More than 100 corporate volunteers and school children spent a blustery spring day building Te Hōnonga a Iwi’s new community food garden earlier this month.
The garden is situated behind the main turf at North Harbour Hockey and offers easy flat access from a parking area less than 80m away.
It includes four raised garden beds - two at a height that makes them perfect for children to use, one at a height that allows people to sit on the side and garden, and a fourth bed that is higher than normal to enable people to lean against the bed rather than bend over to garden.
There are six vertical planter boxes - one row for standing gardening and one for people using chairs or younger people to access easily.
Two planter tables at wheelchair or seat height also allow people to sit while gardening, offering an opportunity for people managing pain or mixed abilities to invest in the garden.
Vertical arches made from recycled rebar will enable climber plants such as beans, passionfruit, and grapes to grow and be harvested. The arches are walk-through to enable shade when gardening.
Te Hōnonga a Iwi project co-ordinator Nicky Shave says the range of different gardening beds and arches provides accessible gardening for everyone including people who find it hard to bend or kneel, those in wheelchairs and young children.
The hard-working team that built the gardens included Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Kaumatua Richard Nahi and about 60 corporate volunteers and staff from the Graeme Dingle Foundation.
Harry Silver, the Foundation’s Business Engagement Manager, highlighted the transformative power of community collaboration.
“The day was a beautiful representation of the values of sustainability and citizenship the Foundation fosters in its young people through experiential learning, positive youth development, and projects. Coming together with our corporate volunteers to work alongside the community to transform a strip of grass into a community food garden in a day was an awesome way to bring these values to life.”
Funding from Junior Landcare, a partnership programme between the Bupa Foundation and NZ Landcare Trust aimed at empowering younger generations to address growing concerns about environmental threats, covered design and material supplies for the vertical planters, raised garden tables, bioorganic compost and irrigation of the garden.
Bupa CEO Pedro Sanchez and staff from Bupa and Bridget Jonker and Tracy Roose from NZ Landcare Trust were also on hand to build the garden, with support from Rachael Pates from UWEN, Tania Bromley, a gardening specialist from Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa, Matt Cummings and Jake Clark from Untangled Landscapes.
Nicky says the group was fortunate to have some builders from the Graeme Dingle Foundation and NZ Landcare Trust communities to help. Matt Wardle, Sheryl Blythen, Lily Rushworth and Miriam Scott from North Harbour Hockey helped co-ordinate the volunteer day.
The volunteers cleared topsoil from the site, constructed a wheelchair pad and built planter tables and beds.
They then helped a group of 30 children, teachers and parent helpers from Westminster Christian School with a mix of bioorganic compost and soil.
The Westminster students planted tomatoes, lettuces and other seedlings in the children’s garden bed.
Nicky Shave says the Te Hōnonga a Iwi team has applied for grants for water tanks, a garden shed and a winter garden glasshouse.
“When the water tanks are in, we can set up the irrigation off the roofline of the National Hockey Centre shed to collect rainwater supply and begin growing food. When we are operational, we will be running regular community food garden working bees on Sunday afternoons.”
Nicky would like to thank the following organisations for their contributions to the project:
Auckland Council
UWEN
Untangled Landscapes
Plan C Compost Solutions
Atlas Concrete
NZ Machine Hire
Central Landscape Supplies Albany
Pioneer Pies
Be Media
North Harbour Hockey Association
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