releasing too much carbon into the atmosphere. Agribusiness is responsible for more carbon release than cars.
Soils world-wide are being depleted in mineral content and humus levels.
World-wide the bee populations are dwindling and collapsed hive syndrome is common in America and Europe.

We've got frightening resource problems.

We're wasting Earth's valuable resources in unnecessary irrigation, transport, refrigeration, mechanisation and packaging all of which depend on oil which is a finite resource that is being used up rapidly. In the 1960's the world consumed 4 billions of oil per year and the average annual rate of discovery was 30 billion barrels. In 2009 we are using 30 billion barrels of oil and the discovery rate is approaching 4 billion barrels per annum.
Fisheries, world-wide, are being fished out.

We've got massive family breakdown problems.

The level of divorce and family breakdown means more and more children are being raised in one-parent families.
Drug and alcohol dependency are affecting more and more teenagers and young people.
The level of mental and learning problems is at an all time high creating huge levels of stress within families.

Wow!

The list is never ending and it is a real concern. It's crazy that we accept all these problems and the expense and heartbreak that comes from ill health and all the other problems because we already have the solution.

Imagine how you would feel if you knew that what you and your family members are eating is going to give them the best possible chance of avoiding chronic disease.

Imagine what a strong family unit you would build if you were all working on a joint family project: organic growing of your own food.

Imagine how you would feel if you knew that what you are doing as a family benefits you, your family and your community in a huge variety of ways.

Imagine being able to do something, which, if a large percentage of the world's population were to follow your example, would solve most of the world's most pressing problems. It's possible, but you need to know how.... and why.

If everyone were to have a project that involved organic growing of some or all of their own nutrient rich food without using agricultural chemicals and poisons and using natural fertilizers and organic matter, it would improve health, improve the food shortage problems and reduce CO2 emissions. If everyone were to be involved in organic growing of some of their own food it would reduce the demand for Earth's natural resources, particularly oil, because we would be reducing transport distance for our most basic needs. At the same time we'd be building more resilient, self-reliant families and communities. One solution for so many problems!

I realised this is a solution to many of the world's problems many years ago and it was for this reason that I moved to a small rural community at that time. It was for these same reasons we started growing our own food. It was more or less my accident that I started growing a lot more food than we needed which led to Geoff and I persuading the Tamborine Mountain Local Producers' Association to set up a not-for-profit weekly community market which sells locally grown fruit and vegetables, flowers and honey. Having established the market, we needed to grow more and more fruit and vegetables and encourage others to do the same. We expanded our organic growing food production and wondered what to do with it all when we heard about a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) distribution network called Food Connect, which was just starting up in Brisbane, Australia. Geoff and I were invited by Food Connect to co-ordinate the whole of the Tamborine Mountain area to supply locally grown produce to Food Connect which, having been going on for over five years, now supplies over 1,500 families a week in the Brisbane area. In the last two years both Food Connect and the Green Shed, the name our local market acquired after it had been operating for a few years, have been presented with major Awards for the work we do to build sustainable, organic food supply and distribution systems. This year we are featured on the front page of the Gold Coast White Pages telephone directory.

And then I completed the circle. I started from a background in education and training. With the success of the Green Shed and with the publicity we were getting from organic growing activities, people wanted to know how to replicate what we do so I developed a simple training programme and ran a 3-line advertisement in the local paper. Imagine my surprise when 60 people from our local community signed up to do our first organic growing training programme. That was seven years ago and we've been running training programmes ever since.

Word spread. Now we have people doing our organic growing training and either gaining their practical experience by working on our Community Farm or on their own land with our advice and support.

We've been featured in numerous newspaper articles including the "Courier Mail, "Gold Coast Bulletin", “Tamborine Times” and the "Beaudesert Times." We've had stories written about what we do in a variety of magazines including the “Business Review Weekly”, "Australian Farm Journal", "Jetstar" magazine, "Cuisine," "Queensland Smart Farmer" and on TV programmes including Channel 7's "Homes and Gardens", "Queensland Weekender," Mercurio's Menu" and BBC TV's "Wanted Downunder". Our cabbages featured in a 2-hour documentary being filmed by the ABC for a 2010 Anzac Day programme about the Kokoda Track and the defence of Australia during World War 2.

