OUR BACKYARDS
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Meet the Sustainable Taranaki team at The Trail Hub. You can purchase Backyards Bundle cards, seeds and much more.
Check out the demonstration garden and see what you can do on an average sized section using 100% upcycled features including espaliered fruit trees, herb circle, worm farm and several other composting systems, mini-gardens, and more.
Open hours everyday
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You’ll find Janeen in her ever-evolving little food forest tucked away in the Huatoki Valley. Established fruit trees, vegetable beds and a couple of chooks provide ample food year-round. The garden also boasts a pottery studio nestled in the yard. Working and living within this sustainable backyard activates Janeen’s relationship with the garden and provides an income. This garden is also open for the Taranaki Arts Trail open studios.
Open hours everyday
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Mieke’s 850m2, shady, 5-tiered garden is designed with permaculture in mind. You’ll wander down from the espaliered front yard, past a tree hut, sleepout, rainwater collection, compost, bokashi and worm-farm. Pass by the propagation tunnel and veggie/herb garden until you reach the secret garden full of natives and sub tropicals such as banana, pawpaw, and cherimoya. Feed the chickens a tasty treat and watch the busy bees at work creating honey.
Open hours on Fri, Sat, Sun
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Seton and Hayley have a 978m2 nook where every inch is used. Their property lives and breathes the philosophy of repurpose, refuse, re-use and recycle, from relocating the house, reusing dog poo and everything in between. Hobart Haven has vegetables, a fruit orchard, subtropical plants, weed breakdown systems, worm farms, strategically placed compost, and multiple water collection points. A creative and resourceful couple creating an abundant garden.
Open hours on Sat, Sun
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Farley and the Branch Community work together to maintain their shared terraced gardens. Onsite you'll find composting, a worm farm, chickens, and hear about growing from seed, keeping bees, and edible weeds. Scattered throughout the space is a vibrant collection of community-made artwork, created by volunteers over the years, reflecting the spirit and creativity of those who help it thrive. The community regularly works with woofers and volunteers.
Open hours everyday
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The Marfell māra is a place where whānau, community groups, and local gardeners come together. There's a range of garden beds, composting set-ups, and upcycled features including a pizza oven and kids' play area. Garden produce and the community support the pātaka kai, providing nutritious food for the community. Everyone is welcome anytime, with coordinated sessions on Wed, Fri and Sun from 10am with Dominic Bell.
Open hours on Wed, Fri, Sun
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Stu and Wendy’s 1.6-acre property has an abundance of vegetables, herbs, berries, citrus and ingredients for their homemade wines. Along with re-purposing to reduce waste and live sustainably, they integrate chicken and sheep waste, bokashi, composting, worm farm, make biochar and liquid fertilisers to feed their ‘no-dig’ garden beds, polytunnels and berry cage.
Open hours Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
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Martina and Donald’s 2 hectare property is based on organic principles. Explore raised garden beds, established trees for firewood, a terraced espalier orchard, and commercial herb field. Learn about mulch, composting and natural fertilisers, bees and more.
Open hours everyday
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Cat tends an organic, off-the-grid bush dominant property high in the Pouākai Ranges. A naturopath and herbalist, Cat has created a low-maintenance medicine garden showcasing 90 plus medicinal species. Common, culinary, native, western and eastern, each species is labelled to share some of its story and therapeutics to inspire you to grow and use your own green medicine.
Open hours Tue, Sat, Sun
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Alex and Shona's 10-acre property began as an empty paddock on an exposed ridge at 500m elevation. Their high altitude haven features developing food forest, fruit trees, an upcycled trampoline turned berry cage as well as riparian and shelter planting. Walk through their low maintenance greenhouse, with self watering and temperature controlled systems using integrated passive permaculture design. You'll also see Orpington and red shaver chickens are on the move in the DIY chicken tractor.
Open hours Tue, Sat, Sun
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Join the students for a tour around their māra including a bottle greenhouse and propagation table where they grow natives for riparian planting in the community, the shared food forest and regenerating bush area. They will have a sale table with herbs, teas, crafts, veggie and native seedlings.
Open hours Tue, Sat, Sun
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Join hosts John and Diana at Northpoint Community Garden, located at the end of the church carpark. The garden showcases a variety of vegetables, citrus, stone fruit, vines, nuts and herbs. See uses for pallets, and ideas for collecting rainwater and garden storage. Learn about the Kōia Green Prescription, participate in kids' activities or join in the gardening sessions 9am-12pm on Saturdays.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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Jo-anne and Allan's 5 hectare self-sufficient property has extensive vegetable gardens, orchards, heritage chickens and livestock. Heritage plants are left to self-seed and provide for next season. Throughout is a reuse first philosophy—homemade tumble compost bins, a glasshouse from windows, and climbing frames and shelving from pallet wood. Check out techniques for preserving produce too.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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Peter and Bronwyn have spent nearly two years transforming their two-acre property into an organised, visually pleasing sustainable backyard. A potager-style garden surrounds the chicken coop, the garden’s centrepiece, flowing into a food forest and orchard. Guided by maramataka and permaculture principles, they built everything themselves, incorporating existing fruit trees and ensuring all new plantings are edible. Their space features diverse gardens—including vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers, nuts, subtropicals, and a hothouse—with plans to expand further.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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Peter and Cathy's vision is the implementation of permaculture principles and sustainability in a compact 300m2 urban backyard garden. Applying space saving techniques from their 10 years in Japan, they’ve developed an incredibly productive and efficient garden. Hot compost, espaliered fruit trees, raised-beds, quail for meat and eggs, beekeeping, greenhouse, hothouse, a dedicated berry garden, herb garden, solar power, water collection, recycled materials, and lots of enthusiasm.
