Mr Koch and a team of dedicated volunteers have worked closely with Araiteuru Marae in Shetland St for more than 25 years, developing vegetable gardens, planting fruit trees, clearing the site of gorse and building steps and paths to improve access to the steeply sloping site.
Mr Koch was very active in the Dunedin Environment Centre Trust in the mid 1990s, helping to run an environmental centre in town with a bike library, recycling depot and regular workshops.
"Things were going really well, we had funding to allow 12-14 people an allowance to come and help at the centre, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for the work," Mr Koch said.
After a fire at Araiteuru Marae in the late 1990s, Mr Koch was approached by kaumatua Barney Taiapa to take the lead on developing productive gardens at the Araiteuru Marae site, both to grow food and as an educational opportunity for rangatahi Māori.
"Barney asked if we could take over the care of the marae garden and look after the site generally — including dealing with a lot of gorse on the site.
"Unemployment was high at the time and it was a positive way to teach young people useful skills for life and give them productive activities to be involved in," he said.
The relationship had remained strong ever since. Many native shrubs and trees had been planted at the marae, while the vegetable gardens and orchard helped to provide food for the popular pataka ora community meals and pataka kai food pantry.
"Having Hendrik and his team putting in stairs and pathways around the site has been beautiful for our kaumatua who live in flats on the marae — it has enabled them to get up to where the gardens are and enjoy them.
"And access is crucial for encouraging people to get involved," Ms Williams said.
Unfortunately, funding for the environment centre evaporated, leading Mr Koch and fellow volunteers to change their focus to gardening and restoration work using native plantings.
The first native plantings alongside the Shetland St reserve were done in 1995, and the Shetland St Community Garden was founded in late 1999, on a part of the site adjoining the road.
It included garden beds to grow vegetables and a nursery to propagate native shrubs and trees to be planted out.
"The community garden has been very successful over the years, with a phenomenal number of people coming through, learning skills and sharing their labour," Mr Koch said.
He paid tribute to the marae kaumatua and whanau for their support over the years.
"The marae has a wonderful relationship with all of the community garden workers — we feel like the marae is our home as well."
The wet ground was dug out to form a wetland and native raupō, or bulrush, was planted, which has since grown into a dense mat providing habitat for a range of species.
Fruit trees were also planted in the common and have grown into a productive orchard.
The gardeners are also aligned with the Aroha Kaikorai Valley group and Kaikorai Valley College in their efforts to preserve and enhance the environment in the area.
Mr Koch estimates that, across a wide range of sites in the city and at his own Otago Peninsula property, up to 100,000 native shrubs and trees have been planted, helping to restore native forests.
"I’m very happy about that."
• Shetland St Community Garden has working bees on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm, and interested people are welcome.
The garden will host a sale of native plants this Saturday, 10am-2pm, as its major fundraiser for the year. All welcome.
