Waikato harvest festival looming

An artist's impression of Mansfield Garden. The Autumn Harvest Festival run by Friends of Hamilton Gardens will go towards the development of the garden.

The pick of Waikato's autumn harvest will be on offer at the annual Autumn Harvest Festival next weekend.

Friends of Hamilton Gardens are taking advantage of new season produce and are holding another Autumn Harvest Festival to raise funds for the proposed Mansfield Garden.

Local orchards generously donate fresh produce for the event. Friends and supporters also donate fruit and vegetables from their gardens.

The volunteers box them up and sell them at good prices at the festival.

Also on offer is home baking, preservatives, popcorn, Southern style cheese rolls, a sausage sizzle and a second hand garden books and magazines stall (in conjunction with Rotary).

The Mansfield Garden is one of four gardens currently under development. The garden will recreate the famous fictional garden in Katherine Mansfield's short story The Garden Party which describes an early 20th Century New Zealand garden being set up for a garden party.

The Friends are the principal sponsors for this garden.

- Autumn Harvest Festival at Hamilton Gardens on April 2 from 10am-2pm, on the lawn in front of the pavilion. It is on the same day as the Great Pumpkin Carnival.