Many among the gardening fraternity lament the fact that the art of gardening has skipped a couple of generations. Many people in their twenties and thirties seem driven by success in the workplace, not growth in the garden, and technology takes up much of our leisure time. The good news is that community gardens are thriving, drawing in our youngest generation and future gardeners. Let’s hope

Todd and Traci Wheeler of Mangahao Valley, near Pahiatua, are a community-minded couple. After felling a stand of pine trees on their farm last winter and noticing the amount of sunlight the sheltered hollow now received, Todd visualised a vegetable garden.

Lots of sunlight combined with rich, black, fertile soil from an old effluent pond was a sure recipe for success. Todd and Traci fenced off a quarter-acre and named the garden Vince’s Veges in honour of the late Vince O’Brien, the farm’s previous owner and a close family friend.

Soon realising the massive vege patch would provide more than enough crops to feed their family of four, they invited their extended family to join in. By the end of September, the patch had been cleared of its waist-high weeds and a drain dug to channel away excess water. The ground was ready for planting. Traci recalls, “There was a great sense of excitement as the garden began to take shape.”

Peas, potatoes, carrots and beans were planted specifically to harvest on Christmas Eve. Dozens of seedlings planted in paper pots over winter were also ready for spring planting. But it was the tomatoes that caused the greatest stir. While adding tomato planting mix to their beds, they read on the packet about Tui’s Great New Zealand Grow Off competition and decided to enter. Says Traci, “This really added to the excitement and purpose of the garden.”

Success has certainly been sweet for the family. The summer harvests became so bountiful, the family have been selling $10 mixed produce trays to other local farmers and supplying a local café with veges. They also set up an honesty box for vege trays in a local bank. Traci muses, “We’ll soon be feeding the extended family for free!”

A combined breakfast was organized so the whole family could listen to the announcement of the contest winners on the radio together. When their garden didn’t seem to be featuring, they all got on with cooking the meal. Then Traci heard the final announcement: “And the winner is Vince’s Veges!" She remembers it as “an emotional moment”.

Autumn harvest is practically over now. The pumpkins are hardening off and the winter crops have been planted. A dry hill is being primed with mulch made up of bedding from the calf barns and waste from farm silage pits, in which to grow next years crop of zucchini and pumpkins. Traci has just received the new garden shed the family won and is as busy as ever in the garden, accompanied by her number-one weeder, Todd’s mum Pauline. Traci smiles, “Vince would be proud.”