AUGUST
HERE-TURI-KOKA
2020
Community garden thriving in Point Howard The Point Howard Residents' Association is establishing a community garden in an underused council lot. The initiative was kick started during lockdown when the local vegetable markets were closed and people isolated from their friends and families. Lindsay Ancelet, Sarah Brooks, Red Robinson and PHRA president Allison Collins all got to thinking that a garden could be a little heart for their community. “In addition to growing food to support the community, it will also be a place for neighbours to meet and bump into each other,” Lindsay says Point Howard is a hilly suburb and houses are often tucked away, and Lindsay says that it isn’t always easy to run into the neighbours and many properties do not have enough flat land to accommodate a garden. The group’s hope is that the garden will support the wellbeing of their elderly residents, teach children about growing food and strengthen their community resilience. “Point Howard residents voted in favour of establishing the garden at the recent AGM,” says Lindsay, “and the first kick-off meeting occurred on July 19. We’ve had a really positive response from the community.” The organisers have also been successful in securing funding from the Hutt City Council Resilience Fund and the Eastbourne Community Engagement Fund, and have had support from ITM Seaview and Mitre10 in Petone. “Our plan is that produce from the garden will be shared amongst all members of the community who would like to be involved,” Lindsay says. “We’ve had a great turn out at our planning meetings and working bees so far, and everyone is excited to get planting. We have already put in eight large raised
vegetable beds that have been designed to be accessible for elderly residents and for wheelchair users, and are putting in a number of fruit trees and berr y bushes at the next working bee.” Significant thought has also gone into how to balance space for Members of the Pt Howard Community Garden go about their business, for the benefit of local residents.Photos:: Francis Leniston. the garden, while leaving lots of room for children to enjoy the from the social aspect and we imagine that many residents would like to just pop by to do rest of the field. “There are a number of young families on a bit of gardening, to check on what is growing, the hill and many are involved with the garden changing and who else might be about.” The group hope that young families would already,” says Lindsay, “so there is a strong focus on improving the space for everyone’s also benefit by having a space to involve their enjoyment. Elderly residents would benefit children in gardening and harvesting their own food.