Gardening comes to fruition for intellectually disabled

Gardening comes to fruition for people with intellectual disabilities

A gardening group of people with intellectual disabilities is making the most of Porirua’s old hospital bowling club.

The garden, known as Te Maara, is tended by a group of intellectual disability service clients who live on-site at Capital & Coast DHB’s Ratonga-rua-o-Porirua mental health campus.

Members grow the produce, harvest it, and prepare the meals with assistance from staff. Produce is grown year round according to season and each month they sell wheelbarrow loads of fruit and vegetables on-site, with the money collected going toward group outings.

Support worker John-Paul (JP) Magill says the clients “love working with tools and doing the lawns, but the hardest thing is getting them to weed”.

The group runs the garden as organically as possible, with planter boxes built out of reclaimed pallets. Eggs are also collected from chickens donated by the local community.

“Everything is trial and error – we’ll do brassicas, things like broccoli and cauliflower in winter, along with onions and potatoes, and things that like the heat in summer like carrots, chillies, capsicums, and aubergines.”

He says the group is focussed and has pride in their work because they can see the results growing in front of them.

Te Korowai Whariki operations manager Rosanne Johnson says Te Maara is about giving clients a purpose to what they are doing.

“We’re teaching them to cook for themselves and for each other but it’s also about promoting healthy eating. It has taken us years to get some clients to eat green vegetables.”

Te Maara also provides opportunities for clients to develop skills that will assist them to live as independently as possible in the community.

Most of the clients have since gained NZQA Level 1 qualifications in Horticulture from Whitireia Polytechnic, she says.

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