Last week we had a very informative talk from Nikki Lockerbie as she shared the development of the Tokomairiro Urban Backyard Project with us. The aim of the project is to teach people how to grow healthy food.
The garden began with a bare plot of land in September 2018 and began building garden beds. This involved digging the paddock by hand, removing tree stumps and old waratahs by hand, and building garden plots. A range of community people have been involved in the project. They have eight garden beds, each sponsored by a local company. A shed for storing tools was donated to the group and they received support from the Milton Rotary Club.
For the past year Nikki has been teaching Kaiaranga – Maori organic gardening – and one of the projects was a community garden – healthy kai, happy kids! Being able to combine this with the Urban Backyard project has been a great advantage. The focus has been on growing food which is nutrient dense.
They had an amazing season with large amounts of food being grown and many local people developing their gardening skills. Bags of produce has been donated to families in need.
The group raised enough funds to compost (top quality) all the beds this winter ready for this spring. This next season the hope to focus on producing compost and Nikki will be running a workshop on how to make bio-intensive compost. Another focus of the project is to provide seeds from the produce they have and pass this on to future generations.
More workshops are also planned for the future – making balms and essential oils, setting up a tea garden and making own blends of tea. They are hoping to help the elderly plant little gardens in their backyards and support them to look after them.
Look out for the next community open day and get involved with this great project. There are ten people regularly involved with the project. They are keen to get more people to come to the garden when help is needed and are particularly hoping to get children interested – teaching our younger generation to grow their own food.
What do they need help with? Woodchips for paths, a fence to stop the donkeys eating plants, a secure area for their wheelbarrows. They are still after machinery. If you think you could help with any of these please contact Nikki Lockerbie (lockerbie@slingshot.co.nz, 027 434 8143) 
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