It seems that what Geoff and I have created has captured people's interest and inspired many to follow in our footsteps, so I thought: "If this has happened without us doing anything but grow fruit and vegetables, set up a community market and teach others the organic growing basics of what we do, what would happen if we actually created a way to share with people what we are doing so that they could replicate our success? I think it is really important that we do this because not everyone can come to the Gold Coast in Queensland and attend our workshops.

So I decided to use my training expertise to expand an existing, very successful training programme and create a low cost, 3-month programme, and make it available, through the miracle of the Internet, to everyone, everywhere.

Having completed the task of writing the programme, I went to our Internet marketing consultant and said "We're ready to start". Imagine my horror when he said: "Right. Now you need to make videos to illustrate exactly how you do things."

I was appalled by this latest challenge. However, I am a firm believer that if what you are doing is the right thing to do, help will be provided. This was exactly what happened.

We have Wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) helping us for much of the time. At the time we realised that our next challenge was to make videos, we had a young couple staying with us for a couple of weeks. We discovered that the young man had just finished film school, had made a couple of short films and was Wwoofing as a way to see Australia before moving to Hong Kong to follow a career as a film director. We put him to work to solve our video problem and within a few days we had our first video clip. It shows what we have achieved at "Castelen" and you can see it by clicking on the video on our home page.

By coincidence, (Is there any such thing as coincidence?) at the same time our budding film director was with us, a Food Connect customer from Brisbane started to come down every weekend with his 13 year old son in order to find out what we do. We asked what he did. Guess what? He's also an expert in video production and in addition is a real enthusiast about organic growing of food.

All the help we needed was provided to produce a series of detailed videos to show you exactly how we do things on our property which is called "Castelen".

So that is the story of how the "Healthy Growing" programme came into being.

As you work through the 12-module programme you will have:

Access to everything I've learnt over the past 15 years, covered in great detail.

And this is just a fraction of what you'll get with the "Healthy Growing" programme because you will also have......

Video Demonstrations showing how we do things in absolute detail for each lesson.

We've gone to a lot of trouble to show you exactly how we do things at "Castelen" :fertilizing, mulching, preparing new land, planting trees, soil testing, weed management, composting, seed propagation, edging ..... because I know that pictures tell the whole story. When you see what we do and how we do it, you'll have a blueprint to follow. In addition you'll have access to....

A teleconference facility for the duration of the programme to support you 100%

Are you beginning to see how valuable this package is? With access to a teleconference you'll be able to ask questions that are specific to your needs and location through the Webinar facility we are offering.

Get answers to questions you want to ask about what is going on in your garden. We'll be able to provide answers because of the information you provide to us after you complete Lesson 1, which we will keep on file to give us a complete picture of your garden and the information we need to make recommendations specifically for you.

Hear the questions and answers that others want to know about.

This is yours. It’s FREE. You can access the teleconferences for the duration of your programme so it's like having your own personal gardening consultant for the next 12 months. You'll also have....

The opportunity to gain practical experience on our community farm working under supervision in our extensive gardens and orchards.

That’s right. You have the opportunity to become part of the Community Farm we run and grow your vegetables in your own plot of land.

Alternatively you will gain the ability to produce a constant abundance of food from your own very small area of land by maintaining high levels of soil fertility, propagating your own seeds, minimising insect damage, pests and diseases, maximising worm and soil microorganism numbers and eliminating turnaround time between harvesting and planting.

All this so you can go

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Don't take my word for it. Read, see and hear what others, who have done our training, say.

“I sat and had a rest after weeding my garlic today - why oh why did I leave it so long! While I was sitting in the warm winter sun I was re-reading the notes you gave us for the Healthy Growing Course and it struck me that the course is absolutely wonderful with so much absolutely vital information - some of it is just gelling with me - I know, takes some folks a long time to get it!

