Garden Name: Waimamaku Community Garden

Address: Taita Road, Waimamaku

Property Description: 

Waimamaku Community Garden has been operating for three years in South Hokianga; set up by community, for community.

Providing food support for our local community is a high priority of this project. Our community is located an hour away from any supermarkets, and we have a high rate of unemployment, and food insecure homes.

We hope to make a step towards a food secure and kai resilient future by providing locally grown vegetables and fruit on a regular basis to our local schools, Marae, Kōhanga Reo, Pātaka kai and community events. Access to kai comes with a lot of barriers for many people, so we hope we can alleviate some of that pressure for our Waimamaku whanau. 

We also offer regular workshops, seeds and seedlings, a compost hub, and share knowledge on low cost, long lasting solutions to gardening. 

Opening Days and Times: 

Friday 14 February, 9am - 4pm 

Working Bees each Monday, 9am to 12 noon  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063850487772

Garden Name: Okopako Wilderness Farm  (Charlie, Kristina, Lois and Nils) 

Address: 140 Mountain Road, South Hokianga 

Property Description: 

Okopako Wilderness Farm has been in the King family since 1910. As well as a large organic vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees they have Wiltshire sheep and Guernsey cattle. 90ha of the property is still in mature native forest. 

Nils and Lois have been into organic gardening for 50 years and grow as much of their own food as they can. They mulch the gardens heavily in the spring and summer with animal manure and lawn clippings to retain soil moisture and prevent weeds from growing. They have worm farms in large containers where they layer food scraps, animal manure, cardboard, dolomite and some of the ‘bokashi bucket’ compost for the worms to turn into rich worm castings and ‘worm tea’ liquid fertilizer. They also make liquid fertilisers using seaweed, sheep manure and comfrey leaves. 

Charlie and Kristina now manage Okopako Lodge itself and are developing their property (directly across from the camping ground area) with new orchard areas, large crop garden areas, compost bins and raised garden beds. Roses and flowering trees and plants to attract bees, butterflies and other insects are planted along fences and throughout the gardens. This is a work in progress. Tiny, the Welsh Mountain Pony might make an appearance.

https://www.facebook.com/okopako.nz

Opening Days and Times: 

Friday 14 February, 9am - 4pm 

Accomodation: 

Okopako Lodge has rooms with shared bathrooms, a large fully equipped kitchen / dining area, and a cosy lounge with spectacular views out over the farm and the valley below. Camping and self contained vehicle sites are also available. https://www.okopako.co.nz/  

Garden Name: Ara Rongoa 

Address: Honey Street carpark, the hospital grounds at Rawene, South Hokianga. * note- please stay out of the marked building worksite area, the path to the gardens is marked by a flag or you can enter under the Tomokanga carved gateway and follow the paths to the right. 

Property Description: 

Over the past 4 years traditional Māori wellbeing practices have literally paved the way for health and wellbeing at Hauora Hokianga. The hospital is reframed from a place of illness to a place of healing through the Taumata Rongoa (Traditional Healing services) and the Ara Rongoa Hikoi Whakaora -Wellness Walkway project. Our guiding principle is when we heal the whenua (land), we heal the people. 

The Ara Rongoa includes:

Māra Kai (community food garden) growing organic produce to feed patients and whanau in need and providing a place to share knowledge and connect with others and the whenua (land). Our Food Forest and Orchards have been established using Permaculture Design principles and aspects of Syntropic Agriculture systems.

The Community Composting Hub is a member of the CBEC EcoSolutions’ Community Compost Connection Programme which was named Te Tohu Matua – Supreme Award winner at the 2023 Northland Regional Council Whakamānawa ā Taiao – Environmental Awards.

Native reforestation and plantings encircle the hospital grounds. These provide rongoa resources and create a natural and holistic environment and native habitat.  

Tomokanga and Pou- our powerful traditional Maori entranceway and carvings were created by local participants in the Te Kapehu i te Kainga Recovery programme. 

Overall, the Ara Rongoa is a place that facilitates healing, learning, understanding and connection through growing kai, regenerating forests and interacting with nature and each other.

Open: Friday 14th February, 9 am to 2 pm

Garden Name: Janine McVeagh

Address: 48 de Thierry St, Rawene

Property Description: 

1 hectare home garden and orchard.

We grow a very wide variety of vegetables, fruit and nuts, mostly to support our family of four. We preserve and give away excess. Some features include an olive grove of 19 trees that produces around 40 -45 litres of oil a year, macadamias, almonds, apricot and a small sub-tropical food forest of bananas, cherimoyas, sapote, sugarcane and tamarillos. We like to experiment with new things: dragon fruit, pineapples, pomegranates though these are not staples. Our two toilets go through a wormorator. We keep a few chickens for eggs and pest control. We have a worm farm, a hungry bin and other ways of creating soil nutrients such as composting chook house litter, barrels of horse manure liquid, biochar and ramial woodchip. We do a certain amount of seed-saving and try to grow most annuals from seed. We grow a lot of shrubs and trees from cuttings.

Janine has 50 years experience growing her family's food organically in the Hokianga.

Opening Days and Times: 

Friday 14 February, 9am - 4pm 

Please try to arrive on the hour at 9am, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm for a tour of the property. 

Garden Name: Oasis Retreat 

Address: 3571 Horeke Road (near the Taheke end of the road), South Hokianga 

Property Description: 

10 acres of magical, wild, edible landscape.

Lovingly established over 35 years on volcanic rock the gardens, orchards and food forests contain many varieties of edible plants and trees such as walnut, almond, blackboy peach, apricot, mulberry, white tropical guava, banana, tropical apricot, Davidson plum and Japanese wineberry. Some of these are heritage Hokianga varieties. There are also ponds, pyramids, a delightful off grid house and an outdoor theatre where local musicians will be playing peaceful live music. . 

Opening Days and Times: 

Friday 14 February, 9am - 4pm