Kai Resilience Co-op: Cultivating Beauty and Sustainable Kai
The Te Puke Coast Lions Garden Ramble 2025 proved that beauty and sustainable food production, or kai resilience, are not mutually exclusive—they are, in fact, complementary. The event, which took place over three rich days, Friday to Sunday, offered the community a window into inspiring gardens, all while raising essential funds for local initiatives. For the Kai Resilience Co-op, this Ramble was a powerful demonstration of the potential for home-scale food security and the artistry of growing.
The gardens on show were diverse, but many exemplified the principles of sustainable, productive growing that we advocate for.
Gardens of Abundance and Resilience
The true heart of the Ramble, from a kai perspective, was the “Artisan’s Potager.” This space transcended the traditional vegetable patch; it was a highly formal, productive kitchen garden laid out with immense precision. Every row was utilised for vibrant, heirloom food production—from deep purple kale and tall scarlet runner beans to the imposing, yet elegant, globe artichokes. Edible plants were deliberately woven with beneficial herbs and cutting flowers, creating a functional ecosystem. The garden was a textbook example of how one can achieve resilience and abundance within a limited space, with the boundary formed by perfectly trained espalier fruit trees standing as a monument to sustainable, compact growing.
Even the purely aesthetic spaces held lessons in resilience. The “Coastal Sanctuary,” for instance, showcased a dedication to native species. This sprawling estate flowed down to the coast, using robust, endemic plants like Pōhutukawa and Manuka in structured plantings. It was a masterclass in creating a beautiful, low-input landscape that thrives in challenging coastal conditions, a principle of using what the land provides.
Finally, “The Tropical Escape” demonstrated how dedicated cultivation and microclimate management can lead to stunning diversity, featuring palms, bromeliads, and exotic flowering plants in a dense, layered environment that spoke to a passion for horticultural experimentation.
Documenting the Vision: The Vector Group’s Role
The entire three-day event was thoroughly documented by the Vector Group Charitable Trust, ensuring the lessons and beauty of these spaces were archived. Our Co-op was part of this effort, working alongside Troppo, Te Puke Digital, Kiwifruit Capital, and Grow Te Puke.
The unified team was on the ground from Friday through Sunday, capturing the gardens and the community engagement with professional photography and videography. This extensive visual record will be invaluable for educating and inspiring future community projects focused on kai resilience, showing people precisely what is possible in their own backyards. We are proud to have contributed to this comprehensive documentation effort, supporting the Lions Club and reinforcing the Co-op’s mission.
For a deep dive into the collaborative documentation project, view the full archive on the Vector Group Charitable Trust website. https://www.vectorgroup.org.nz/community-engagement/a-unified-vision-documenting-the-te-puke-coast-lions-garden-ramble-2025/
