Homeless may guard CBD orchard
Developers of a new city-centre orchard want to enlist homeless people to protect it from vandalism.
They are seeking $650,000 from corporates and large organisations to complete O¯ ta¯ karo Orchard, a $2 million project beside the Avon River on Cambridge Tce.
At a volunteer working bee on Saturday, Peter Wells, of the Food Resilience Network, said about 50 small businesses and community groups had committed funding or labour, but ‘‘this relies on the smell of a fermenting compost bin’’.
‘‘There’s only two of us that are paid part time, but we’re delivering a $1.4m resource for the community.
‘‘We need money to get this up and running . . . We need people’s life savings and their first-born child.’’
Wells and volunteer Gordon Hamblyn said they wanted half a dozen ‘‘kaitiaki’’, or guardians, to visit the work site weekly to protect it from vandalism and foster a sense of community responsibility.
Hamblyn said homeless people would make ideal kaitiaki.
‘‘They’re living in the area, they cruise around here in the day and night, and if they want to eat [the fruit] that’s fine but we want to get them involved so it doesn’t feel like trespassing.
‘‘We have a huge amount of business and community support; we’re still developing the people support.’’
Wells said plans for the formerly Government-owned site – a ‘‘food forest’’ with vegetable beds, a herb garden, amphitheatre and cafe – were formed from ‘‘the ideas of about 200 people crunched together’’ and put into action by seven permaculturists.
Volunteers from the Canterbury Horticultural Society and about 20 international students, managed by ChristchurchNZ, were helping make ‘‘a big jigsaw puzzle of plants’’ this weekend, he said.
University of Canterbury management student Xue Li and Hillmorton High School student Nadine Feldmann were among those planting 30 berry shrubs between the fruit trees established in August. Originally from China and Germany respectively, it was their first gardening experience.
‘‘I saw this on Facebook and I thought, it’s quite meaningful,’’ Xue Li said. ‘‘I’ve never planted anything before. It’s quite interesting.’’
Leanne Russ, a teacher at
’’They’re living in the area, they cruise around here in the day and night, and if they want to eat [the fruit] that’s fine.’’
Volunteer Gordon Hamblyn
Shirley Boys’ High School, brought her elderly father, Edgar ‘‘Rusty’’ Russ from Windsor House to help, alongside the international students.
She said Russ, who has dementia, was ‘‘a gun on the wheelbarrow’’ and that ‘‘it’s nice for him to get out in the community [because] he just loves being busy and is very social’’.
Russ said he was a beginning gardener but enjoyed ‘‘scratching around’’ on a sunny Saturday.