Magazine - Manukau City Council Update

By Robert Findlay in Local Authority on 2nd Nov 2009 6:00

The Manukau Parks Teaching Gardens Growing for Health & Sustainability Project has taken over four bowling greens at three sites and converted them into teaching gardens providing 5000m2 of garden plots, sufficient for 200 students. The sites are at Walter Massey Park in Mangere East, Stadium Reserve in Papatoetoe and East Tamaki Domain in Otara. At the former, the women’s clubs have vacated the sites and joined with the men’s clubs and at the latter the club does not have the numbers to sustain two greens.

A multi agency meeting was convened by the “Let’s Beat Diabetes” Steering Committee, chaired by Mr Colin Dale, in June 2008. A business plan targeted 2000 households having established a home garden over 4 years. Costs for achieving this by all agencies was put at an estimated $2 million
Manukau Parks committed to establishing eight teaching gardens in four wards of high deprivation over two years. Planning commenced after the meeting with teaching starting 10 months later in March 2009 with the winter course involving 300 people. Two ex-bowling clubs and two neighbourhood reserves (one an ex-market garden) were involved. The summer course is due to commence at these sites and two new ones in October- 2009, catering for 600 people.
The aim of the Manukau Parks teaching garden project is to teach students basic horticulture husbandry they can then transfer to their home garden. Hopefully this will increase fresh produce intake and create benefit from the physical activity involved.
In June 2008 “Teaching Gardens” were put into the Manukau Parks business plan as they supported the Counties Manukau District Health Board- “Let’s Beat Diabetes” initiative - Growing for Health and Sustainability, the driver being obesity and diabetes.

“WE ARE THE FATTEST”
#In the Counties Manukau District, Manukau & Papakura City & Franklin District a staggering 74% of the population is considered obese.
# Twelve thousand people are diagnosed as suffering from type 2 diabetes. A further twelve thousand are considered undiagnosed.
# Up to 27,000 are known to have type 2 diabetes in Counties-Manukau. A further 9,000 estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes. About 9% of the area population.
# One of the biggest drivers of diabetes is obesity. The overall adult obesity rate is 33% the highest in the country. This masks the very high rates for Maori 52% and Pacific Islanders 80%
The project also squarely meets the parks recreation department mission: planning, providing and use management of public open space settings for recreation and health and enabling community involvement.


Fig.1 Teaching garden at Middlemore Park in action. All elements for success are featured in this picture.
Constraints to Successful Gardening
Research has shown that to be successful there needs to exist agronomic knowledge, experience and understanding of the constraints to productivity.
Within the operations section of Manukau Parks there is a pool of this knowledge and experience, as well as academic and teaching ability.
Ex-bowling greens as potential gardens have a lot going for them.
1. Water already reticulated to site, a major cost saving.
2. A microclimate created by fences,
3. A level of security due to existing fences,
4. A soil profile that is free draining.
5. Surplus buildings, with toilets, and suitable for classroom teaching, are a bonus.

Soil Contamination
Soil contamination refers to any material that may interfere with the production or safe working of the soil or consumption of produce from the site.
The author’s experience suggested it would be wise to undertake “contaminant” testing as well as the normal fertility tests. All four sites, two bowling clubs (three greens) and two neighbourhood reserves, one an ex-market garden, were tested.
The results were to be expected given the history of plant protectants that may have been used at these sites.

Results:
1. One neighbourhood reserve had no contaminants detected.
2. The ex-market garden and three bowling greens tested positive for a range of products. One in particular had been in the sports field industry news recently.
3. This were not altogether a surprise, most products detected are persistent in the soil, are closely bound to the soil particles in the surface layer, and do not readily leach.

Fig.2. Ameliorating greens with compost.
Of the three greens (one site had two greens side by side) two had the compost applied, the other none (a check). All three were tested before and after application.

The exercise showed that contamination levels could be reduced by this method of mitigation, however this proved to be academic. [Results available from the author]

Discussion with the relevant authorities revealed there was no risk to users of the sites or to students consuming what they would produce during the 20 week course.

So the cost ($8k) of the compost to secure these sites was not necessary but it did result in tremendous growth of the autumn sown & planted seedlings in treated plots. They performed well throughout the winter, markedly better than the untreated.

The Teaching Garden Model – Different from “Community” Gardens
Some important elements;
# Experienced gardeners, (3rd agers are preferred, this refers to people in retirement who wish to continue working) are paid to be mentors.
They deliver the curriculum covering basic horticulture husbandry & manage the students, reporting to the site managers.
# Park Rangers are site mentors, neighbours and supply managers.
# Students are provided with a 25m2 plot for the duration of the free 20 week course.
# Conventional production techniques are taught, meaning any practice that is effective, legal and safe to the environment, user and consumer is used to overcome constraints to productivity. No particular “organic growing” philosophy is taught.

The author firmly believes this to be a sustainable model, unlike some “community gardens” which rely on a high commitment of volunteerism and practices that unnecessarily constrain productivity.

Manukau Parks Recreation Department has access to suitable land, experienced staff and a budget.

A really fantastic team of mentors have been recruited and teaching. They range from 3rd agers to young professional gardeners. There is a demand for teaching gardens from other wards of the city. To grow the project, substantial additional external funding is now being sought as to date most resources have been from existing budget.

City Parks Services and General Mills are acknowledged for their support of the Manukau Parks Teaching Gardens project.
Robert Findlay, Manukau City Council

Background to the NZ Sports Field Forum
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Read more articles in Local Authority, by Robert Findlay or from November 2009.