Sanctuary Community Organic Garden

About

An organic community garden and food forest based in the Unitec grounds, Mt Albert, Auckland.

Story

• The Sanctuary Mahi Whenua has been a Community Garden since 2011 in a partnership arrangement with UNITEC Institute of Technology. In June 2017 it became an Incorporated Society. We have a blog at sanctuarygardendiary.blogspot.co.nz and website at sanctuaryunitec.garden. There are some 60 members and their families involved, It is an entirely volunteer community garden with a waiting list of families wishing to join. Sustainable, spray-free, organic growing principles are followed. In addition to growing mainstream crops, less well known crops are encouraged, such as peans and yacon, as well as heritage varieties.

• The site has been gardened since pre-European times. Some 12 Maori gardening implements were found in the cultivated area in 2007, and one is now displayed in the floor at the Unitec marae. When the site was an asylum (Oakley/Carrington Hospital) the gardens provided food for both staff and patients. When the area was purchased by Unitec, it became a Certified Organic teaching garden for horticulture. The food forest was established with nursery trees in 1999–2000 from an open grass site, followed by a mixture of subtropical and temperate fruit trees. The food forest is now being redeveloped.

• The cultivated area is about 1700 square metres, divided into communal and individual plots. The total area of the Sanctuary is about 6500 square metres — the cultivated area, food forest, headland shelter, composting area, swale, shed, and compound (with tunnel house, greenhouse, and hardening-off area).

• There are a number of significant trees in the Sanctuary, including some from the Three Kings Islands and similar offshore locations: these originated mainly from duplicates at the Mt Albert Research Centre.

• In addition to providing organic vegetables and fruit for the plotholder families, the Sanctuary reaches out to the wider community in a variety of ways:
o Unitec Department of Natural Sciences harvest the spray-free grass and weeds (e.g., dock) to feed the animals looked after by students studying towards Certificates in Animal Care. Hence there are “rough areas” around the Sanctuary perimeter.
o Auckland Zoo primates receive most weeks a crate containing spinach and native puha (Sonchus kirkii). The native puha is endangered in the wild, and is now very restricted in its range (mainly where it cannot be reached by grazing animals). Occasionally prunings from our Coprosma trees are provided as well as seeding red amaranth.
o The Sanctuary supports the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust, by donations of either food or money.
o Some produce from communal areas is sold at the community table at the Grey Lynn Farmers Market (Grey Lynn Community Centre, Richmond Road, Sunday mornings) to help defray some of the ongoing running and maintenance costs of the Sanctuary.
o Plants in the food forest, headland shelter, and swale provide year-round food and shelter for insects and birds. Sunflower seeds and red amaranth provide food for birds of the areas (mainly finches) when mature, and in return their guano helps fertilise the garden.


Note: VERA, the Vertical Composting Unit by the shed, was an experimental unit built for Unitec that is no longer operational.