Gardening The City

The City Centre Gardening Network

Imagine, for a moment, our city alive. Not just a drab concrete-jungle of cars and glass windows but a beautiful green patchwork connecting communities to nature and providing sanctuary for wildlife. It may be an impossible dream but for every person who’s willing to believe, we are one step closer to making our city a better place. Āiotanga Trust hopes to support and uplift the amazing work already being done by communities and organisations across the city by facilitating the City Centre Gardening Network.

The City Centre Gardening Network weaves together to share ideas, resources and knowledge. Working with gardens and green spaces across the city to run weeding and planting workshops, working bees. Including the UoA Bee Sanctuary, Emily Place Reserve, apartment balconies and more.

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Why is This Important?

This matters because it’s more than just gardening. This is true climate action and sustainability in practice. It’s a reminder of what can grow when a community decides to nurture something together. Where strangers become collaborators, where food is shared freely, and where everyone has a chance to leave a small mark of care on the world. Together we can heal our natural environment and build a resilient, vibrant city where people, place, and planet can flourish.

Get Involved

It is you, the local residents, volunteers, students, organisations who make this happen. We are here to learn, grow and inspire each other. Have you got an idea or resource you would like to share? Want to get involved but don’t know where to start? Contact us to find out more!

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We have 4 main threads of action

Organic Growing

Sustainable food supply
Growing healthy fruits and vegetables
Learning life skills
Engaging with nature
Pollinator friendly gardens

Regeneration

Promoting biodiversity
Honouring natural and Maori history
Native restoration
Encouraging native birds
Controlling pest plants and animals

Composting

Recycling food scraps from city centre residents
Reducing green waste to landfill
Creating nutritious soil for the garden
Developing a circular economy

Placemaking

Getting to know your neighbours
Making the city beautiful
Creating safer communities
Connecting with your environment

Meet the Gardens

Daldy St

This community garden sits on the corner of Daldy St and Pakenham St W, in Wynyard Quarter. It’s a shared space where neighbours can tend to their very own garden bed, raise seedlings in the glass house, and nourish the soil through compost bays and worm farms. Supported by Auckland Council, this garden is holding green space until further land developments take place.

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Myers Park Cottage 20 Scotia Place

A fresh concept is taking root at Myers Park Cottage, a community hub for the neighbourhood. Tucked behind the old caretaker’s cottage, the garden offers a calm, welcoming space where locals can come together to plant, share, and learn. With limited land, the focus here is on propagation of seeds and seedlings – people take seedlings home and care for them. Think of this approach as a ‘distributed nursery’. And then when those seedlings can be planted out, they come back to Myers Park and are shared across the motu. At the same time, our enclosed garden is planted with healthy vegetables and culinary herbs to help supply fresh produce to Merge Cafe, the community cafe on Karangahape Road providing affordable healthy kai for all.

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St Andrew’s 2 Symonds Street

A quaint little garden sits behind the St Andrew’s church carpark near the University of Auckland music building. The garden consists of 9 raised wooden planter boxes for growing seasonable vegetables and a couple cold compost boxes. This garden is taking a little hiatus while construction work is underway in the university grounds nearby.

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St Matthew-in-the-city 132 Hobson Street

Sitting proudly on the corner of Wellesley St and Federal St, just behind the St Matthew-in-the-city church. Pick your own seasonal vegetables or listen to the tui as they sing to the city from high up in the pohutukawa trees. There’s plenty for all to enjoy as you wander through this open style garden. Community compost drop offs available.

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The UoA Bee Sanctuary 17 Eden Crescent

It began with an abandoned plot of land of a demolished building until some inspired students of Auckland University’s Sustainable Future Collective rolled-up their sleeves and envisioned a more beautiful fate. From native plants to fragrant flowers, this space is developing into a city centre pocket forest. Creating a safe haven for wildlife, native birds and bees, and a calm oasis for the students and local residents to enjoy. Community compost drop offs available.

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