About Us

Ginny Clayton of Northland, New Zealand, runs Ginny's Herbs. Ginny has extensive experience in organic and biodynamic growing, and was one of the forerunners of this method of market gardening in New Zealand.

Ginny spent many years helping run large market gardens, and became interested in organic gardening in the early 1970s. After attending seminars and workshops, Bio-Gro organic status was achieved, followed by Trans Demeter Certificate for a 117-acre farm and market garden at Whatitiri in Northland.

Biodynamics kindled Ginny's interest in herbs. She began to build up a herb business to the point where Ginny's Herbs was supplying all of the garden centres in Whangarei in the 1980s. A natural progression was into old types of vegetables, including endangered species, which has now developed into her `Old, Tried and True' non-hybrid vegetable and flower seed & seedlings seasonal catalogues. Ginny's seed range is growing, as she grows out several varieties each year under controlled conditions to ensure they do not cross   pollinate. The emphasis being on encouraging others to save their own seed and help keep the best of the older varieties for future generations.

Ginny also grows out herbs from overseas -the selection of seed from overseas has to be done very carefully, to ensure that only GE-free seed is used. Ginny now has many varieties in her herb catalogue, and others becoming available each year. Companion planting also plays an important part, with these types of plants also available.

The website (www.ginnysherbs.com) then evolved, thanks to Donna Russell from E-Builders NZ Ltd, and this now has become a very important part of Ginny's business, with all the plants in her catalogues   being able to be ordered through the Internet (New Zealand customers only). Belonging to the biggest gardening website in New Zealand (Garden-NZ) has been a wonderful experience also.

As the Garden Centre trends changed, Ginny's Herbs developed into a mail order business, with only Palmers Garden Centre   in   Whangarei   being supplied, and the developing Growers Market as Ginny's ‘meet the people face to face' time.

Ginny has been a regular feature writer for the local   “Tangihua Times” since its inception several years ago, and is delighted with the feedback from her articles.

She also writes a column in the Weekend Gardener magazine.

Ginny also teaches night classes at Kamo High School, Whangarei, and her classes have been on many subjects including culinary herbs, potager/cottage gardening and organic growing.

Being on a small block means that there must be income being produced 12 months of the year, so to provide income from May to July when plant sales are at a minimum, Ginny has Sol d'Or jonquils, Earlicheer and daffodils, which are sold at the Growers Market and the Flower Auctions in Auckland, New Zealand.

In 1998, Ginny Clayton was runner-up in the Businesswoman of the Year competition in Whangarei and ‘Ginny's Herbs' won the best outdoor site at the Dargaville Field days in 2001.

Lifestyle Farmer magazine has published two articles about Ginny and her business. One, written by Ginny, was about old potato varieties and appeared in the September 2001 issue; the other written by Sandra Bogart, was about her herb garden design service.