A project six months in the making is now complete, and the Stoke Methodist Church hopes its new garden space will become a gathering place for the wider community.
After receiving several bequests, the church floated the idea of creating a community vegetable garden and transforming the tired-looking area at the front of the property.
“The front area was just horrible looking,” steering group member Wayne Chapman-Munro says.
“There were two old picnic tables that were starting to rot, and it was at an executive meeting we just decided to look at putting in a garden, and I put my hand up and said, ‘Yeah, I can do that’.”
The steering group sought three quotes for the project.
One design featured straight lines and sharp edges, but a proposal from Sherlock Landscaping stood out.
“The feeling that we got from them was that they were really excited at doing something that was for a community,” Barbara Watson says.
Sherlock Landscaping had previously created the garden at the Methodist Church in Richmond, providing an existing connection between the organisations.
The project quickly became a community effort.
New World Stoke funded one of the seats crafted by Menzshed Waimea, while Squires made a donation.
Stoke Companions and the local garden club also offered support.
The contribution is fitting, the group says, as New World staff frequently use the area during meal breaks, precisely the sort of community use the garden was designed to encourage.
Wayne envisages local children throwing a ball around, families enjoying lunch and people simply spending time in the space.
The garden’s paths curve to mimic nature and are wide enough to accommodate walking frames, wheelchairs, and mobility scooters.
The group also paid tribute to former treasurer Don Horne, who took a real interest in the project but died before its completion.
They say Sherlock Landscaping was a pleasure to work with and that every team member took a genuine interest in the overall outcome.
“It was really quite tangible, they were all really interested in how it was going to look,” Rachel Chapman-Munro says.
The plantings are a mix of native and exotics, much like the community they are there to serve.
“It’s our gift to the community. It’s just one way for us to say ‘we care about you’,” Nadia Madill says.
