Bayfair Gardens grows oodles of vegetables for local people doing it tough – and the volunteer team do it on the smell of an oily rag. The only catch? They are short of helpers to make this possible. Can you help?
'I am really short of volunteers,” says Jo Stock, who has been running Bayfair Gardens since 1996. 'Last Friday I had 11 people, which was better – but really I need more.
'I took four trays of seedlings, totalling 320 seedlings, which I raised at home, to the gardens last Friday – but, with the helpers I had, we only got two trays in.
'Really, I need all those seedlings in the ground because they're getting a bit big and we're running a bit behind due to all this horrible wet weather.”
Jo says Bayfair Gardens began in 1994 – and today it solely grows vegetables to supply to the Tauranga Community Foodbank. 'We only work to grow vegetables for the foodbank,” says Jo.
'And we survive on about $1000 annually – we're not funded.”
Seeds
Jo is gifted sample seeds by a commercial seed company in Tuakau, which couriers them to her.
She plants the seed in a glasshouse at her home, then with helpers transplants them into the Bayfair Gardens' 700m2 plot.
Jo is gifted seeds to grow cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, pak choy, parsley, zucchini, pumpkin, kale, spinach, silverbeet, spring onion, capsicum, lettuce, red onions, leeks, tomatoes, beetroot, cucumber, sweetcorn, celery, eggplant, buttercup, butternut, climbing, dwarf and broad beans as well as snow peas. Chokos grow on perimeter fences.
Compost is made onsite, as is worm wee for nutrients. An underground aquifer supplies the gardens with water. Many plots get covered with netting to stop pests, but no chemical sprays are used 'so our produce is organically grown”.
Helpers needed
Friday mornings is for garden maintenance. Jo says helpers are needed for 'everything you can think of” in the garden – from planting, weeding, harvesting, digging and more. 'All of those garden jobs.”
Right now the garden is flourishing with summer vegetables – and as with most gardens, the offerings change with the seasons. 'The only thing we don't grow is tomatoes.”
'We work from 8.30am to 10.30am-11am – then have morning tea as everybody turns into friends,” says Jo.
Each Tuesday is harvest day – rain or shine. Afterwards a foodbank van pulls in to collect the vegetables – which feed families who need assistance in this high cost-of-living world. 'Last year we sent 516 banana boxes of vegetables from the garden to the foodbank,” says Jo proudly.
If you'd like to help out on Tuesday or Friday mornings, call The Hillier Centre at The Mount for details.
Phone: 07 575 9709.

Volunteers Karen Wicks, Loris Reed, Jo Stock, and Pat Pamment get stuck in at Bayfair Gardens.