I thought I would write and say

THANK YOU!”

Marion Harrington

Kath Coles found it "one of the most enlightening courses I have ever done" and says "it totally inspired Dean and I to get going and put more time into growing our own vegetables. Further, it "taught us about the connection between us as humans and plants and how we all function basically the same. This concept was explained in really simple terms, which I thought was fantastic."

When Katrina Hayhurst came to a Healthy Growing workshop she thought she was going to learn how to grow vegetables, but found "the course showed me a holistic approach to gardening and ultimately to personal wellbeing and health."

“Healthy Growing ” inspired Jodie Clifford to change her approach to growing her own food. Jodie says: "the programme gave me knowledge about how to produce healthy nutritious vegetables, encouragement to keep at it and the passion to love the experience."

Introducing Healthy Growing

Everything you need to know to create a flourishing vegetable garden and fruit laden orchard: an abundance of food for your whole family.

Let's start at the beginning.

We suggest that the programme be completed in twelve weeks but you can take longer if you prefer. You choose how long you spend working through the programme.

If you can handle the weekly schedule, then each week’s lesson will contain some theory and explanation of the different concepts we will be dealing with. Within each lesson you will find there are some practical tasks to do based on the ideas that have been introduced. You will also be given some exercises to get your brain ticking over. All this will help you consolidate the new and sometimes challenging concepts that the programme will introduce. The programme is presented in this way because I know that learning happens when we see, hear, and do and when we have great expectations of success.

There is a video to watch. This shows in great detail, how we do the tasks that we refer to. A verbal description of what we are doing is provided.

Periodically, you will have the opportunity to have one-on-one practical support by participating in a "Webinar": a seminar conducted via the Internet. We ask you to submit your questions prior to the Webinar sessions so that we can refer to the details you will provide us following Week 2 of the programme. Answers will be tailored specifically to your situation. Alternatively, you can become part of the Community Farm and spend time working under supervision on the farm so that you can work through all the practical skills you will need to become a proficient and knowledgeable food grower.

We will also send you the answers to the "homework" questions we ask you to complete so you don't have to wonder: "What is the right answer to that question?”

Each week follows the same format with two exceptions. After Lesson 2 we ask you to provide us with information about your situation so that we can provide meaningful advice for your situation. Following Lesson 6, there is an open book multiple choice revision exercise, which will give you the opportunity to confirm how much you have learnt and identify any difficulties that need clarification.

At the end of Lesson 12, I ask that you give me an outline of what you have achieved during the 12 lesson programme. When you do this, I will provide feedback on what more you can do to be even more successful.

In the "Healthy Growing" programme I have provided a framework that makes absolutely certain that you will learn heaps and you will learn easily and fast without even realising that this is what is happening. I can say this absolute confidence because I have studied and taught learning strategies for much of my life. For five years I taught people how to teach so you can see that this is something I know a lot about.

For a lot of practical and economic reasons it makes sense to allow someone who has already shown the way to explain and show you how it is done....... no stress, no uncertainties and with ongoing proof that each step you take is giving you higher yields, healthier crops, more and more abundance from your trees and vines that will be laden down with mouth watering fruit.

"Healthy Growing" is a fusion of quite different levels of information. On one hand the programme is extremely practical. Explanation is provided on how to create a garden, which has the purpose of producing health-giving food. Theory is provided so that you understand why things are done in a particular way.

There is a distinctly spiritual basis to "Healthy Growing." You are introduced to the work that is being done, world-wide, which supports the ideas put forward in this programme. By understanding how things really work (as opposed to how you've been told they work), you will gain clarity and appreciation of nature. Your spirit will lift, working outdoors close to nature, experiencing how every thing is connected.

Healthy Growing also explains twelve rules, which govern universal existence. Since the rules apply at every level of generalisation and are universally applicable, their importance can be quite clearly demonstrated in the workings of a garden.

