Tending the garden volunteers
‘‘I always end up filthy. I like to be a part of it and get to know them as well. . . . I enjoy working with people so loyal to what they’re doing. They’re such an asset and contribute so much to these spaces.’’ Alice Arnold
Alice Arnold spends a lot of time with her hands in the soil in gardens around South Taranaki, but she’s tending the gardeners, not the plants.
Arnold has two separate parttime jobs where she works with volunteers who are creating and maintaining gardens for the community.
As the South Taranaki District Council’s places and spaces volunteer co-ordinator, she looks after the volunteers who support the parks team to care for the district’s public gardens.
‘‘I’m the conduit person between groups working in green spaces and the council’s own parks team,’’ she said.
She also has a smaller parttime role as the community gardens co-ordinator for Sustainable Taranaki, and has overseen the development of Hā wera’s St Mary’s community garden.
In both roles, she enjoys working alongside the volunteers.
‘‘I always end up filthy. I like to be a part of it and get to know them as well.’’
In the seven months since starting her council role, she has been getting to know the volunteers from all the groups, including the Goodson Guerillas who look after Goodson Dell, the Hā wera Cemetery beautification group, the Manaia Maara Kai community garden and Restore Eltham, a group planting in Soldiers Park, and a group of volunteers doing planting in Pā tea.
Her job is to look after the volunteers’ health and safety and liaise with the parks team on their behalf.
‘‘I enjoy working with people so loyal to what they’re doing. They’re such an asset and contribute
so much to these spaces. It’s about people building relationships with these places, taking pride in them and wanting to look after them.’’
As well as the volunteer groups, she works with students
from Te Paepae o Aotea at the parks team HQ in King Edward Park, where they are developing a new food garden.
Arnold, a landscape gardener by training, grew up in Hā wera in a family where her grandparents and parents were all gardeners.
Her two roles add up to a parttime job that fits in well with caring for her two children, but her own garden gets a bit neglected, she said.
In the year since work started at the community garden at St Mary’s Church in Hāwera, an abundant garden has sprung up, and a community with it.
There are many raised garden beds, a collection point for composting materials, a community pantry, rainwater collection tanks and a variety of veges.
Working bees are held twice a month, and also workshops, teaching people skills they can use in their own gardens.
Produce is harvested by volunteers and given away through the pantry and to the town’s foodbank and the Salvation Army.