April 2, 2024
Meet Edward, the man who grows an extraordinary variety of organic greens.
Edward has been growing organic greens for over 15 years. Located in Kumeu, Auckland, the BioVG team grow an extensive variety of greens year round. This includes collards, traditional green kale, Cavolo Nero kale, baby spinach, salad mix, rocket, traditional spinach, perpetual spinach, a variety of lettuces and more. When we say eat your greens, we mean these organic greens!
BioVG Fresh Garden is certified organic by BioGro, one of New Zealand’s leading organic certifiers. While the team is dedicated to organic growing standards, they also utilise regenerative agriculture practices such as increasing plant diversity and supporting soil health.
Edward explains how organic annual cropping or crop rotation plays a big role in this, as each species of plant draws different nutrients out of the soil. Rotation also prevents crop-specific pests and diseases from taking hold in the same paddock.
The team’s biggest challenge is dealing with the pests naturally and how to make this work economically. While crop rotation certainly helps, Edward finds this needs to be paired with other practices. In his quest to find a solution, Edward is applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This is is an environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that focuses on pest identification, gaining knowledge of their life cycle, and then focusing on prevention where possible.
When Edward is not planting, harvesting or battling pests in the field, you will find him playing badminton. And we hear he is just as good at badminton as he is at pest disruption!