Vertical gardens built in retirement village
Doug Booth is one of the team building vertical gardens at Arvida Waimea Plains. Photo: Anne Hardie.
A combination of handyman skills and gardening passion has resulted in vertical vegetable gardens for small spaces at Arvida Waimea Plains retirement village.
Doug Booth is one of the residents now helping to build the vertical wooden gardens for the village and they are going so well that there is the possibility of selling them to the general public down the track or using them as fundraisers.
It all began with a few raised garden beds where there was space to build them. Not everyone had enough space, so they went vertical with three tiers of wooden boxes around an A-frame.
The head gardener and maintenance manager built the prototype and then residents began building them in the village workshop.
“Whoever is getting one built can assist if they want to, but not everyone is capable to do that, and others can do it and enjoy working in the workshop,” says Doug.
“It’s the activity and the camaraderie. It’s making good use of the facilities and everyone’s skills. The people in this village come from all walks of life and all sorts of skills and it’s an opportunity for them to use those skills, or they can learn new skills.”
The building team buy Redwood timber because it lasts longer without being tanalised and most are left natural, though at least one has been painted black.
Each is built to measurement for a specific space and are up to a metre wide at the bottom. For a while, the timber was hard to source, but Doug says they now have another source and the building team is catching up with orders.
Throughout winter, those vertical gardens already built have been producing vegetables and Doug says more residents have ordered one to be built so they can continue a lifetime of growing their own vegetables.
“It is the value of having nice, fresh vegetables from a garden plot that you’ve grown yourself – and it’s a little bit cheaper,” he says.