There is just the sort of practical information that would have saved me years of work and thousands of dollars. I did it anyway. I learnt everything from trial and error.

People told me to get a worm farm and I did. The worms didn't like their home very much and, in the dead of night, they left. It took a while to work it out but now I have the most wonderful worm farm and it's totally free. My worms live in the furrows of my garden where they can do the most good. They must be happy because there are millions of them and you'll meet some of them when you watch the videos. If I'd known how to have an "in garden" worm farm at the beginning, I wouldn't have wasted my money buying one.

Gardening books suggested I put borders around my gardens and I did. What they didn't tell me was that rock walls and kikuyu grass don't mix. Having spent months building walls, I then had to remove them because I discovered that walls aren't a very effective method for stopping invading grass. People told me that it's not possible to have vegetable gardens and scrub turkeys without an electric fence, so I installed one. That didn't deter anyone but me until I learnt that scrub turkeys don't eat good food. They only eat rubbish.

I've found that most books, TV programmes and magazine articles make everything look so simple and it is, when you're working with ideal conditions and lots of money so that everything you need is provided.

But life's not like that. In real life there are problems to overcome, unknowns to contend with, less than ideal conditions to work around. I know, because my garden is real. We pick, plant, weed, prepare, mulch and fertilize every week and in spite of all this, and even after 15 years full time work, I don't have all the answers all the time.

So what's in the programme?

Lesson 1 is about Purpose.

It is my belief that everything we do should be done for a purpose but I have found that often, the real purpose for doing something is not revealed until we have achieved whatever it is that we set out to do. What we believe to be the purpose is, we often discover later, only part of something that is far, far greater.

My objective for Lesson 1 is for you to have a real sense of how important it is for you to learn more about organic growing of your own food and in the process, learn about the natural world and your connection with it. You will start this journey by:

Seeing and hearing from people who have gardens built on the foundation of a strong sense of purpose.
Identifying world trends, which make it imperative that we start to become more self-sufficient as individuals and as communities in terms of our own food production
Identifying your own special purpose for creating a garden of your own and learning to grow nutritious food.

Lesson 2 is about Preparation.

I find preparing to do something a bit boring, so in this Lesson I give you a way to get started immediately. There is nothing more exciting than seeing your first crop, in this case, potatoes, emerge from the ground. Watching them as they grow, and anticipating the time when you will harvest your crop maintains the level of excitement. Obviously, getting started in this way will depend on the season that you start this programme. If you live in a very cold climate you will have to wait till temperatures warm up before you can start with the practical side of the programme.

The form of garden preparation I suggest has a dual purpose: you grow your first crop and you start the work you need to do to improve your soil's fertility. In this lesson you will:

Establish your starting point by analysing what you already have available to you.
Choose your initial garden site, prepare it and plant your first crop. In this lesson you will be provided with some guidelines on how to prepare land for trees as well as techniques for planting and looking after your trees.
Gain an understanding of how important humus is in maintaining a healthy garden that will inspire you to establish your own composting bins.
Have information on how to deal with pests and diseases will totally change the way you think about dealing with the damage they can cause to crops.

Lesson 3 is all about Alignment and Balance.

After a very practical Lesson 2, you are now introduced to some basic information about some of the chemical elements that are found in soils. At the completion of this lesson you will:

Have an introduction to the free gifts that are provided by nature • Identify some leading players in the inputs that are needed to build and maintain soil fertility.
Understand the importance of achieving balanced mineral content in your soil and have a strategy for doing this
Be able to differentiate between the elements that provide the structural material for plant growth and those that govern a range of processes that go on within plant cells and are responsible for plant growth, reproduction and disease control.
Be aware of the importance of oxygen in plant and soil functioning.

Lesson 4 is about Need.

This lesson completes the information on elements. In Lesson 4 trace elements that act as catalysts in a large number of plant processes are introduced and their function is explained. This lesson takes you through the steps for preparing your garden for planting.

