Community garden · photographed 20 and 21 September

What's growing now

Spring has arrived in the beds: the calendulas are out, the peas are climbing, and the winter greens are at their best.

The community garden in spring: a raised timber bed full of yellow calendulas under bamboo trellises, with the garden's round blue sign behind — The back bed, calendulas in full flower.

In the beds this week

Calendula. In full flower across the back bed. The bees are on it all morning.
Silverbeet. Big and glossy. Ready to pick a few outer leaves at a time.
Kale. Both the curly kind and the dark Tuscan kind, going well.
Spring onions. A dense row in the middle bed, ready.
Lettuce and parsley. Front of the main bed, in the label row.
Peas. Climbing the bamboo trellis at the back, in flower.
Nasturtiums. Spilling out of the corner by the sign, orange and red.
Citrus. Young trees in big pots along the back fence, netted against the possums. A lemon and a lime by the look of the leaves.

Identified from the photos; corrections welcome.

The main bed straight on: silverbeet, kale and spring onions with hand-written plant labels, calendulas behind — The main bed. Labels left to right: silverbeet, kale, spring onion.

Round the beds

Raised timber beds full of silverbeet, kale and lettuce under bamboo trellises — The greens bed: silverbeet, kale and lettuce doing well.

Peas climbing a bamboo trellis in a raised bed, the round garden sign on the fence behind — Peas on the bamboo, the garden sign behind.

A tangle of nasturtiums with orange flowers against a dark fence — Nasturtiums in the corner. Edible, and the bees like them.

A young citrus tree in a large black pot against a timber fence, with a wire guard — One of the young citrus trees along the fence.

A raised bed edged with yellow and orange calendulas, herbs and spring onions in the middle — Calendulas round the edge of the herb bed.

About the garden

Wairoa Community Garden is run by Rosie McDonell and built by locals with the support of Waverley Council: vegetables, flowers and fruit in wicking beds, compost fed by local cafés, and regular working bees. To join, the sign on the fence says to email wairoagarden@gmail.com; council's Second Nature page has the story.