
We had our very first meeting in May 2012, at the Three Kings Tennis Pavillion on quite a cold dark night, and about 12 hardy souls braved the weather and the uncertainty of what precisely was this Garden Web thing? We worked out where we were all from, where we spent our time, where gardens were or could be set-up, and what people wanted to do next. There were two things to do; 1. set-up some basic communication stuff (a Facebook page, email loop, postal list for those not online) and 2. line up a garden visit for our next get-together.

The impact this has had from my perspective has been both small and large. It has been about helping people to help themselves, helping them to connect with each other and resources, and generally being a source of encouragement and enthusiasm for their really quite wonderful voluntary work gardening with others.
A few stories then, to illustrate the purpose and outcomes of the Web:
B came along to our first visit, to the CCS Disability Action garden in Royal Oak, and there she met Richard from Gardens4Health. Richard put her in touch with his colleague Homer who helped the garden B coordinates, on some wasteland in a light industrial area, set-up a compost system. Composting is one of the four key principles of the Yokoshi style of gardening, so was essential to get them really growing. The Yoko garden then hosted a later Web get-together, and proudly showed off their new compost bins!

A community garden group was struggling after losing their coordinator, and the agency near the land wanted to help to get it going again. Through the Web I was able to get a story in the local paper about their need, with a great photo of the garden itself, and as a result several volunteers came forward; one to offer to coordinate it, and another to line up a special needs unit at a nearby school to come along on a weekly basis and work in the garden. The coordinator works out what needs doing every week and leaves a list for the children who carry it all out, and have now experienced growing their own seedlings for planting into the garden.
There are many other stories too, and hopefully many more to come. You can watch a short (8 minute) clip of me talking about the Puketapapa Garden Web at the Thriving Neighbourhoods Summit in May 2013.