Building a Resilient, Sustainable, and Thriving Community for the Future
Kia ora koutou,
What a week! The māra has been buzzing with energy — from a massive community effort preparing our kūmara beds, to sharing kai straight from the pizza oven. Read on for the story of today’s kūmara puke mounding, details on seed saving in the māra, and the mahi ahead this week.
Kia ora koutou,
Scroll on for details and how to be part of it all.
This week is all about listening, learning, and planting seeds for the future. We’re opening a survey for our garden members and wider community, sharing kai together at our reo Māori parakuihi, and joining Matua Rob to mound kūmara puke in the māra.
Kia ora koutou,
Nau mai, haere mai ki Kõanga 🌸 The greenhouse and seedling shed are filling with life, our kūmara beds are being prepared, and new ideas are taking root. Today also happens to be Father’s Day — from the quintessential Kiwi dads and grandads tending veggie patches, to the father-figures in our lives who show patience, kindness, and wisdom, we carry their lessons with us in the māra and beyond.
This week we’re trialling something exciting with turmeric, looking ahead to a reo Māori breakfast in the māra, and as always, welcoming everyone for our regular garden sessions.
Kia ora koutou,
Spring is well and truly here, and signs of its arrival are everywhere — from the delicate blossoms on our dwarf peach tree to the rich, warming soil in the garden. The kūmara patch has been buzzing with incredible work digging up paths to increase our growing space, and the greenhouse is ready for a giant crop of turmeric!
We’re sending this email a little early to let you know that tomorrow’s seed sowing and pizza event has been cancelled due to rain. But don’t worry — we’ll still continue our seed sowing mission this week.
Kia ora koutou,
Life is quietly at work all around us, from the billions of microbes turning yacon into kimchi to the fungal networks holding our soil together. This week we celebrate these invisible helpers and invite you to notice the rhythms of growth, renewal, and connection in your own corner of Aotearoa. If you want to get hands-on, join us next Sunday for our spring seed-sowing workshop followed by woodfired pizza — a chance to plant something new and soak up beautiful vibes!
Kia ora koutou,
A quick pānui this week: you may notice subtle changes to our weekly newsletters over the coming months – a spring cleaning of sorts! We want to make sure that these emails are useful and relevant to as wide an audience as possible. This means inspiring stories, learning material and practical tips from Growing Point will appear up top, and job lists for Dignan Street Community Garden will be further down for the loyal readers who read right to the bottom (we see you, we love you 💚).
As always, we’re want to ensure this is useful for you so simply reply to this email if you have any feedback!
Kia ora koutou,
Nau mai, haere ma ki Tama-nui-te-rā – we welcome in a week of clearer skies and bright light, helping both us humans and the more-than-human world gently wake from the winter slumber. While the sun is out the southerly winds remain, so stay cozy and let the changing season begin to defrost those parts of your māra that need a little love.
Kia ora koutou,
Thanks to those who joined yesterday for our rongoa planting session at Pourewa. Not only did we have a great turnout from our rōpu (plus a few friends from Kelmarna) but we were joined by visting reo groups from Ngāti Whatua Orakei’s local marae and the planting was finished in record time. We also got to work weeding and reforming the kūmara puke, where tupu will be planted in kōanga as part of Matua Rob’s exciting kumara project – more on this to come…
Kia ora koutou,
Happy Rāhina/Monday! It seems like our spell of fine, settled weather is passing and being replaced by wild winds and incoming rain. Stay warm, stay dry, and enjoy a slower week of indoor activities.
We are cancelling tomorrow’s Tuesday AM working bee due to forecast heavy rain, however if you’d like to still do some gardening this week read on for info on tree planting at Pourewa this Saturday.
Kia ora koutou,
Arohamai for the delay on this newsletter. Hoping your weeks are off to a great start! The mornings are incredibly crisp, but the sunshine’s making everything glow. Here’s what’s happening i tenei wiki:
• TUESDAY WORKING BEE with Bex & Rob
9.30am – 12.30pm
• THURSDAY WORKING BEE with Luke & Bex
4pm – 6pm
• SCREENPRINTING & PIZZA
Sunday 11am – 2pm, screenprinting from 11, pizzas cooked and ready from 12-2pm.
