I am a master gardener and Biodynamic teacher. I studied with the late Alan Chadwick and practice his Biodynamic French-intensive technique. For over 40 years I have been designing and creating magnificent ornamental and edible gardens, as well as bringing the knowledge and work ethic required to build highly productive gardens to communities all over North America.
I am available for consultation, design and workshops.
Experience
- Apprenticed for two years in California with Peter Dukich, then West Coast President of Bio-Dynamics, the underlying philosophy of Agriculture as found in Steiner’s last book. Dukich helped create a garden for the Waldorf School and taught intensive workshops in the garden. Out of this work funds were procured to build a farm school with Hershman as farm manager and co-teacher with Dukich.
- Apprenticed for two years with Grand Master Gardener, Alan Chadwick in a fourteen acre Bio-Dynamic, French Intensive farm/garden in Covolo, California. Chadwick’s vision was to bring the world a magnificent display of fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables, grown to perfection and totally integrated, producing health, vigor, vitality, and taste through Bio-Dynamic concepts and French Intensive techniques. His result was unequaled in our time. Students from this project went on to become teachers of Horticulture throughout the world.
- Created a community garden in Bolinas, CA, on two formerly untenable acres. The teaching garden radically altered the face of the community. Over a three year period, the garden inspired 300 new gardens in the village, defined road and tree lines in neighborhoods, and brought together the community under a non-profit umbrella to form co-ops for cottage industries in the community. Culturally, the garden infused the community and visitors with a new sense of pride and productivity.
- Taught at Windstar in Snowmass, Colorado, John Denver's holistic community. Consequently moved to Boulder, CO, teaching, creating gardens, and landscaping, culminating in a 1994 Grand Prize Award from the National Landscapers Association of Colorado for the Best Garden in Colorado.
- Farm Manager for Seeds of Change, Inc., a 128-acre farm in Gila, New Mexico, producing 700 varieties of certified organic, open pollinated, heirloom, seeds (the only company in the USA to do so). Seed of Change has gone on to become an international clearing house for seed growers throughout the world, commissioning growers to grow seed for them and distributing the seeds through their catalog.
- Created a compost business in Las Vegas N.M., using by-product from the lumber industry which was formally a wasteful hazard and a cost to the industry. Use of this product produces up to 20,000 yards of Bio-Dynamic Compost a year.
- Created a community garden with the residents of the Taos Pueblo in Taos, N.M.
- Traveled to rural Guatemala teaching bio-diversity and dry-land farming practices (were the locals dubbed him ‘Juaquin’).
- Created a teaching garden at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona., a holistic healing center founded by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. The garden (a testament to dry-land farming) served as the main source of food for the retreat center.
- Project Manager, San Pancho, Mexico. Community gardens, nurseries and a civic garden at San Pancho were designed and created in unused lots made available by a land developer with aspirations to beautify the community in socially and environmentally conscious ways. These gardens serve the community in providing organic fruits and vegetables, educational workshops, and a public park of spectacular beauty.
- Worked as Senior Garden Consultant for Greenleaf Gardens, Inc. in Westchester, NY, providing hands-on, garden-based education opportunities in sustainability to New York State residents of all ages. Greenleaf Gardens implements and facilitates food producing gardens, composting systems, and sustainability education programs in schools, developmentally disabled residential communities, juvenile detention centers and prisons in Westchester county.
- Worked at the Leichtag Foundation, Incinitas, CA as consultant, designer and education coordinator Designed and built an 8-acre food forest and 1/4-acre teaching garden. Managed the soil restoration, compost operation and the planting of trees shrubs and ground covers. Managed nursery and greenhouse operation for teaching.
