Come garden, and grow, with us

Waitaki Community Gardens' mentors Gill Cayford and Allan Adamson get ready for spring. Photo by...
Waitaki Community Gardens' mentors Gill Cayford and Allan Adamson get ready for spring. Photo by David Bruce.
Grandpa Allan and Grandma Gill want to teach you how to grow your own food, and Auntie Annie will show you how to get it ready for your table.

The three Oamaru residents, Allan Adamson, Gill Cayford and Annie Beattie, are part of the Waitaki Community Gardens, a community project aimed at teaching gardening skills to all ages.

Mr Adamson and Mrs Cayford are mentors at the gardens, and Miss Beattie is the co-ordinator of the project, being undertaken by a community trust.

Both mentors have always been keen gardeners.

Mr Adamson is with the North Otago Horticultural Society and Mrs Cayford had a herb garden at Waitoa.

Miss Beattie is a former restaurateur.

Whatever their backgrounds, all three are enthusiastic about the new project.

They can see the benefits of helping people grow their own food, from preparation of the ground to how to prepare and cook what is grown.

The two mentors will work with people of all ages who want to learn at the gardens, but initially hope to start with young people, training them to become leaders in the project.

Eventually, they hope to have four girls and four boys trained, helping them to run the learning centre, which will be associated with the gardens.

"At risk" young people have already been helping lay out the garden, and the mentors have been impressed with the enthusiasm they develop as they settle into working in the garden.

"They arrive not so keen and, after a while, you can see them really switch on," Miss Beattie said.

"When you encourage them, they really start to get involved.

"Every time they come, they get more involved."

All three can see a big demand from all ages for what the gardens will have to offer.

It will be up to each individual to determine how far they want to go, whether it is just learning how to grow vegetables, when to harvest them and how to put the food together, or right through to composting and other skills.

Miss Beattie, the mentors and volunteers have started preparing plots and laying the garden out to an overall concept plan that has been developed by the trust.

That work is expected to really pick up over the next few weeks into spring.

 

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