Source: Te Hōnonga a Iwi – Restoring Rosedale Park
More than 100 corporate volunteers and school children spent a blustery spring day building the new community food garden for Te Hōnonga a Iwi earlier this month. The garden is designed to foster an intergenerational gardening experience and is situated behind the main turf at North Harbour Hockey, offering easy flat access from a parking area less than 80m away.
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 Ngati Whatua 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.”
The volunteers cleared topsoil, 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 plant tomatoes, lettuces, and other seedlings.
Funding from Junior Landcare, a partnership programme between the Bupa Foundation and NZ Landcare Trust, covered design and material supplies for the vertical planters, raised garden tables, bioorganic compost, and irrigation of the garden. 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.
Bupa CEO Pedro Sanchez and staff from Bupa, along with 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 from Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa, and Matt Cummings and Jake from Untangled Landscapes.
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.”
We would like to thank the following organisations for their support at the volunteer day:
- AIG
- Bidfood
- Brightstar
- ITW Construction Asia Pacific
- Lion New Zealand
- Milford Asset Management
- Rothbury
- SAP
- Stride Property
To find out more, please contact Harry Silver, Graeme Dingle Foundation Business Engagement Manager, here.
If you want to keep up-to-date on progress at Te Hōnonga a Iwi or hear about upcoming public working bees, head to their website, scroll to the bottom of the homepage and subscribe to their monthly update.
