12 May, 2025

Good to grow: New lease lets garden plan for future

Bedding in… Ngataringa Organic Garden Society chair Kerry Chamberlain, with beds and hothouse behind

Ngataringa Organic Garden Society is keen to grow its place in the community.
The garden at the south-eastern corner of Ngataringa Park – described by a long-time member as “a hidden treasure” – is run largely on an allotment model. It has a waiting list for plots, but society chair Kerry Chamberlain is looking at ways to involve the wider public through the likes of on-site workshops.
Planning ahead has now been made easier, with a new council 10-year lease and 10-year right of renewal, signed off by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last month.
Visitors were welcome, said Chamberlain. “We want to be a place where people can come and ask questions.”
Successful open days with seedling sales held last spring would be repeated, he said. A committee of nine members, elected at the recent annual meeting, would consider a winter seedling sale as well. Workshops on the likes of composting and garden-to-table ideas such as preserves and fermentation are in the offing and these would be open to the public. A pruning session run by member Nigel Hopkins, a former Restoring-Takuranga Hauraki environmental group coordinator, had attracted several newcomers.
For the last few years, the ‘NOGS’ group has been focusing on tidying up the site and fundraising to improve its facilities. The lease took a while to be sorted, with council officers initially suggesting it be shorter in case the site was needed for a new skatepark.
Local board members quickly hosed down this idea at their business meeting last month, with Woodall Park being investigated for the skate facility. After a submission by Chamberlain and former committee member Dame Judy McGregor they backed the longer lease. Ownership and maintenance of buildings on the site, which date to its former use by the Framework Trust up until 2013, were transferred to NOGS, recognising work by the society to upgrade them, including the installation of a kitchen used for shared meals. Small social functions can also be held there.
Compost bins have been built with materials from the Devonport Resource Recovery Centre. The latest upgrade has been to the garden’s hot-house, for which Rotary funded a new floor. The local board paid $2500 for a ventilation system and seedling tables made at the Claystore community workshop were installed.
Chamberlain said all the support, which included the earlier $10,000 kitchen fitout from Bunnings, had been appreciated.
Longer-term he is keen to get member buy-in to encourage more communal growing areas. This could produce vegetables, fruit and herbs to be shared and develop gardening skills within the wider community. Chickens and beehives are already on site. Some members look after common flowerbeds, which help encourage bees, and there is a shared herb space.
Chamberlain’s own involvement came five or six years ago. “We moved to a Devonport apartment and didn’t have a garden,” says the semi-retired academic. After joining up, he soon found himself helping run things. Many of the around 75 active members are retired, including half a dozen from Ryman’s William Sanders Retirement Village. A few are in their thirties and forties. Typically they are people with little land of their own to garden on or looking for extra space. The site has 69 plots, some subdivided from larger plots as older members step back. It also has fruit trees and Chamberlain is keen to plant more.
Demand for the garden’s output extends as far as Auckland Zoo, which collects bananas and banana leaves to help feed its animals.

• The community garden at Cambria Reserve is working through similar issues to those NOGS has resolved ahead of obtaining a new council lease.