Good Samaritan grows vegetables for community

Michael Matthews has been growing produce on a piece of land in Bethlehem for the past three years to give away. Photo/Ruth Keber

An elderly Tauranga man has been growing vegetables on land in Bethlehem and then donating them to others in the community.

Michael Matthews had been living in Australia for 40 years when he decided to return home after retiring.

Born and raised in Tauranga, he ventured back to the land he was brought up around but was shocked at the state it was in.

Since 2010, the 76-year-old, who has dialysis treatment three days a week, has been slowly cleaning up the land, which he has converted into a garden.

He gives away the produce he grows to others.

Mr Matthews, or Micky to his friends, said the grounds were absolutely a mess when he arrived.

"It took me 18 months to clean the whole area up."

"Why I did it was to really help the whanau. There is a lot of people here not working and I thought I could attract some attention and get the school kids involved," he said.

Since then, he has produced tonnes of fruit and vegetables, depending on the season, and has given most of it to the Bethlehem community.

"I did a bit of experimenting and started to see what I could grow or what I couldn't and in the process I have succeeded with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, carrots and pumpkin."

Mr Matthews said he didn't sleep much at night and at the crack of dawn would be seen out in the garden. Living in an old converted bus on the property, he didn't have any electricity but relied on a generator or gas cooker to warm his own meals.

Motivation to keep working in the garden sprang from knowing others had been good to him throughout his life, he said.