In most gardening books and magazines, much of the information they contain is about diseases and what to do to eradicate them. In this lesson we provide an outline of strategies used to combat disease, because there are times when extreme climatic conditions affect plant health and plants become susceptible to disease. When you complete this lesson you will:

Understand the role of trace elements as catalysts and be aware of some of the important trace elements your plants require and the role they play.
Know what to do to start preparing your garden for new crops and understand how to maintain and build soil fertility.

Lesson 5 is about Movement.

I liken being in my garden to being in a gym. In terms of exercise, they both serve the same purpose: bending, stretching, walking, weightlifting. I am not the only thing moving in my garden. There is constant movement in the air, the soil and within the plants themselves and there is constant movement of birds, animals, insects and bugs around the garden. In this lesson you will:

Gain an understanding of the agents of movement within your garden: insects, micro and macro organisms, worms, snails and slugs. A variety of processes are also involved in movement: transpiration, diffusion, capillarity, leaching and osmosis.
At a practical level, you are taken through the various aspects of planting: preparing seed boxes, transplanting, direct sowing and thinning. You will learn how to work with plants like strawberries, rhubarb and sweet potatoes, that are the "exceptions"
The most difficult aspect of gardening, maintaining a continuous supply of vegetables, is solved by having a planting schedule. In Lesson 5, your practical task is to develop yours.

Lesson 6 explains the concept of Flow.

In Lesson 6, I take you through a number of different scenarios to show you what can go wrong. These are example of things that have happened in my garden. Sometimes they have been caused by human error, sometimes by extreme climatic events. In this lesson you will:

Gain and understanding of the amazing photosynthesis process and understand its importance in maintaining life on Earth.
Know the tasks you need to do to maintain healthy growth of plants from planting to harvesting: weeding, fertilizing, thinning, mulching.
Be provided with an on-going fertilization programme to ensure your vegetables remain healthy and give high yields.
Know the steps to take after harvesting so that you can replant immediately.
Become acquainted with the range of fruit, vegetables, herbs, beverages, nuts and berries that you can grow in your garden.

Lesson 7 is about Obedience.

By Lesson 7 you have covered a lot of information, which is why, as part of this Lesson, we ask that you complete an open book test exercise, which you will send to us. This will help you consolidate some of the information you have been given and will also give you an opportunity to ask questions or gain clarification of areas that you are not sure about. In Lesson 7 you will:

Become familiar with some "within the earth " activities and realise the importance of having a varied and prolific level of some of the world's most extraordinary living organisms within the soil: algae, bacteria, worms, nematodes, protozoa, fungi and arthropods
Develop an understanding of the important role that soil organisms perform
Start to develop strategies to build high levels of bacteria and fungi
Compare soil samples to see the changes that occur as you improve fertility
Discover techniques to define the boundaries between gardens and grass.

Lesson 8 is about Duty.

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and nitrogen is an element that is very difficult to manage. In Lesson 8 the nitrogen cycle is explained to give you an understanding of what you need to do to maintain high nitrogen levels in your plants. In this lesson you will

Distinguish between the different forms of nitrogen and understand the process by which nitrogen changes form
Be introduced to the process of germination
Develop some strategies for managing extreme climate conditions and water shortage.
You will carry out practical exercises designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of different water retention strategies because water is critical to growing healthy crops

Lesson 9 is about Attraction.

For most people, the greatest difficulty they have to overcome in organic growing is the problem of weeds. The purpose of this Lesson is to change your attitudes towards weeds so that you are able to see the benefits they bring, as well as the disadvantages. In Lesson 9 you will:

Be provided with information which will change in thinking about role of weeds in nature.
Develop some strategies for keeping weeds under control.
Learn, from my experience, things you shouldn't do if you wish to keep your weeds under control
Be introduced to some useful tools to monitor pH, moisture and crop health.

Lesson 10 is about Evolution.

