A Kerikeri tradie turned a car park into an abundant veggie plot
"It's flourishing, it's a really good feeling."
It started as a tiny seed of an idea, but has grown into a flourishing vegetable garden in an unlikely spot - a concrete company car park in Kerikeri.
Now that car park is feeding a bunch of families in need, thanks to the work a local tradie who had to figure out how to turn his company's sealed parking lot into fertile ground, without sacrificing the parks.
Roof Bay of Islands director and new veggie gardener Rick Harper told Checkpoint they found the space in their tar-sealed car park, and now had 40m of garden, with raised garden beds.
Rick Harper and Nike Rosenthal work on the strawberry planter box while Tracy Moore tends to the lettuce, herbs and kale.
Peter de Graaf
After receiving help with the necessary gear from other local businesses, Harper and his crew put some irrigation down, and then planted some potatoes.
They now have nine different breeds of potato, along with tomatoes, silverbeet, leeks and other veg.
"I'm not a gardener," said Harper about his 'little experiment', " I just wanted to do something for the community."
Tracy Moore, Nike Rosenthal and Rick Harper work on a raised planter made from surplus roofing steel.
Peter de Graaf
Harper began giving the vegetables to his fellow workers - "half of the staff, being a roofing company, don't eat veges" - but then realised he had a great opportunity to help people in need.
He connected with local woman Monika Welch, who helps other locals with cooking and other needs.
"So I've just gone to her and said, 'look, we've got all this different stuff, what can I grow?'.
"Then me and the ladies at work Google it, because we don't know what we're doing, and away we went. And it's flourishing, it's a really good feeling.
"We're learning as we go and it just feels good to give."
Harper said he was trying to create a ripple effect with some random acts of kindness.
"If you do something nice and then they've got something and later on that week they can do it for someone."
He said it also just gave him joy to look out at the garden, "and it actually looks really good, too".
"We're working hard in here, in a factory and then we go out with a cup of tea or a coffee, have a bit of a yarn and pull some weeds and make a plan for the next lot, it's a bit of fun.
Rick Harper and Nike Rosenthal make their strawberry planter bird-proof after an overnight avian raid on their first harvest.
Peter de Graaf
"Home time is family time, so having it in the workplace is a really cool thing."
But he said he still faced an uphill battle convincing some of his staff to eat more veg.
"The older lot do, we eat wraps with the fresh lettuce and tomato and capsicum in them. It's really, really good."
