Raglan seeds will be scattered around Hawke’s Bay home gardens with the help of Belinda Goodwin, timebank volunteers and Whāingaroa Environment Centre (WEC).
An avid gardener, Belinda has been sharing the fruits and vegetables of her labour through seed saving for many years.
“For the past 17 years I have been sharing seeds from my garden, packaging them up and distributing them at the Whāingaroa Environment Centre.”
A conversation at Crop Swap sparked the idea to send the seeds to Hawke’s Bay gardeners whose home vege patches were devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The seeds will end up at Magic Beans, which is a community initiative for people who like to grow and swap fresh, home grown produce in the Hawke’s Bay.
“Magic Beans is a fantastic organisation that recognises that seed saving is part of the resilience in our community,” she says.
Belinda’s seed saving and sharing efforts are nothing new and, along with Clare Wimmer, she organised the first community seed saving event in January.
“We had eight people on the first day and then 10 people on the second day. It was a fantastic success and we’ve packaged up over 800 packets of seeds and donated them to WEC.”
Belinda knows from experience that the fresher the seed the greater the gardening success and she usually only saves seeds that are one or two years old.
“I’ve realised that I really only want to be sharing the best fresh quality seeds I have, and that is my way of ensuring those seeds are going to grow and people will have success.”
Belinda believes Raglan is in a good position to help out fellow gardeners in Hawke’s Bay, as through community initiatives like Crop Swap, Timebank and the environment centre, people are used to sharing from their abundant crops, their saved seeds and volunteering their time.
“Kindness is inspirational, especially for gardeners who may have lost their seeds in our recent weather events and it brings me a great feeling to know that myself and other gardeners would like to give to them.”
She knows first-hand what the gift of seeds can bring to someone starting out on their gardening journey, or recovering from a loss to their crops.
“When I first moved to Raglan my neighbour came over and gave me vege seeds, and gave me some of the best advice ever. She said come and have a look at what’s growing in my garden and you will see what can grow good in yours.”
The seed saving initiative is a Timebank event – to find out more about Timebank contact timebank@whaingaroa.org.nz.
For non-Timebankers wanting to share their seeds contact Belinda at niawithbelinda@gmail.com or pop down to the Whāingaroa Environment Centre – open Tuesday to Friday, 12-3pm.
Belinda will be sharing her seed saving expertise at the Raglan Horticultural Society meeting on Tuesday, April 18 at 1pm at the Union Church Hall on Stewart Street – all are welcome.
by Janine Jackson