In nature, as in life, nothing ever stays the same. It gets better or it gets worse. In this lesson I explain how I have increased the fertility of the soil at "Castelen" and you will learn what to do as well as what not to do. In this Lesson you will:

Find out how to do a soil test and identify the benefits of soil testing
Study the development of a soil over a period of 5 years with reference to soil tests carried out annually.
This lesson will familiarise you with the presentation of information available from a soil test.
Start planting trees to add a whole new range of produce for your family.

Lesson 11 is about Abundance.

Abundance is something we all strive for, but when it comes, you have to know what to do with what you are given. In this lesson, I suggest a variety of ways you can use the abundance provided by nature. In this lesson you will:

Discover a range of ways to use food that is provided in great abundance: cook it, preserve it, freeze it, dry it, sell it.
Learn the story of the Green Shed market and understand that this is an easily replicated model that could be set up in any part of the world, even in cities.

Lesson 12 explains the concept of Synchronicity.

In Lesson 12 we bring everything together and apply some of the principles we have been working to the whole of life. Synchronicity is when everything comes together, seemingly by accident and life gives you everything you dare to hope for. This lesson deals with the important understandings in life: harmony, co-operation, synergy, inter-dependence and resilience.

In this lesson you will:

Understand what it means to work in harmony with the Rules of Universal Existence
Become aware of the inter-relationships that exist in nature, between people and between people and nature.
Become aware of the principle that you create your own reality by attracting into your life those things that will help you achieve your life's purpose.
Be introduced to the idea that you get what you need, rather than what you want, until such time as what you want and what you need are one and the same.
Realise that your garden is a vehicle for your own physical healing and for your emotional and spiritual growth and it provides you with what you need to stay healthy, active, enthusiastic and in touch with the miracles of the natural world.

This information can transform your life and the way you think, save you money, cement family relationships, improve health and vitality so why not start today?

"How much does it cost?" I hear you saying.

All this will cost you absolutely nothing. You'll pay for the programme, the tools you'll need, the equipment, manures and fertilizers with saving you'll make on your food. Guaranteed! Sure, there'll be some money to be spent up front, but you'll get it all back in savings on your food bills. When you apply the tithing rule: give back to the land 10% of the value of what you receive, you find that the abundance continues to flow.

I'm absolutely serious when I tell you that the techniques I am sharing with you are absolutely guaranteed for conditions other than floods, fires, hurricanes and sustained drought. As long as you have sunshine and water and some soil to grow things in, you'll be successful because you can improve the soil, adapt to the sunshine and minimise water use with the strategies we'll provide for you.

My objective with this programme is to make it both easy and affordable.

Why do I do this? Well I'm pretty passionate about what I do. I think it is important that as many people as possible join the growing number of folks who are trying to get back great self sufficiency and community self reliance. I think it is important that people take charge of their own health and growing your own food is the first step and a really important first step because it ensures improved health and vitality.

Of course we've checked on what the alternatives being offered are and it seems to us that, the only equivalent programmes are being offered by tertiary institutes. They will cost you heaps and won't offer you the practical advice and "outside the box" information and strategies we can share with you because our programme has a strong foundation grounded in "doing". Most of the courses you can't do from home, so in addition to the fees charged, you have travel and accommodation expenses to pay. Also, since many universities and tertiary colleges are dependent on multinationals for funding, their programmes teach reliance on chemical fertilizers and agricultural poisons to achieve results. Because we are independent, we can tell you all the things you don't get taught at horticultural and agricultural colleges.

There's a catch.

If you aren't ready for what this programme offers, that's fine. I accept that some of you will not be able to handle some of the information, which is quite scientific and some, which is quite controversial, particularly when compared with what is conventionally taught and commonly accepted. But if you can work with these ideas and recognise the underlying truths, then you will realise why this system works. It has to work because it is how nature intends things to be.

I'm not interested in dealing with anyone who wants to make a few changes to their poison and chemical fertilizer garden strategies to get better results. I'm committed to building a cleaner, healthier future for the world. If you and I aren't on the same wavelength, then this programme isn't for you.

