Care
Gardening is exercise and wellbeing wrapped up in one. It can result in a sense of accomplishment and a sense of wonder. We meet three gardeners from three islands who share the goodness that community gardening has given them.
GARDENING for everyone's WELLBEING C
Chris Jordan Clark's garden in Tasmania.
6
DIABETES WELLNESS | Spring 2023
oming across a community garden’s street stall is what drew 78-year-old Dunedin local Beverley Crawford into community gardening. She missed growing gooseberries since a visit from the gooseberry blight wiped all hers out a few years ago. So when she saw an unnamed plant that looked a bit like a gooseberry bush for sale, she snapped it up, keen to give it another go. ‘Actually, I don’t know if it’s a gooseberry or a Worcesterberry, so I’ll have to wait until it fruits. They’ve got quite fierce little prickles on them, but they’re profuse fruiting and growing. I guess the flavour is blackcurrant-y. They’re very moreish.’ Bev has been going to the Green Island Community Gardens, on and off, over the year. On their social media, the group refers to itself as a ‘communitybased initiative to grow veges, make friends, learn about gardening and help feed our GI’.