Keen vegetable gardener Bart Acres runs the Otepoti Urban Organics website and has set up a new seed bank for southern gardeners.
But there's more - he is studying for a master's in planning, and also holds down a job.
Janice Murphy meets an urban garden hero.
The 24-year-old, who was born in Canada and moved to New Zealand when he was 8, has been interested in living things as long as he can remember.
After coming to Dunedin in 2003 to study at university, he became a serious gardener in 2005, establishing a vegetable garden at the flat he lived in.
But making a start wasn't quite as easy as he expected, and gathering together all the piecemeal information about what grows well in Dunedin proved time-consuming.
Bart thought there had to be a better way.
And that's how he came to start Otepoti Urban Organics, a website for everyone who gardens in the South.
His idea was to provide a network of information all accessible from one place, where gardeners could find out what would grow where, and how.
Everyone accessing the site is encouraged to get or give advice, send pictures or write how-to guides, and there is no membership fee.
So what does this keen vegetable gardener grow? He says the all-star vegetable for Dunedin in the winter is silverbeet.
But on this early spring day he also has purple broccoli, spinach and rainbow beet brightening up his yard, alongside onions in trays.
He is keen to try new crops, too.
"Did you know you can grow chick peas in Dunedin?" he says, explaining how you can grow them, and quinoa, using bulk-bin purchases for seed.
Growing things from seed is among Bart's passions. (He says he is a "nerd" who always wants to take his hobbies to their fullest extent.) Compared with buying plants, he says, it is cheaper, gives more variety, is more interesting and makes you pay more attention to the seasons.
But most packets sold in New Zealand these days are of hybrid seed, and hybrid plants don't set seed that is true to type.
Older plant varieties are open-pollinated and bred for flavour and disease resistance.
Seed from such plants can be kept to grow again next year.
And so developed Bart's next project: a seed bank for southern growers, keeping alive strains of heritage vegetables developed over decades to do well in our soils and climate.
Seeds for the seed bank have come frm seed-saver networks around the country, including Southland, which is a similar bio-region to Otago, and local gardeners.
Koanga Gardens in Northland was a treasure trove of seeds, after the bequest of a Southland collection, which they had been preserving but were reluctant to grow on, knowing the seeds had been selected to suit Southland conditions, rather than the North.
Seed from this collection is available through the seed bank.
King's Seeds is another source of many open-pollinated varieties.
Bart says it is not hard to save your own seeds so they are viable, but you do need to take some care.
For example, you might need exclusion zones in the garden so similar plant varieties do not cross-pollinate.
The Otepoti Urban Organics website will have information on how to to save seeds, and so will the seed bank.
The seed bank will hold a seedling giveaway as part of the 350 Spring Festival, to be held alongside the Otago Farmers Market on October 24.
About the seed bank
- The not-for-profit seed bank is run by volunteers.
- Seeds from the bank cost $1 a packet and will be posted anywhere in Otago and Southland for a fee of $3.
- Minimum order $10 excluding postage.
- People donating seeds to the bank get credit towards obtaining other seeds.
- Some of the more endangered varieties are only available to experienced gardeners.
- Email otepoti.urban.organics@gmail.com to be sent a seed list with extra information.
- On the webwww.urbanorganics.org.nz