Now I'm aware that a lot of people have great intentions but as you and I both know, great intentions don't give you results. Please don't join up if you're not really committed and are prepared to take action. Results come from knowing what to do and doing the necessary work. Results come from expecting success and putting in the effort. Believe me, you'll get fit. You'll sleep like a log. You'll feel motivated and alert after an hour's gardening activity. It's better than a session at the gym or an hour's jogging. It's a great way to start the day.... or finish it!

Commitment means reading the material provided, doing your homework tasks and taking the action steps appropriate to each lesson. Each new bit of information and each task puts down one of the building blocks you need to total understanding .....which, when you have real understanding, leaves you in awe at the wonders of the natural world and the plants and creatures we rely on for our food.

So why not lock in your place now.

Get ready to transform your life in ways you can't yet imagine.

You will receive your first lesson within 24 hours.

You won't risk one cent by putting these techniques to the test because you are protected in not just one, but in four different ways.

Guarantee 1 If you're not completely committed, or not satisfied with the material you are receiving and the service you are being offered, simply cancel your membership.

Guarantee 2 The information we provide is no nonsense, easy to read and simple to apply and the action steps are spelled out with written and spoken explanation and pictures. If you're not completely satisfied, simply cancel your membership.

Guarantee 3 If we're going too fast or if you have other commitments, simply send us an email via the 'contact us' page and we'll put the programme on hold until you are ready to re-commence.

Guarantee 4 If, in your own garden, you don't see the benefits that come from applying the strategies and technique we suggest, simply cancel your membership.

Every effort has been made to accurately represent the potential that this programme offers. Please remember that each individual's success depends on their dedication, their level of motivation and their willingness to adopt new ideas.

Join Now While Memberships Are Available

Wishing you great success.

Warmly,

bev-signature

Bev Buckley

I just want to mention on final thing because I want you to value what you are about to receive.

The techniques I am going to share with you have been developed and refined over a period of 16 years. Early on, I thought I knew what I was doing and I had some initial success. But my failures soon outweighed my successes and each failure cost me a lot in time, resources and wasted opportunities. I consulted "experts," took from them what made sense, and gradually perfected a system that really worked... and continues to improve as each year passes.

I'm well known as a teacher and innovative thinker and recognised as a skilled organic gardener able to produce nutrient dense food that looks good and tastes wonderful.

What you are about to learn is a system that you can apply everywhere. Unless you're snowed in or your soil is frozen, you can get started just as soon as you assemble the tools and material you need for the first tasks.

May you enjoy every step you take.

Who can teach you most about growing nutrient rich vegetables and fruit to give you the healthiest food possible? Someone who...

has a proven record of success as a gardener over many years
has years of experience as a trainer and a teacher of trainers
is acknowledged by Australian horticulture organisations as being a leader in the field
has professional accreditation (Diploma in Horticulture)
can show you exact details of how different tasks as done in her own garden
is passionate about what she does and wants you to be successful

People usually believe that plants need fertiliser. The real story is that plants are fed by the soil organisms. Our job as gardeners is to feed the soil organisms and give them a good home. A huge population of worms in your garden tells you that you are doing a good job.

"Castelen" has many visitors including overseas students. We teach them that the first step in having a healthy garden is to get the soil minerals balanced and have lots of organic matter.

We teach how to avoid pests and disease so that even the strawberries are safe from slugs and birds and you don't have to cover them: no netting, no fences, no worries.

The harvest at Castelen provides a kaleidoscope of colours and textures.

Training groups come to Castelen regularly to get hand on experience in preparing new ground, weeding, planting, fertilizing and preparing seed boxes.

Birds, insects, caterpillars and diseases are nature's garbage disposal experts. Their job is to destroy food that is lacking in nutrients and therefore is unhealthy..

Having the whole family (and the dog) involved in harvesting turns a simple task into a celebration of the abundance of nature and strengthens the family unit.

Soil workforce comes in many different colours, shapes and sizes.

Giant sized potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli grow without chemical fertilizers. The secret is to have lots of organic matter, a balance of nutrients and a large workforce in the soil whose job is to feed the plants.