When we moved to the area I saw an article in the local paper about it, got in touch with the organiser and began growing seedlings for it.
On December 10th 2011 the garden was made and the first lot of plants put in (including some of mine). I had best intentions of being there for this momentous occasion but a bout of food poisoning got the better of me. However I have since continued providing the garden with plants.
Last night we had a planning meeting to set up the infrastructure for the garden for the next 5 years. These included plans around drainage, on-site water, a nursery, windbreaks, a teaching space, bbq area etc. Actually there was a lot of the wish-list!
My ideas towards the garden stem from the reasons why I wanted to be part of it in the first place. I value community and communities looking after each other. There are many socio-cultural benefits from having a community garden. People can learn how to garden, people gain social connections to their neighbours, it brings people together and ultimately it brings us all together and talking!
One of my suggestions was around how to get people interested in being involved. We actually need to tell people what resources we need whether that be wood to build a garden or the skills of someone to draw up a plan. I think sometimes people want to help but don't know what they can contribute.
For example there was these 2 old ladies at the meeting who basically said that they had turned up to the meeting to be a bit nosy because they couldn't garden to save themselves but they could make scones! Well terrific - welcome on board. There is always the need for someone to make the scones!
The best thing about this community garden project is that it is connected to several other initiatives in the community including a community orchard, a native planting scheme (which will have a nursery on the site) and the local Papa kāinga, who hope to teach courses in traditional Maori medicine, plants and raranga/weaving.
All very exciting. But in the meantime I will enjoy the immediate harvest!
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