Local Focus: Become a Seed Guardian and get a greater yield from your garden

A month-long programme that aims to improve a community’s wellbeing will show people how to gain the best results from their garden with community initiatives such as the Rotorua Seed Library and Kai Rotorua.

The Sustainable Backyards programme is a series of events run by EnviroHub Bay of Plenty.

On Saturday, Kai Rotorua will host the last event of the programme at Te Puia Orchards, where it will demonstrate how to plant kūmara in your backyard to ensure a good harvest. They will then visit Peter Jones’ garden to see the impressive results of his crop after he planted 15 kūmara plants in the corner of his garden.

The Rotorua Seed Library is based in the Rotorua Library and was started by Hester Jackson-Scott. Its workshops have focused on how to harvest seeds from a person’s garden at the end of the growing season to ensure they get productive plants year-on-year.

They are always looking for more people to become “Seed Guardians” for plants that have done particularly well in a garden. If anyone is looking for new plants to add to their existing garden, they can go to the library and pick up a few seeds that have been donated by the “Seed Guardians”.

Given the extreme weather events over the past summer and the rising costs of food, learning how to get the most out of a backyard garden is considered by some a handy skill to have.

Both Kai Rotorua and the Rotorua Seed Library have resources that help residents get the most out of a backyard garden.

Public Interest Journalism Fund