Garden helpers needed to dig in

Jo Stock, who has volunteered at the Bayfair Community Garden since 1996, says the team really need some extra pairs of hands to help lighten the overall workload. Photo/FILE

They're not asking for your blood and bone, just a couple of hours a week and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

Bayfair Community Garden is in desperate need of more volunteers to help lighten the workload.

Volunteer Jo Stock says they have a core group of seven, but they need more help on Tuesday mornings, when they harvest the produce.

"We've got a 700m2 garden and we don't have big harvests, because this time of year you don't get much, but I'm still giving four banana boxes away a week to the [Tauranga] Foodbank," she says.

"Because there are so few of us, and we're all older, we are working really hard."

Jo says the group works from 8.30am till 10.30am on Tuesdays and Fridays, followed by a cup of tea.

"We're quite a sociable group, and we manage, but it's quite cold and some of it's hard work digging. We're hoping to get some younger people," she says.

The garden, which is entirely run by volunteers, supplies much-needed vegetables to the Tauranga Foodbank.

Jo says their focus is on supporting the foodbank, as well as teaching gardening skills.

"We've been here for 21 years and we called ourselves Bayfair Community Garden because we wanted community people to come and help."

Jo says you don't have to know anything about gardening to join the group, just a willingness to dig in.

"I'd rather have somebody who says they don't know anything about gardening because it's easier ... because our soil's quite different here."

"It's not hard work when you spread it around," she says.

- To volunteer at the Bayfair Community Garden, contact the Hillier Centre on 5759709.