Plant one idea, pile on a mountain of manure, add a
”snowball of enthusiasm” and Dunedin’s latest community
garden is born.
The Bathgate Park School Community Garden will open on
Saturday after 14 months of planning and building.
Project manager Graham Copson said he was looking forward to
getting into his own back yard after spending almost all his
spare time over the last year developing the garden.
Now that a lot of the hard work has been done – building
raised beds, landscaping and a large bio-dome (glasshouse) –
it was time for others to get gardening, Mr Copson said.
Anyone will be able to contribute to the final design of the
garden, get involved in the fortnightly ”social gardening”
sessions and share in the food produced.
Support has come from community garden organisation
GrowSouth, the Dunedin South Rotary Club, Bathgate School and
businesses donating materials.
Mr Copson said there had been a snowball effect of enthusiasm
as the project progressed, including a generous contribution
of 50 cubic metres of horse manure from a local stables,
amassed over 30 years.
The open day is from 10am to noon on Saturday at the rear of
Bathgate School in Macandrew Rd.
SUPPORT GROWS FOR GARDEN LINKS
Community gardens are springing up like wildfire in Dunedin,
so much so, that two organisations have been set up to
nurture some mutual benefits.
GrowSouth’s aim is to increase the number of community
gardens in Dunedin. Spokesman Graham Copson said it wanted to
provide support and develop a pool of resources for schools
and others with a similar idea.
Another group called the Local Food Network aimed to bring
all the community gardens closer together.
A member of that group, Jon Foote, said there were a lot of
community and school gardens in Dunedin but they were not
very well connected.
A website would be set up and events held to link the groups.
• The Star wants to know more about your city’s
community gardens. Contact star@thestar.co.nz.
– Dan Hutchison
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