Richard Main on Community Gardens and what they represent

Published: Aug. 11, 2011, midnight

b"Under this initiative 39 Community gardens and an increasing number of schools are putting in gardens across the Auckland isthmus. Are you a community based organisation, group, Marae, Church, or school wanting to set up an edible garden? You may be eligible for help. The aim of this program is to make growing your own fruit and veggies the normal thing to do. We are starting with community gardens in places like the Marae, schools, churches, public open spaces etc., so people can re-learn how to grow fresh veggies - and enjoy eating cheap organic veggies. From that we hope they will go home and plant a few in their own back-yard. This is where it really has to start, out of our own back yards. People working and sharing alongside each other, find kinship and camaraderie and deepen ones understanding of what it is like to be human and embedded in nature. Community is a solution to global economic problems. When we find ourselves outside our house or the building we work in - away from overhead lights, phones, computers and air conditioning and spending time in the garden, or grounds surrounded by trees and shrubs, we enter another realm. This realm is one that we basically disconnected from when the industrial revolution drew us into cities of brick, concrete and steel. Now a grass roots revolution is again happening in the garden. Richard Main Project Manager Community Gardens across Auckland's Isthmus. http://www.dpt.org.nz/Grdn4health/grdn4health.html"