Taupō’s garden guru
By Dan Hutchinson
There are not many places where you can grow potatoes in wool, learn to bottle your own preserves, and shovel manure — all before lunch.
Maryanne Smith in her happy place at Taupō Community Garden. Photo: Dan Hutchinson
That’s a fairly ordinary day at the Taupō Community Gardens for volunteer Maryanne Smith.
She recently won the Shining Star Award at the Tremains Volunteer Service Awards but that’s not what she wants to talk about.
“This was not only a real shock to me, but you looked at everybody in that room — everybody in that room was deserving of this award.”
Her passion is gardening, and she is constantly researching new methods and ideas and trying them out at the gardens.
Standing by the recycled bathtubs being used as garden beds, she explains how she grew a highly successful crop of potatoes in nothing but wool – dags and all.
"Best potatoes I've ever grown."
The logic is straightforward — the lanolin and organic matter in the wool slowly fertilise the plants every time it rains.
She was nominated by garden coordinator Michele Frost, who describes Maryanne as one of the garden's most valuable assets.
"The main reason that I nominated her is because of her passion for the gardens and also the way that she'll teach anybody anything.
"We get people of all sorts of ages and from different backgrounds come down here and some are like, 'I know nothing, I want to learn.' And Maryanne's the go-to."
Maryanne is quick to deflect the praise, saying it’s a team effort – from the people who deliver the horse manure, to the arborist who supplies his time for free.
“You're only as good as the people around you."
The garden operates on a philosophy of full-circle sustainability — and Smith is one of its most committed practitioners.
Everything grown on site is organic. There are no sprays. Beds are built from recycled bathtubs, old spa baths, and tyres, some of which have been in use for 12 to 14 years.
Seeds are harvested, dried, and packaged in recycled envelopes by a volunteer who takes them home to prepare.
Coffee grounds from local cafés are collected and used to improve soil acidity for strawberries and blueberries.
The produce does not just feed the volunteers and produce is sent off to local churches, Hospice and other community groups that have people to feed.
“It's about basically community supporting community — I'm really passionate about that."
She points out that if you went out and bought compost, seeds, and everything else you needed, it would quickly become cheaper just to buy vegetables from a shop.
That kind of practical thinking runs through everything at the garden.
Maryanne runs composting workshops, bottling and preserving sessions, and container-growing classes aimed at renters who cannot dig up a lawn.
She has noticed a growing appetite for this kind of knowledge, particularly among people in their early thirties.
"There's a generation now that have sort of missed out on that, with their parents having to work.
"And I think there's more and more people that really want to know what's in their food."
Children are a regular presence too. Thirty-five kids turned up during the last school holidays to fill and layer new garden beds.
On the weekend, a beehive was installed at the garden, and children will paint tyres in yellow and black and plant flowers for the bees.
School groups from across Taupō visit regularly, and Maryanne says kids take to it quickly.
"You'll give them a bit of broccoli to eat — 'Oh, it's not cooked.' No, you don't need to cook it. So, they'll chomp away."
The garden also serves a quieter purpose.
Smith works at Citizens Advice Bureau alongside her volunteering, and she has used that connection to bring isolated men — particularly newly retired men who have moved to Taupō and know no one — into the garden community.
"Men's mental health is really bad in New Zealand as a whole."
Mondays typically draw between 12 and 15 volunteers, and the morning usually ends with someone calling out that the kettle is on.
"Everybody has a coffee together … You swap recipes, put the world to rights like you do."
For Smith, who starts most mornings with two cups of coffee and an hour of watching gardening videos online, the appeal of the garden is not complicated.
"It's just creating a nice drama-free space. It's just good for your soul."
She has been gardening her whole life — the only thing she ever bought from a shop when her children were young was peas — and she still considers herself a student of it.
"Any gardener will tell you there's always something to learn," she says.
One of the garden's newer volunteers is currently running a trial with three different varieties of garlic to see which performs best in Taupō's conditions.
That, Smith suggests, is exactly the point.
"We don't have rights or wrongs here. You just have a go."