Open Day at Woodside Community Garden a success

Ten West Auckland community gardens got together to plan an Open Day on 23 March as a means of promoting gardening in general and as a way to attract more volunteers.  We were happy about the level of interest in our garden in Woodside Reserve and community gardening in general, particularly as our garden is a bit of a hidden treasure! We had about 20 visitors both from our local area and further afield  including 4 children, which was really encouraging. It was really enjoyable discussing what we are doing with our garden and getting advice and ideas from the visitors. We hope that some of them will return to the garden and get involved.

The Open Day signs for all of the gardens were funded by Keep Waitakere Beautiful Trust (KWB) and we are very grateful for their support of our event and to Viv from Triangle Park Massey Community Garden for making the application on behalf of the West Auckland Community Gardens network. We publicised the Open Day recently at EcoDay (10 March) with each garden taking a turn to man the table, which was a lot of fun. We all plan to do it again next year.

Mother and daughters pose

Visitors have a chat

Nicole answers questions

Some of the kids that came along saw the seedlings that we had in a box and were very keen to do some planting. So, Nicole showed them what to do and they planted one of the plots which we had prepared at the workshop last week.

Cabbages, broccoli, lettuce, sage, thyme and marigolds were planted to great excitement. They already had some experience of gardening through activities at school and we were surprised how one of the girls was able to identify correctly all of the Trees for Babies (KWB) fruit trees even from quite a distance away. We hope that the children will come back to see how their seedlings are going since they do live in our street and that they will continue to be enthusiastic about gardening. They enjoyed some fresh tomatoes (orange and cherry) as their reward on the day and also received one of the last Lebanese cucumbers although by the time they left, a few nibbles had been taken of the cucumber!

Nicole & the girls planting

Mother and daughter planting

The finished plot..

More planting and winter growing preparation

Judy and Mike worked hard on Friday, the day before the Open Day, planting leeks and rocket into one of the plots prepared at the workshop last week. The leeks were planted in furrows with the rocket along the edge. They also started preparing the area which had been planted with broad beans last winter as a green crop. This area has been under carpet since the beans were harvested/dug in during November last year. Unfortunately, due to the extremely dry conditions and heat, the ground has been baked hard so needs a lot of preparation to make it fit for planting. Judy added a layer of gypsum following by a good helping of horse manure and plenty of watering. What we really need now is a lot more rain.

Leeks and rocket

Preparation starts

Still more to do

Winter growing workshop – Saturday 16 March

Last year, the Riverpark Action Group supported a funding application by Triangle Park Massey Community Garden to get funding for their coordinator Judy Keats in return for Judy assisting with Woodside Community Garden for 5 hours per week. We were delighted when the application was successful. Judy has a lot of knowledge about gardening combined with spade-loads of enthusiasm!

On Saturday 16 March, Judy ran the first FREE workshop at Woodside Community Garden. She and Nicole collected horse manure on the previous day for use in the garden. We put dolomite (lime) into 4 of our raised gardens  (after pulling out the remaining zucchinis and beans) and then covered it with horse manure and a bit of Nutrisoil. Everything was mixed in with plenty of water.

First plot prepared

Horse manure, dolomite

Applying the manure

Judy  explained to us about crop rotation and the need to replenish the soil depending on what was last grown in the plots. She gave us some handouts to explain how to plan the garden and which plants are beneficial to grow together. The first two plots we prepared  had previously been used for beans and prior to that, cabbage and broccoli. So, it was time for a change and beetroot and silver beet were planted at high density in one of the plots. We had plenty of kids helping out together with their mother and Hui yong, one of our garden regulars.

Hui Yong, Nicole, kids at work

Everyone planting

Beetroot and silver beet

The next plot was planted with cabbages and lettuces. Zucchinis had previously been grown in the plot. We also added some marigolds, alyssum for protection from pests and left one nasturtium to help out with repelling the white cabbage butterfly. The cabbages were planted in zig-zag formation to try to confuse the butterflies!
The two other prepared plots will be planted with leeks/rocket and cabbages/sage/silver beet next Saturday during the Open Day.

Mum helps out

Judy tells us how it’s done

Cabbages and lettuces

Open Day – Saturday 23 March 10am -12pm

Woodside Community Garden is one of the gardens participating in the West Auckland Community Gardens Open Day being held on Saturday 23 March. We will be open from 10am -12pm and would love people to come along and see how the garden is going. All interest is welcome. You can download a booklet with details of all of the participating gardens COMMUNITY GARDENS 2013 print version (500kb) or see the list below.

The event coincides with Neighbours’ Day this year so we hope that our neighbours will come down for a chat even if they aren’t interested in gardening.

Members of the Woodside Community Garden have joined the new West Auckland Community Gardens Network and we now meet with members from other gardens once a month to discuss common issues and get advice from other experts. We will have a table at the upcoming EcoDay on Sunday 10 March to publicise local community gardens and the Open Day.

The list of participating gardens and their addresses is given below;

1. Woodside Community Garden, down right of way, Woodside Reserve, 28 Woodside Road,
Massey.
2. Triangle Park Massey Community Garden, Massey Community House, 385 Don Buck Road,
Massey.
3. Epping Community Garden, Buscomb Avenue (opposite Henderson Police Station),
Henderson.
4. Ranui Community Garden, 22 Marinich Drive, Ranui.
5. Lucinda Place Community Orchard, between 6‐8 Lucinda Place, Glen Eden.
6. Millbrook Edible Garden, Millbrook Road, McLaren Park Henderson South (adjacent to
public walkway).
7. Jadewynn Drive Gardens, section adjacent to Jadewynn Park Reserve, Jadewynn Drive,
Massey.
8. Bishop Stream Community Garden, between 56‐58 Wirihana Road, Titirangi.
9. Cedar Heights, Massey (on the reserve at the end of Cedar Heights Avenue Massey)
10. Te Atatu Peninsula ( currently on the grounds of Community Constable house on Te Atatu
Road)