A community garden is a single piece of land gardened by a group of people. The garden may consist of individual plots (sometimes called allotments) and/or areas that are gardened communally.
Many WIC members are interested in participating in community gardens, or at least finding out more. Such gardens provide an opportunity to share gardening knowledge and work in a sociable environment. It often leads to sharing seeds, produce and recipes - made all the more exciting when so many different ethnicities with our traditional plants and cuisines are working together!
We are most likely to maintain involvement in a community garden if it is close to where we live. There are a number of community gardens with membership open to the general public already in existence in Hamilton and many would welcome more members. There are also a number of groups considering starting community gardens in the area.
So that you can find out about the gardens already running that you may want to join and also to learn from their experiences, we are organising a Waikato Community Garden Network Meeting on the afternoon of Thursday 22 September in Frankton, Hamilton. More details will follow - watch this discussion page...
Some of the groups that joined WIC have their own land, and we are working one by one to help them develop their gardens. The first is in Tokoroa.
Most WIC members live in the Nawton area of Hamilton, where there is no existing community garden. The Salvation Army in nearby Grandview (where some of our Grow Your Own Vegetables From Seed workshops were held) was thinking about starting a community garden when we approached them about their land: we are now looking to work together on a joint community garden project - watch this space!
Photo: Katherine Hay of the Waikato Environment Centre talking about community gardens at our first WIC meeting. (Jovi, HMS)
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Community Garden Volunteer Yuri sowing blue lupin seeds at Grandview Community Garden
Bare soil loses nutrients. Yuri sowed a cover crop of blue lupin on this bare plot to conserve soil nutrients, add nitrogen, reduce weed numbers and improve soil structure.
Seed Saving at Grandview Community Garden
The sunny weather is great for drying and saving seeds. Gardeners have been collecting lettuce and silverbeet seeds to sow later in the year.
In the photo - Yuri collecting and bagging silverbeet seeds.
Shade House at Grandview Community Garden
Our new shade house built by gardeners and volunteers is full of vegetable seedlings. Garden members sowed lettuce, spinach, cabbage, leeks, cauliflower and choi sum in late January. Many are now ready to plant out.
Our seedlings are watered by a home made 'capillary mat' system. The water tank drips from a tap at a constant rate onto the synthetic blanket. The pots of seedlings draw up their water from the damp blanket underneath them.
Water wise at Grandview Community Garden
Levi mulching his garden with a thick layer of woodchippngs to conserve water. Despite the dry spell in Hamilton, Grandview Community Garden is thriving, thanks to water wise gardening and our solar powered water harvesting project.
home made mini shade house for seedlings
New seedlings need shade on very hot summer days. This mini shadehouse was made from a broken clothes airer, a piece of shadecloth and 2 clothespegs. When the seedlings are about 10cm high they will be hardened off gradually to the full sun before being planted out.
shadehouse at Grandview Community Garden
The gardeners, volunteers and Tim have finished the shadehouse -just in time for the hot weather :)
Natural shade for baby lettuce
At Grandview Community Garden we use the runners of pumpkin and squash to make shade for letttuce seedlings. The runners are easy to pick up and move where you want them, to either provide shade for seedlings or to smother weeds.
Hamilton Organic Gardeners Group end of year tour of Grandview Community Garden
on saturday afternoon the HOGS garden group toured the community garden, saw the water harvesting system in action and joined the gardeners for a picnic afternoon tea. The Hamilton Organic Gardeners Group gave a generous donation of seeds to Grandview Community Garden:)
Going to seed
Silverbeet, lettuce and spring onion are seeding at GCG. We will collect some by cutting and drying stored upside down in paper bags in the shed, and some will land in the gardens and grow – we just need to learn to recognise them from weed seedlings when they pop up –free veg, planted for free :)
silverbeet (L) and lettuce (R) seed heads
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