Lily White has been gardening organically for over 40 years. As a child she excelled at growing tomatoes and won many awards from the Boys and Girls Agricultural Club. Staying with her aunties, she developed an interest and knowledge base in herbs. Lily was inspired by Esther Deans and her talk at the Auckland Herb Society on the no-dig garden style. She practiced no-dig gardening for 20 years before formally studying organic gardening methods in 1994 at the Christchurch Polytechnic.

Lily has also studied landscape design at Lincoln University and has completed a certificate in Permaculture Design Teaching.

Her specialty topic is garden design and practices based on permaculture principles: the conscious design and maintenance of productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.

For the past 18 years Lily has been running the Kids Edible Gardening programme and teaching adults through community education programmes. Lily developed and published educational resources including the Kids Edible Gardens Resource Guide for Teachers and Early Childhood Teachers.

In mid-1999 Lily and the Kids Edible Gardens team were awarded the Green Ribbon Award by the Ministry for the Environment, for ‘outstanding leadership and commitment to environmental protection.’

Lily has given support and guidance to other regions and participated in two national environmental education contracts. She was specifically called upon to share her knowledge and experience on a contract with the New Zealand Heart Foundation.

Lily has worked with many early childhood centres, primary, intermediate and high schools in Christchurch, involving students, teachers, parents and other community groups, presenting school demonstrations on worm farm, compost and Bokashi management methods. 

She now offers practical beginner and intermediate level courses on organic gardening and permaculture design.

Ami has had a lifelong passion for learning about the world and how to be a positive and active part of it. She sees growing food with others as a vital part to a happy human existence.

Ami spent a lot of her childhood learning from nature, with friends and alongside her parents in the surrounding countryside, vegetable garden, and native forest apiary. After studying as a chef and dipping into resource studies at Lincoln University, Ami completed a Certificate in Organic Growing at the Christchurch Polytechnic.

She then joined forces with Lily on the Kids Edible Gardens project. With Lily and a creative team she developed and published the Kids Edible Gardens Resource Guide for Teachers and Early Childhood Teachers. 

Working for four years as a garden facilitator she was drawn to complete a bachelor in teaching and learning at Canterbury University. Ami spent five years classroom teaching in Auckland and with her students was able to develop successful learning opportunities based in and around organic food gardens, worm composting systems and sharing the freshly harvested produce.

Ami lives in Nelson and works as a permaculture designer including with the Nelson Seed Library and Permaculture in Nelson Group. 

Our Supporters

Kids Edible Gardens - financial

Johnson Ohana Foundation - financial

Personal contributions from Ami and Lily - time and financial

Soil & Health Canterbury - support

Food Resilience Network - support

Christchurch City Council - Innovation and Sustainability fund - financial

Collaborators

Lizard Designs

Hoohah Creative New Zealand   

Screen Printing by Lee

Amanda McStay

Angus Donaldson Copy Service

Fairground Accounting