Fruitful advice for bumper crop

Deep-rooted penchants for the land shared by 150 people, flourished at Māpua Community Hall for the New Zealand Tree Crops Association Conference.

Their 50th annual knowledge-growing event from 28 to 30 March had row upon row of activities including visits to Nelson Tasman crop-growing sites and local guest speakers including recently retired Nelson City Council parks supervisor Peter Grundy.

He shared his sage advice from his “40 years and two days” with the council, including how edible plants can give public green spaces more bite and foster fruitful connections with residents and the environment.

“I think the main points were making reserves as attractive for people to go into as possible, with fruit trees being one component of what makes it worth visiting a park and there’s something for people to take to their dinner table,” he says.

“I will say most councils and the public are supporting sustainability, and having somewhere where there isn’t a supermarket that you can go to to get your crop of apples or hazelnuts, I think that should be expanded right over the country.

“Start small with plantings, one or two plants in a general landscape layout and then people will start to recognise that when they go to a park, there will be something for them to keep an eye on that will produce some fruit in the future.”

Peter says his insight appealed, and he now hopes it will be cultivated across the motu.

“Some very useful questions and some very good comments once I’d finished,” he says.

Nelson Tree Crops Association member Harry Pearson says, based on his observations and conversations, no one thought the conference was a lemon, and another popular topic was mitigating climate change effects on crops using disease-resistant plants.

He hopes membership would stem.

“You don’t have to own land yourself, you can be a tree crop member with a passion to make our communities more resilient,” he says.