Growing a strong community
Hilton Lake Taupō manager Janine Al-Rawi (left) and HR manager Lisa Sherriff prepare the new raised beds. Photo: Dan Hutchinson
Taupō Community Gardens is having a growth spurt as more residents turn to cultivating their own produce to help bridge the gap in the grocery budget.
Garden coordinator Michele Frost says the not-for-profit community space is run by volunteers five days a week from 9am to 12pm, with anyone welcome to join.
"It does help with that gap in the grocery bill, which is what I think people are enjoying.”
The garden recently received a boost from Hilton Lake Taupō staff, who have been volunteering at the site for over a year. They secured funding from the company’s Travel with Purpose scheme to replace an old, deteriorating garden bed.
The hotel team helped empty and demolish the old structure before four raised timber beds were built using eucalyptus sleepers.
The Hilton volunteers returned this week to help fill the new beds with soil and compost.
Hotel manager Janine Al-Rawi says they enjoyed volunteering at the gardens once a month.
“It is in the fresh air. Together it creates a whole different bond with all the departmental teams that are here today.”
The vegetables grown in the gardens help feed the garden community and the wider Taupō area.
One volunteer uses the harvest to help prepare a weekly community lunch that feeds 30 people, while the garden also provides fresh produce twice weekly which is provided to Lake Taupō Hospice patients.
A new hothouse allows them to grow vegetables like tomatoes and lettuces later in the season when supermarket prices peak.
"We've got pumpkins that we'll be harvesting soon that will keep up to a year," Michele says.
"It means when the prices have gone through the roof in the supermarket, anybody with us can still enjoy the stockpile of pumpkins."
The gardens also run low-cost and free workshops to teach preservation and cooking skills. A recent fruit preserving workshop was booked out completely.
Upcoming workshops include vegetable pickling and chutney making this month, followed by soup making later in the year.
The garden also runs holiday programmes for children, with a recent kids' gardening workshop attracting 14 children under 12.
The young participants helped harvest produce for hospice patients, learning about community giving.
"Kids love it, and then the kids were part of harvesting for Hospice, so they understand how the cycle works with the giving back to the community and the importance of being part of the community," Michele says.
The garden is also demonstrating that you don’t need much space to grow produce. Two one-metre-square beds planted in November have already produced lots of garden goodies.
Raised bed systems allow for easy crop rotation and soil management. When beds are not in use, volunteers add horse manure, worms, and wood chips, allowing the soil to develop.
"Our aim is to not actually have to go and buy soil. That's why we compost so much.”