Open hours Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
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Kate and Finn started their ever-evolving labour of love five years ago. Māra Kai combines food production and sustainability while maintaining visual aesthetics. Explore their kitchen garden, cut-flower patch, food forest, tropicals, and greenhouse. Understand the benefits of rain-water catchment, chickens, worm farms and multiple compost bins. The property hopes to show other young families what can be achieved on an urban section.
Open hours Sat, Sun
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The St John's Community Garden is run by Waitara Foodbank Pātaka Kai and is a recycle and reuse focused māra. The garden is run with the philosophy of connection through people, education and whenua rather than the produce itself. Swing by for a cuppa and to take part in daily activities run by Amy and the team.
Open hours everyday
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Pounamu and whānau will show you around Te Rau o Rongo, a 5-acre Māori food farm whose kaupapa is all about the multiple ways to heal. Te Rau o Rongo upholds the principles of Hua Parakore and is an educational space for empowering whānau to grow kai. Abundant and self-sufficient, the property features vegetable and herb gardens, a tunnel house, fruit orchard, berry house, rainwater collection systems, a native tree nursery, an onsite apothecary, and is home to both hens and sheep.
Open hours Sat, Sun
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Bena and Daniel have transformed their 10 acres of once bare eroded pasture into a regenerative and permaculture oasis. Their property has numerous sustainable features including food forests, wicking beds, chook carbon yard, Peking ducks, Wiltshire sheep, swales and more.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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Lisa and Tom have created an oasis of permaculture goodness on their 3.5 acre property in Tataraimaka. Take a stroll through the food forest, veggie patch and tea garden and watch the Kererū swoop through native bush and rewilded areas. Parking is limited, so please consider carpooling.
Open hours Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
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Alicia and Rowland's Ōkato paradise adopts the use of agroforestry technology to grow food plants like a forest, where the plants and trees protect each other from the wind and drought. Their gardens provide vegetables, cut flowers, and herbs for cooking, teas and medicine. The property homes a number of animals including brown shavers, Wiltshire-Romney sheep, bantams and a few heritage breeds, Jersey-Angus cows, and Pekin ducks. Learn more about the many ways they optimise the natural resources to create nourishing compost and living mulch to promote growth.
Open hours Sat, Sun
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Join Green School's student ambassadors for a guided tour and experience sustainability in action. Explore the iconic Troppo House – a space to learn surrounded by produce and our stunning māra/gardens, bursting with life. This is your chance to witness how our learners live and breathe sustainability every day and share in their passion for creating a better future. Come curious, leave inspired.
Open hours Sat, Sun
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Students and parent volunteers have transformed a previously barren area into a dynamic food forest consisting of 22 large fruiting trees, veggies beds, support plants, chickens and much more. The orchard project was implemented by the children, staff, and community in 2017 and more recently tamariki have learnt about cultural tikanga for seed collection and cultivation.
Open hours Fri, Sat
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Gwenda's backyard features a small urban section sloping down to a creek surrounded by trees and the beginnings of a food forest. She has a greenhouse, water collection, composting and permaculture beds to feed her veggie gardens, fruit trees, berries, pollinator plants, and shrubs. She keeps chickens, as well as a collection of critters in the lizard lounge and bug hotel.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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The Stratford Community Childcare Centre (SC Childcare) is developing cute and talented green thumbs in their own backyard. Their little ones are learning where food comes from, growing cycles, upcycling, and being kind to the environment. See their veggie and flower gardens, tunnel house and worm farm - talk with educators to pick up and share ideas about gardening with young ones.
Open hours Saturday 1 and 8 November, 1-4pm
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Join Avon's senior Enviro-Ambassadors as they take you on a tour of their journey so far. Visit the māra inside a re-purposed swimming pool, orchard, native tree area, and plans for the wetlands. Missed their Thursday workshops? Students can pass on what they learnt!
Open hours Fri
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Levina runs 1/8 acre of market gardens on 3.6 acres of farmland, once owned by Lieutenant Colonel Malone. The gardens follow permaculture principles and provide spray free, organically grown vegetables to local markets. You’ll find hot and cold composts, no-dig gardens with companion planting, chickens, sheep, and solar running the wash and pack room. A great property to hear about clay soil and compaction, natural weed, pest and disease control.
Open hours Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun
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Nell is a medical herbalist, whose brimming organic garden is set on a small rural property. It combines edible crops and weeds while navigating seasonal extremes. Nell loves to share her knowledge of plants and the constantly changing landscape.
Open hours Mon, Tues, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
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Jacqui and John welcome in the natural resource of weeds and their ability to indicate soil health into their backyard. With a sloping section and water run off, their urban property has upcycled and reused structures and adopts composting and weed liquification to nutrify their backyard. They grow vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, berry bushes and wild flowers.
Open hours on Fri, Sat, Sun
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Aaron and Melissa have created numerous closed-loop systems on their 3.4-acre property. Upcycling and encouraging wildlife are a big focus. Explore an established food forest and veggie garden on steep terrain, greywater and composting toilet system, root cellar, passively heated rammed tyre glasshouse, and insect farming.
Open hours Fri, Sat, Sun
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Enjoy wandering around this established community garden, a māra with great community connections. Check out their pātaka kai, composting set-up, upcycled features, glasshouse, water collection, and more. Everyone welcome anytime, and they'd love to see you at a community gardening session on the 1st Friday and 2nd Sunday of each month, 1-3pm.
Open everyday, garden sessions Fri, Sun