News and Updates
What’s Happening
Summer and the growing was good
February 26, 2022
Lisa the coordinator was distracted by the chickens at her own place in Karori this summer. The garden however kept growing. Keen gardening regulars including Silvana, Rana, Anh and Ha planted cucumber, fed the fruit trees, planted flowers and kept the weeds down. There was lots of fresh greens harvested, the raspberries weren't so good this year and the strawberries just seem to be taking up space!
Sadly Philip moved towns (our compost king), we farewelled him with a dinner. And new people are planting in their new plot.
Spring 2021
6 September, 2021
The interest for the garden has continued over the past few months. A small handful of regular users attend to their plots and the commons areas. The coordinator has had a few other projects and things pulling her away from her role so there haven't been many meetups. The current lock down in Aotearoa is a great step to once again eliminate community transmission of COVID19 but has meant the garden is closed for working bees. Once Pōneke Wellington is again at Level 2 there will be some working and social gatherings as spring brings a renewed growing to plants.
Be kind on yourself and others, wear a mask, keep an eye out for spring blossom in the neighbourhood and plant some seeds or seedlings at home.
Ideas for the Karori Community Garden
1 October 2020
Here is a summary of some of the ideas from a few people for the community garden.
The next Meetup Session is Saturday 3 October from 1pm. Discussing plans and ideas whilst leaning on a spade is an excellent working bee outcome.
New garden bed area (not a raised bed area, with pathways from hessian coffee sacks and no-dig aka Charles Dowding https://charlesdowding.co.uk/start-here/)
Continue cardboard and arborists mulch along the fence-line from Lewer Street and Beauchamp Street
Create a 'healing plants' bed in the corner of Lewer and Beauchamp Street. (This was started a few months ago but needs to be further established, demarcated and with a sign)
Add extra compost / soil into the bark chip around the establishing feijoa trees and plant flowers for the bees
Create a bigger and three bay compost area that can be turned and have a bigger size to better enable hot composting. (Philip and Ahn are leading this)
Create workshops / info sessions and invite the community
Plant for the Feeds to Seeds Festival
Carve out more smaller beds for new people
Have more regular sessions with a timetable of people who can open the shed and great people
Make signs for the garden beds (hand painted boards out of pallet timber is the current idea)
Make labels for the trees (written on canvas and attached to the trees the trees with a soft tie is the current idea that was seen at a community garden in South Wellington)
Dig up, separate, and pot the strawberry bed and then sell to raise funds to cover the cost of the new wheelbarrow wheel, and maybe buy some more bird netting for communal use
Fundraise for a new shed base (because it is rotten) - this is underway
Create small leaf compost areas from chicken wire around the garden
Get water barrels in a couple of places (corner of the Bowling Club wall and Lewer Street is one potential place, the other is off the garage roof on the corner of the rhubarb bed)
Get a new lawn mower and give up on the existing one (in progress)
In The News
FRUIT TREES AT BEN BURN PARK
September 3, 2020
Kia ora Ben Burn Park neighbours,
We’re excited to let you know about a collaboration between the Karori Residents’ Association, Karori Community Garden and Wellington City Council for planting some fruit trees at the Ben Burn Park playground.
The idea for planting fruit trees here came about because of the Ben Burn project to upgrade the existing trees. The Karori Community Garden will be a caretaker group to keep the fruit trees fed, maintained and watered during dryer months. We now plan to plant a small number of fruit trees and create community engagement, including how this could be expanded on around the suburb further in the future.
We believe that planting fruit trees here will liven up the space, provide community-building and educational opportunities, boost biodiversity, and be part of building food resilience in Karori.
We would love to hear your thoughts around this ongoing initiative, and connect with other locals and groups that may wish to be involved or support the project.
We are hoping to find a neighbour who could assist with getting water over summer to the fruit trees by providing access to an outdoor tap, and we are also looking for families to become guardians of a tree.
For more information and to share your thoughts, please contact Lisa Maule or Kate Walmsley from the Karori Community Garden, or Andrea Skews – Chair of the Karori Residents’ Association.
Ngā mihi nui.
Regular Sessions
May
After a series of May Winter Gardening Sessions there will be a regular first Saturday of the month 1pm - 3pm Meetup.
A chance to touch base with each other and get garden tasks done together.
There are some areas to tackle and many new people establishing little plots.
In The News.
Excerpt from article in the Dominion Post
April 18, 2020
STUFF
SEEDS (AND BOOZE) FOR THE SOUL
Nikki Macdonald 05:00, Apr 18 2020
Lighting designer Lisa Maule had already been looking for work for several months when the lockdown robbed her of the contract jobs she had on the go – a performance at Te Papa and one at Christchurch's Court Theatre.
She's lucky to have a partner still earning and the wage subsidy helps.
Maule had moved back to the Wellington suburb of Karori to be closer to her parents. Her mum has Alzheimer's, and her dad is her carer. Her house had been rented out so the garden was a mess. She figured she'd plant some of the stir-fry seedlings she'd split with her dad, and some bean and radish seeds she'd bought last year.
She also took over the local community garden just days before the lockdown came into effect. There were 20 requests to join their Facebook group in the first few days before lockdown – some were looking for a sense of community, some were thinking about emergencies and having a food backup, others just wanted to learn.
For Maule – and her dad – gardening has been a release.
"Gardening for him is really important for his mental health, and it's the same for me. Because I think that seeing things grow is really exciting, and having an influence on that can really help you."
They're obviously not the only Kiwis finding solace in gardening.
Seed company Kings Seeds sold 77,251 items in the first week of lockdown, more than 20 times the 3548 units it sold during the same week in 2019. Almost 6000 Kiwis put in orders, compared with 375 last year. There was such a rush on broccoli that it sold out completely and the frantic staff took more than a week to clear the order backlog.
Do you want to know the latest news about our community garden?