Maara Strengthening Community
St Mary’s Community Garden is being welcomed with open arms by enthused South Taranaki residents.
A series of events saw Tawhiti School and Hāwera High School students prepare the land for raised planter gardens. Pupils also had the opportunity to contribute their ideas for the garden plan as fencing of the boundary has begun.
"We loved the dirt!" students exclaimed.
It was an uplifting experience for all the tamariki, says Tawhiti School teacher Jen Puckey.
“Students had a fantastic time getting stuck in helping out in their community, they can’t wait to go back!” says Whaia Jen.
It was a fantastic working bee that put a stake in the ground for great things to come, says Community Garden Coordinator Alice Arnold.
"What an amazing day. I’m overwhelmed with the positive energy from all parts of our community working together!”
Horticulturist Mieke Verschoor ran South Taranaki's first composting workshop that taught people how to enrich the soil with leaves, lawn clippings, newspaper, and coffee grounds.
The atmosphere is of learning, participation, and uplifting experiences so everyone leaves with a greater sense of community connection.
“I’ve been wanting to find simple ways to redirect waste from landfill and after attending the workshop I have a really good plan to achieve these,” says Racquel Cleaver-Pittams.
"We did lasagne composting, it was fun,” adds Mikayla Arnold (10). “There was lots of stuff that smelled nice, coffee grounds, lawn clippings, and this cornflake stuff. I could make compost at home, it’s so easy."
A big shout out to Bunnings Warehouse Hāwera for donating their time and timber to help build the planters and to PAK’nSAVE Hāwera for gifting wood boxes for the garden beds.
