Still going after 10 years – Bishops Stream Neighbourhood Garden

It’s all blooming lovely in the Bishops Stream Neighbourhood Garden as founders Brett and Dawn Marsh and Helen and Patrick Doherty celebrate a decade of hard work and passion creating a lush garden in their community.

The garden, in Wirihana Road, Titirangi, flourishes on what was a vacant piece of council land close to the couples’ homes. Along the footpath and in front of the recycled kanuka branch fence is a public area where anyone can take some of the goodies (rosemary, mint, oregano, parsley and flowers for the bees). Behind this is an area where eight families have their own individual plots.

The concept was created when the ‘founding four’ looked at the wasted space near their homes in 2010 and asked themselves if it could be used for a positive purpose. Would neighbours be interested in helping to develop it? Would this be a good way for some of the community to grow some of their own food, learn about sustainable growing practices and have fun with their neighbours? Would Council offer support?

The answer to all the initial questions was a resounding ‘yes’ and work began with eight families committing to the concept.

“Council has always been supportive,” says Helen. “Initially the land was covered in kikuyu so we set to and grubbed it all out. Raised beds with macrocarpa sleepers were built and then we laid down newspaper, old carpet, compost, lawn clippings and mulch without needing to use chemicals.”

The garden was underway and the gardeners’ learning continued too. At first they had to climb down into a stream bed at the back of the property to collect buckets of water for the plants until someone came up with plans to gravity-feed water down a hill, under the road and into barrels in the garden through a hose. With good ground material and access to water, the plots took off with their bounty of tomatoes, courgettes, salad greens of all types, beans and pumpkins. Spare silverbeet is taken to Vision West for its food bank.

The council’s support has been ongoing. A community grant from the Waitâkere Ranges Local Board has allowed the beds to be rebuilt recently as the old macrocarpa was breaking down after a decade’s A ‘critter house’ has been built for the likes of weta and their friends.

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use, and council also pointed the gardeners in the right direction to access recycled paving materials like brick, granite and tile to lay between the beds. The icing on the cake has been the input of an orchardist who suggested planting citrus, plums, apples, persimmon and feijoas at the back of the property. “It’s not prime land,” says Dawn, “so it was really useful to get good advice on what would grow well.”

The team are proud of their efforts and look ahead to many more years of caring and sharing with the Wirihana Road community.

“Helping in the garden has had its ups and downs. People come and go. They move house, lives change, commitments change,” Dawn says.

“But we have no thoughts of slowing down or stopping what we’re doing and we’d especially welcome younger families with children to join us.”

For more information, email phdoherty@kinect.co.nz. Dawn and Brett Marsh with Helen and Patrick Doherty

– Moira Kennedy

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