Hi all: I wrote this for the Garden Planning meeting that may still happen this weekend, as we’re away, along with some others who’ve been keenly interested in what happens with this space.

Read as you wish – its exciting to ‘walk this new space’ and ‘warm it up’ for our future living.

1. Understanding what we each want from the grounds/ gardens at Toiora

We have a good range of gardening experience amongst us. Quite a few of us are what might be described as ‘keen’ gardeners, excited about planning, creating and maintaining vege and other gardens.

Others are happy to help with ‘maintenance’, like lawns and/ or overhanging greenery from the town belt – tidying up type gardening  ( very valuable).

Or they have an interest in a specific part of the garden: the Memorial Arch; a playground for children, etc but not much else (?).

And then still others are thrilled that the hard work of maintaining their previous gardens are behind them and see Toiora as a way to let that obligation largely go. If they can do something else to assist the community, they’d be more than happy.

It’s likely that interests will change over time and groups will likely overlap.

Hopefully, we can find a way to meet the needs of all these groups!

2. Getting to know the site

Right now, we’re starting to understand this site more in ‘real terms’ and in real time. Eg Noticing the sun patterns; how the buildings shade things and for how long; how different winds affect different parts of the site, etc.

We’re also learning more about what lies beneath the surface and that is informing us more about what we might plant and where.

In starting to live on this land, we’re also ‘warming it up’ as a community space. The ground is shifting from a ‘concept’ as shown on the original design, still fixed to the front of the fence on High Street, to a living entity. Just as the insides of our houses have changed as we’ve altered them to suit / painted them/ inhabited them, etc, so too will the grounds.

3. Some proposals: i) that if we can eliminate fences in common areas by creative use of plants, that we do so. Some of these could screen otherwise ‘ugly’ things like the container shed and soften other ‘hard’ edges.

ii) That we develop a basic budget for plants and start planning out what to plant where. That we accept that a good many plants might move around till we find the best site for them. It might be that as for E – Chargers, some of us are more willing to fund this project than others; my hope is that we don’t let that stop us moving forward with this.

iii) that as far as possible, we use plants with dual purpose:  eg plants that are also edible / culinary ( like bay leaves); that produce flowers for bees; as well as those that are pleasing to look at, especially through the winter months ( which usually also produce flowers for bees from spring on). This will mean a mixture of natives and ‘exotics’, with some ‘annuals’ like cornflowers/ sunflowers/ etc to bridge the seasons for birds and bees alike.

Of course, there’s more, but these are a few ideas from me, as I’m away this coming weekend when it seems the group might want to meet.

It’s very exciting to be back in the soil again!

Regards,

Marianne

Marianne Quinn

Clinical Psychologist & Psychotherapist

Level 3, 115 Stuart Street, Dunedin

P.O. Box 20, Dunedin 9054

ph +6434773115 or 0211612050