Pahīatua’s community garden a place to learn and grow

The process to revitalise the community garden was started in 2021.

An initiative started two years ago is helping revitalise community gardens.

Emma Elliott, from the Tararua Kai Collective, was contracted to write a plan called Food Secure Communities Tararua.

She spoke to foodbanks and community food providers, as well as organisations such as Tararua Community Services who often hand out food as part of their dealings with people in the community.

“We know that foodbanks do a great job, but they are the ambulances at the bottom of the cliff,” she says.

Part of the idea behind her plan was encouraging people to grow their own fruit and vegetables and doing that through community gardens.

The revitalisation of Pahīatua’s community garden began in December 2021.

“In one year we had the garden producing again,” Emma says.

They also began running courses through Wairarapa REAP, but she says it seemed people weren’t quite prepared to commit to short-term courses anymore.

So she decided to run workshops and went back to the steering group which initially contracted her to ask about using funding to run a workshop.

That attracted some people to sign up who were, on the whole, young mothers who had no experience of gardening and young children, who “just wanted to get a few plants in the ground”.

That workshop was well-received and Emma is planning to hold more workshops, starting with one this month.

“It’s just trying to be that mentor,” Emma says, adding that she’s self-taught as a gardener.

In the meantime, she is holding working bees at the community garden with the idea of encouraging those in the community who not only want the benefits that come from the fruit and vegetables grown there but also want to learn more about growing different plants.

Working bees are being held in the community garden to encourage people to help out as well as reaping the benefits of the garden.

Emma says a community garden is all about gardening with communities.

“Our whole purpose of the community garden is to provide this inspiring and nurturing environment for the community to learn and to grow organic food.”

She adds that one of the delights of the working bees is that they can also attract people who are new to town.

“It’s been great. We get those who have gardens, who are successful gardeners and those who have no idea and we can team those people up.”

Emma says that with the workshops she’s also hoping to foster the idea of people seeing the value of the garden as a community space and for them to contribute by putting the hours in and reaping the benefits.

She says they’ve also put up new signage to educate people on harvesting rules with examples such as green sticks next to a crop means it’s ready to be harvested and a red stick meaning it’s still too small.

The community garden isn’t just for a select few.

“We really want people to understand the garden isn’t just for the needy,” Emma says. “It’s for everybody. It’s a place to inspire.”