Wisdom from the rock. Community gardens in Tauranga

From a great visit. Of special interest to anyone in Taraunga.

The Rock community gardens is a pumping little place in Hartford ave. It was a pleasure to meet with Jared, his depth of knowledge is only matched by his enthusiasm. If you are keen to get into some food production in a lovely setting then this is the spot. As with many community gardens Jared has seen people come and go. I would say that it would be a bonus to any community garden to make sure you have some “Allotted” time to put into any bit of earth you commit to care for.

We covered a wealth of topics but while they are fresh to mind here are some gems of knowledge I haven’t come across before:

There is a study from Dunedin that showed that Puha has three times the antioxidants as blue berries. Awesome and it is free! Cut back older plants to give new leafy growths. Great in a salad or to add to a bone broth. Read the article before you become a convert.

Nasturtium leaves as urinary tract infection cure. Another great traditional cure that I have never seen. There is a blog here that is a good start to in depth research. Here is the article.

For earwigs. This apparently comes from a Dahlia grower in Riverton. To rid your peppers and/or Dahlias of earwigs screw up balls of newspaper and leave them around the plants. The earwigs will nest in the newspaper during the day and before they come out for their nighty feed. You can dispose of the earwigs easily during the day. Great.

Germinating seeds under shade cloth gives them an extra bit of moisture to assist their germinating and protects the seeds and seedlings from bird attack. Something i will certainly try at home to combat the immense dissatisfaction of seeing a bird (chicken or blackbird) stroll through a freshly planted patch of seeds.

Growing on a shady side for the heat of summer or planting to give shade/wind shelter. This one is rather straight forward but Jared showed me a lot of examples where too much sun was slowing plants down dramatically.