“An inspirational teacher has passion by the bucketload, a depth of knowledge at their fingertips, instills that all mistakes are learning, and has the ability to connect authentically with their students… That’s Claire! I learnt more about growing food well in the 8 hours I spent with her than in the last 40 odd years of my life. And the information comes tried and tested! I come away feeling that I too can grow good food in a way that is beneficial to my family and, importantly, our world. Thanks Claire, your passion is contagious, I’ve caught the bug!”

Claire’s ‘Grow Your Own Food’ course was fun, informative and inspiring. The depth and detail of Claire’s knowledge is amazing – you can ask her any gardening-related question and she’ll have an answer for you. We learnt all sorts of useful information about growing food, how to deal with pests, how to make your watering go further (very helpful on Waiheke!), companion planting and the difference between the needs of summer and winter plants.

Claire is an entertaining teacher, and the progress made by our class over four weeks, both in class and at home in our gardens, was staggering. She’s also infinitely helpful and so willing to share her knowledge. If there was a follow-up course, I’d be joining immediately!

Claire and her team have been doing a great job maintaining our large native bush garden over the past 12 months. More recently Claire has been helping me fine tune my vegetable garden and she’s been generous in sharing her extensive knowledge.

I’ve learnt from Claire how to grow produce from seeds, the best times to plant, how to harness the right kind of soil nutrients, and how to keep pests at bay. She’s been very encouraging of my efforts (even dropping off seeds to our letterbox during lock-down), and I’m now the proud owner of my first winter vegetable garden!

From the moment I sat down in the first lesson in Claire Mummery’s GROW YOUR OWN FOOD four week course, it was very obvious to me that Claire was hugely knowledgable about organic gardening. She so generously shared information and gave me such inspiration to grow nutrient dense vegetables from soil, well prepared from natural sources. We went home each week with seeds to plant and little plants to nurture. The lessons were structured but furnished with so many extra tips – all of them profoundly useful. Claire thank you so much for enriching my ability to grow. I learnt so much. 

DON’T PANIC – IT’S ORGANIC !!

For an absolute beginner interested in growing veggies and composting, it’s important to do it right the first time, and so I attended a “Grow Inspired” course with Claire.

Our whole group got totally inspired!

Claire introduced us in a fun way to germinating seeds and naturally growing produce, using organic composting and pest control.

She is very knowledgeable and helpful, even after our course finished.

I started as a total beginner, and within 4 weeks I’ve become a founding member at the growinspired academy.
Three cheers for Claire!

“Fantastic workshop! Thanks to Waiheke Resources Trust, Kristin Busher and Claire Mummery for an enjoyable and most informative morning! Great to see others keen to learn too. Do yourself, your garden, your soil, your friends and family and the planet a favour and join these workshops!!!

“We are blessed that we have the opportunity and special people in our community who want to share their knowledge”

I’ve been telling everyone I know about it!”

“Claire and the Grow Inspired team have done a fantastic job of planting and now maintaining our garden  – Claire is an enthusiastic and practical gardener and a great communicator”

“There isn’t much Claire doesn’t know about plants, composting, pruning – you name it, she knows it. But she also makes fabulous Calendula cream.

“I had been trying a pharmacy-recommended cream for a rash and getting no results, so I went to my faithful jar of Claire’s Calendula cream.

“Result? Improvement in two days!

“After a full time career and years of working outside, Claire’s own use of her cream is a testament in itself. Throw out your old creams, and use this all purpose wonder cream!”

“Well before meeting Claire about 3 years ago I had herd about her from several people who refer to her as an “Organic Gardening Guru”. I was planning to build a large organic garden on our farm so I decided to do one of Claire’s evening courses at the high school and see what she had to offer.

All I can say is WOW – she is amazing, never was there a question in the large class she couldn’t answer and not just from a theoretical point of view. Claire eats, sleeps, drinks and breathes Organic gardening and has tried it all! Claire has been gardening most of her life and has run large vineyard restaurant growing programs in world class restaurants like Cable Bay and Poderi Crisci. Claire has also organised council funded composting programs round Auckland.

Claire is a great teacher – she puts everything in a clear, easy to understand way and follows it up by getting you to do practical examples in class or on class site visits. Claire comes to your garden and offers helpful suggestions and support.

If you are time poor she can even take care of the work needing to be done for a more than reasonable rate with her team of well-trained gardeners. I have no hesitation in recommending this wonderful lady and am only too happy to speak with anyone considering her classes or garden work.”