Community Garden
Pruning and Tool Care Workshop
Hi Gardeners,
The Pukerua Bay Community Garden and Food Forest team presents:
Pruning and Tool Care Workshop
Date: Saturday 13 August, 10am – 12 noon (ical)
Venue: Pukerua Bay Community Garden, Muri Road, by Old Muri Station (map)
PRUNING
Hannah Swartz will be demonstrating winter pruning care for our fruit trees.
Thanks to NZ Organic Garden magazine for their donation to host this event.
TOOLS
Hannah will also talk about care and maintenance of your garden tools. We are lucky to have two local experts that will help you with any of your tools you bring along. We are asking for a Koha to the garden for this service.
FOR SALE
Our seeds will be available for you to purchase (with cash).
As always, everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you in the garden (weather permitting!)
Community Garden Food Forest
Come to the garden Saturday March 12 at 10:00 am . Hannah will be running a pruning, tree care workshop. Please can you bring some vegetable scraps or leaves or egg cartons etc for the worm bins. Cup of tea at 11:00 am. Covid vaccination passes please.
Community Garden & Food Forest Spring Festival
When: SATURDAY 30 October 2021, 10 am – 12 noon (ical)
Where: Pukerua Bay Community Garden & Food Forest (map)
Plant Sale ✽ Worm Farming Workshop ✽ Refreshments
Join us at the Community Garden and Food Forest (off the platform at the old Muri train station) for a family friendly fun day. Everyone is welcome.
Note: we’ll only go ahead under Alert Level 1 or 2, following government guidelines: covid19.govt.nz
Food Forest Garden working bee
We’ll be at the Community Garden and Food Forest this Saturday:
Date: Saturday 12 June 2021, 10 am to 12 noon (ical)
Place: Food Forest Garden, Muri Reserve (map)
Feel free to come along as we’ll be working on the berry area and usual maintenance, plus the usual cups of tea from the thermette. If available, you can bring gloves and hand tools, and green matter for the compost bins (e.g. veg scraps). We now have two regular mornings in the garden:
- 2nd Saturday of the month
- Last Wednesday of the month
We look forward to catching up with you soon,
Pukerua Bay Community Garden & Food Forest members
Community Garden Picnic
Saturday 27th March 2021, 4pm – 7pm (ical)
Venue: Community Food Forest Garden, by Muri Station (map)
Welcome to all those interested in the garden project, their friends and families. Come along for a picnic in the gardens to celebrate the end of summer and work done to date. Bring your own drink and food to share, plates, utensils etc (our BBQ will be available). The thermette will also be in action for hot drinks. We look forward to seeing you there. Everyone welcome.
He Ara Pukerua Historic Display & Community Garden Family Fun Day
Despite the gloomy grey weather, the Pukerua Bay Family Fun Day went ahead as planned for the opening of the new Rail Comes to Pukerua and Rail Timeline display panels in the former Muri Station building, and the community garden fun day. The He Ara Pukerua rail history displays were blessed by Ngāti Toa kaumatua Kahu Ropata, supported by Moana Parata and others. Porirua City Mayor Anita Baker and Ward Councillors Nathan Waddle and Josh Trlin revealed the panels. A section of the tramway rail used during the construction of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway 1884–1886 was presented to the mayor. Kahu also blessed the community garden. Following the blessing and speeches there was a sausage sizzle, cakes and tea brewed from thermettes, and a stalls selling T shirts and home-made face masks. A smaller turn-out than planned, but still attended by enthusiastic locals braving the wind and drizzle.
He Ara Pukerua is grateful for the help from Greater Wellington Regional Council and KiwiRail to secure the lease on the former Muri Station shelter. The northbound Muri Station shelter has been relocated onto the garden and is in the process of being refurbished.
Images courtesy of Cr. Josh Trlin, Porirua City Council (via Facebook); Andy Erceg and Ashley Blair, He Ara Pukerua (via Facebook).
Garden Working Bee
This Sunday! Wondered where the garden was and what was going on there? Pop in to see us 10 am. End of Muri Road, walk along the platform to the painted waiting shed. See you there. (Event posted by Jane Comben on Facebook)
10 am, Sunday 29 September 2019 (ical)
Community Garden, by old Muri Station (map)
Community Garden and Food Forest progress
Last Friday we had a couple of hours of working at the gardens – weeding, cutting grass and a bit of planning. I think 8 of us were there – sorry we didn’t get you all on the photos. This week activity is planned for Monday from around 4pm – everyone is welcome to come along and join in / have a chat about what we are doing. Things to do this week include planting Comfrey and other support plants around the trees to help them with fixing minerals, nitrogen etc. It would be great if we could do something together every week – so message your email if you would like to be put on the emailing list – and let us know if you would like to ‘take ownership’ for one week or more – to make sure things keep moving ahead.
Community garden progressing well
It’s been a busy month in the community garden — we’ve had three working bees and made a lot of progress.
Today we finished the first phase of planting in the garden for this year. So far, we have:
- planted feijoa trees between part of the garden and the neighbours as a screen that will also produce delicious fruit
- planted all the fruit trees — apples, pears, nashis and plums
- planted the support trees around the fruit trees to provide protection and to help fix nitrogen in the soil for plant growth
- mulched around all the trees to keep down weeds and help the soil retain water over the driest part of the year.
We still have to put in some wind breaks by the trees to protect them from the wind that comes from the northwest, which can be pretty strong at times. Of course, we’ll need to keep the grass down, but we’ve got a scythe and some keen users so we can do it without disturbing the neighbours with noisy machinery. Spring and summer will be busy with making sure the trees are OK, and well watered during the dry season. Fortunately, the council installed a tap for us when they built the access onto the site, so we have a permanent and reliable water supply.
We also have to start planting the smaller support plants, which will help accumulate minerals for the trees and build up the soil health, and we’d also like to get some berry plants in there, too. We’re trying to follow permaculture principles to create an ecosystem that has a wide range of plants, soil biota and insects that all support each other.
It looks like we have got more funding from Porirua City Council under their Village Planning programme again this year, so we’ll be able to do more planting over the next 12 months. We’ll look at establishing a different range of plants from the pipfruit trees we’ve planted so far — perhaps more stone fruit, or maybe some citrus. We can’t wait!