Soil & compost

Good soil is where a garden lives or dies, so we’re starting the beds with quality garden mix and keeping everything spray-free.

The garden mix

The beds are filled with Grandpa’s Garden Mix from Kaipara Landscape Supplies in Dargaville, delivered by the truckload to the Uey. We don’t fill the beds with mix alone — they’re built up in layers, with logs, brush and compost underneath and the garden mix through the top growing zone. Any shortfall is topped up with compost made on site.

Mulch, close to home

Mulch we gather locally rather than truck in. First call is sheep-wool dags from local farms — a slow-release feed that also keeps weeds down. After that, Forest Floor mulch picked up locally, and local woodchip as a fallback. Around the young fruit trees we lay jute mats and bark mulch to hold back the grass, which is the biggest threat to a new tree.

Spray-free, always

The garden is spray-free. The kai grown here is grown without chemical sprays, in soil we’ve built up ourselves — which is the whole point of a stand where children and elders can walk up and take what they need.