Teaching garden skills

5 August 2011

Pact’s Balclutha clients will soon be planting vegetables in their own plots opposite The Link Centre in Balclutha.

Balclutha support worker James Durham says Pact has facilitated the use of a section at the back of South Otago Woodworkers and work is getting underway to raise the beds to help with drainage.

"It’s a reasonably wet spot, but it is good soil."

James anticipates about seven plots will be created, with 10 to 14 clients having about half a plot each.

"There’s a lot of interest."

Everyone with a plot will be responsible for looking after it, but they can decide what to do with the produce – whether that is using it themselves, giving it away to friends and family or selling it.

"So they can do what they want but they have to take responsibility for it – they can’t let it run to weeds."

Planting will take place in spring. A variety of vegetables will be planted and one client has already indicated a desire to plant herbs.

"There will always be someone there to give instruction," James says. There’s a big tree in the corner and we see it becoming a communal thing like the allotments they have in England. It’s somewhere for people to go and have a yarn."

There is also an area they have used in the past for a hangi and that will be kept for that purpose.

James says having the garden so close to The Link Centre is good - people can pop away for a hot drink and then come back.

One of the benefits of the garden is that some clients move regularly, meaning starting a garden where they live would not be practical because they would lose their garden every time they shifted. With a plot of their own at the new site, it doesn’t matter how much they move - they will keep their garden.

James is passionate about teaching people gardening skills – comparing it to the old Chinese proverb about teaching a man to fish: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

He is encouraging clients to grow the vegetables as organically as possible.