26 April, 2024

Garden group snares award, founder spreads the word

Building community… The synergy of growing produce along with connections motivated Phoebe Atkinson and others to create Grow Forrest Hill

Phoebe Atkinson points to a crop of kumara soon to be harvested at Forrest Hill’s community garden on Seine Reserve. Its near-readiness times nicely with the trust she co-founded having this month won a Kumara Award. The award, from the Placemaking Aotearoa organisation, recognises not so much the crop as the community growth Grow Forrest Hill has promoted.
The synergy of growing produce along with neighbourhood connections is what first drew Atkinson, husband Dave and a small group of supporters to seek Devonport-Takapuna Local Board backing to transform a portion of the reserve.
“We still don’t know who nominated us for the award,” she says. The finalists were assessed by judges after community nominations.
Grow Forrest Hill won the Caring For the Land, Caring For the People category of the awards
In the two years since the trust gained approval, it has established garden beds, built sheds and a glasshouse and installed a pizza oven that has been cranked up for community dinners. The core group of volunteers has swelled to around 50 people, with 15 to 20 of them arriving most Sunday afternoons for working bees. Atkinson says most weeks a newcomer or two will turn up. Some come along to learn new skills, others also for companionship, with a wide range of ages and ethnicities involved.
Atkinson’s role is growing too. With more helpers at the garden she has widened her attentions to become something of a food-security champion, delivering on a $20,000 programme funded by the local board. She has set up a map of community gardens and ‘pataka kai’ food cupboards for donated supplies. The Grow Forrest Hill model is being looked at in other areas. Atkinson is sharing expertise with the Sunnynook Community Centre and those keen to establish a sustainable garden in Takapuna. A workshop was held for Kainga Ora at its Bardia St housing development in Belmont, where a pataka kai for residents has been set up. She has also held talks with the Ngataringa Organic Garden in Devonport, which may be open to sharing some of its space with the wider community.
Atkinson has lived over the road from Seine Reserve since 2012. She has studied horticulture and town planning, and been a high- school chaplain and a teacher. “The skills from all those roles are at play here,” she says. Seeking grants and sponsors is part of what she does. “Your passion carries you and then you get the activation.”
Current activities at the garden include planting brassicas and more salad greens. Last year the small kumara patch yielded 14kg of the vegetable – she hopes for more this season.

• Find out more at growcollective.co.nz

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