Sponsoring green fingers in the community
If you have green fingers or not – community gardens are places for everyone to explore and enjoy and benefit from the fresh seasonal produce fertilised with a heavy dose of love.
“Our teams maintain gardens all around the country and our people are a real part of the communities we work in,” Citycare Property General Manager Craig Taylor said.
“It’s a natural fit for us to sponsor a special community garden exhibition at the Grow Ō Tautahi festival at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens next week,” he said.
For Craig, gardening recently has been about picking the fruit from the trees in his garden and dropping them off to his daughter’s flat.
“Community gardens are there principally to grow food and that’s what I like about my own garden. I enjoy going and picking a plum or apple to eat and sharing the fruit,” he said.
Next week’s exhibition garden combines the work of the 32 community garden groups in Canterbury and the sponsorship is a way Citycare Property can both help Christchurch reassert itself as the garden city and support the hard work of the volunteer gardeners, Craig said.
“Grow Ō Tautahi is a homegrown festival that draws on our region’s love of gardens, creativity, innovation and design,” Festival Director Sandi MacRae said.
The Canterbury Community Gardens’ Association (CCGA) is uniting to create an interactive exhibition where visitors to the Christchurch Garden Festival can sit on living furniture, enjoy the peace of a lush garden space, play amongst living sculptures and post photos of their adventures.
CCGA Chair Catherine O’Neill said community gardening is all about inclusiveness. “Whether you’re eight or 80, a community garden is a place you can wander into and find a place to that makes you feel at home. You might want to pick up a spade and get digging, or perhaps you’d rather just sit and enjoy the surroundings, whatever your pleasure, community gardens are there for everyone.”
Running from Friday to Sunday next week, the Grow Ō Tautahi Christchurch Garden Festival is free to the public.
As well as exhibition gardens, plants, floral displays and schools’ gardens, there will be workshops and panel discussions on key environmental issues, celebrity chef garden kitchen demonstrations, entertainment, food and plenty of fun for everyone.
For more information see the festival website: https://growotautahi.org.nz/
