Albert-Eden’s first ever sustainable garden trail bloomed with nearly 700 visits to a range of nine gardens in just two days.
In October, nine community and private gardens across the Albert-Eden Local Board area were open to the public to walk through and observe.
The event, funded by Albert-Eden Local Board, attracted a total of 683 visitors far and wide from Eastern Bays, Oratia, Orewa, Tauranga, Waikato as well as neighbours and locals.
Albert-Eden Sustainable Garden Trail organiser, Moe Richardson was thrilled with the event.
“The trail was overwhelmingly successful as the turnout was beyond what we anticipated.
“Attendees appreciated how the gardens were close to each other and loved that each garden was so different.”
“The highlight of the event was seeing a diverse range of people, including families with young children, young adults and groups of friends of various ages coming through,” says Richardson.
“For me, it was truly special letting young children interact with edible plants using all their senses – they loved the treasure hunt for strawberries,” she says.
The event was a voluntary effort fully coordinated by Richardson in her own time and with support and funding from Albert-Eden Local Board’s EcoNeighbourhoods programme.
Richardson would happily run the project again with the hope of inspiring more local board areas to host garden trails.
“We’d love to put this event on again with an interactive element so visitors can interact more with plants and with more gardens if funding can be secured.”
As part of Albert-Eden’s climate action plan, the local board-funded EcoNeighbourhoods programme offers neighbourhood groups access to funding and facilitator support for sustainable projects, such as this one.
“The EcoNeighbourhoods facilitator, Heather Lyall was really helpful with her network of local contacts.”
Want to be part of the next sustainable garden trail or want to start your own Econeighbourhoods group? Contact the EcoNeighbourhoods Facilitator.
Keep up with all the latest Albert-Eden news and events by subscribing to our newsletter here or follow @alberteden on Facebook.
