He’s quite the local benefactor, Greg Moyle, as many of us know and I have known about his project making gardens in local schools for some time.
This month he took me on a cook’s tour of some of the school gardens he has set up with the help of Rotary. These gardens were initiated by Greg about seven years ago, and some are growing lots of food and are well tended. Greg has something of a garden menagerie in his extensive backyard in Herne Bay where he gathers eggs from his little army of chooks, and fruit and vegetables which he grows there and on a farm property south of Auckland. These are sold at the markets to provide revenue for the timber, bolts and compost he needs for his boxed vegie gardens. His produce includes honey, figs, avocados, walnuts, pears, almonds and macadamias. A few of Greg’s mates from Rotary prefabricate the gardens from sleepers bolted together and ready for planting once soil and compost are added. Kings Garden Centre manager, Simon, has been very supportive and regularly supplies broken bags, and other discounted material.
There are twelve schools in the project. I visited one of the most productive in the group, Mount Albert Primary School whose extensive gardens are a sight to be seen. The gardens do best where a teacher or two take the lead and help students learn how to garden. Students learn about fruit and vegetables they only see otherwise in supermarkets.
The gardens don’t take up much space. Pt Chevalier St Francis School is another school growing great food.
One of the first schools Greg Moyle set up was Ponsonby Primary, where his own children were pupils. We called in there to inspect and chatted with senior staff who were full of praise for Greg’s generous contribution to their school. (John Elliott)
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