Good Gardens: Consultant Aisha Grierson wants to help Whanganui gardeners grow abundant kai

When Whanganui gardener Lesley Wise found her vegetables were failing to thrive despite being fed on her top-notch compost she was baffled.

“I was doing everything that had worked well for me before – mulching,
bokashi, and hot composting but nothing made the plants thrive,” she said.

“I found the help I needed on Instagram.”

Wise found backyard garden consultant Aisha Grierson’s post and learned that she could offer soil advice as well as growing and planting advice.

Grierson moved to Whanganui from her Australian homeland last year and noticed there were a lot of backyard gardeners around and began offering her backyard consults as Aisha Isis.

“I have been seriously growing organic vegetables for the past six years. I had my own farm in Australia and I have been working on farms and meeting growers and experts around the world. I’m trained in organic and bio-intensive growing methods,” she said.

“It’s my passion and along the way, I have studied soil health and sometimes it is easy to diagnose which nutrients are lacking.”

In the case of Wise’s garden soil, it wasn’t obvious so Grierson sent a sample off to agronomist Robin Boom in the United States.

“I hadn’t done my soil any favours by adding too much dolomite lime and ground-up eggshells to my compost,” Wise said.

“And there was a significant lack of potassium. Aisha came back and helped me apply potassium silicate ordered from an organic supplier in Dunedin.”

Wise said she now can’t wait to harvest her summer crops and has renewed confidence that they will be good.

“With the home visits and site-specific advice, I want to support backyard vege growers to get more from their gardens,” Grierson said.

“Lesley makes wonderful compost but it just had too much calcium and it is wonderful to see her so happy now that balance is restored.”

Grierson said helping people to grow abundant kai in their backyards was deeply satisfying and she hopes to hear from more Whanganui gardeners now that spring is approaching.

“This is the time to prepare for great summer harvests,” she said.

“I am passionate about sharing with people how beautiful it can be to grow food naturally.”

Grierson has both Facebook and Instagram pages as Aisha Isis and can be contacted via email at aieshagrierson@gmail.com or by phone at 020 4777 025.

Liz Wylie is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. She joined the editorial team in 2014 and regularly covers stories from Whanganui and the wider region. She also writes features and profile stories.