Members already have witnessed strawberry plants growing with fruit coming on, and they have several different types of vegetables growing.
The garden is being set up on land owned by Contact Energy, overlooking the Clyde Dam. The garden has been provided to the club at no cost, Contact Energy head of hydro generation Boyd Brinsdon said.
The idea for the garden came from Mr Brinsdon who walked past the data centre site on his way to work every day. He saw abandoned plinths lying there and thought they could be put to better use.
After talking his idea through with his colleagues at Contact Energy, the Clyde and Districts Lions Club was approached about possible uses of the site.
After talking about making it a sustainable venture, the Lions club started shaping the site into a garden.
The initiative was able to get off the ground thanks to $7000 of funding from Clyde Dam Tours, operated by Kim Johnstone. When Contact granted Clyde Dam Tours access to the dam it was agreed that a percentage of the tour bus proceeds would be returned to the local community.
Lions club planting co-ordinators Dennise Simms and Ngaire Adams were excited about the gardens taking shape and seeing what they could grow successfully in their first year. They had been helping Clyde and Districts Lions Club president Bill Batt with the garden.
Mr Batt said he was grateful to have the two women working with him to help get the garden up and running. He said while it was exciting to have an official opening at the end of October, it was more exciting to turn the land into something helpful for the community and he had been carefully working away with a mind to keeping it sustainable.
In trying to repurpose as much material as possible, Mr Batt said their thinking was "the foundations would make good planter boxes".
"We’ve got a big job on our hands. It’s not going to happen overnight — we are taking our time. It’s not going to be a rushed project."
The plan is to put some of the produce in the Lions Club food pantry, sell some of it to recoup their running costs and then see if some produce can be donated too.
The club has been supported by local businesses such as Placemakers which has donated timber and HireKing which has donated the use of portable toilets. They had also used a donated digger to level the site.
Irrigation was installed and running at the end of last month.
