An initiative designed to inspire people to grow their own greens is gathering public support for its launch in October.

Veg Babies is the brainchild of Heidi Hughes from the Charitable Trust PiPS – People, Plants, Schools.

PiPS was formed in 2016 by a group of school parents in the Pāpāmoa Beach/Mount Maunganui area, who are passionate about demonstrating to children and their families, the principles of kaitiakitanga: respect and care for the environment and an understanding of how to grow our own food.

The group’s Garden In Schools programme already teaches thousands of children in the Bay of Plenty how to grow food.

“Our kaupapa is to get people gardening with their families at home,” says Heidi. “I’ve been playing around with the idea of a curated box of seasonal seedlings that arrive at your door every month.

“It’ll be available North Island-wide if we can get enough traction from crowdfunding to get it off the ground.”

Testers

The concept has been trialled during the last six months. Heidi says some of the “testers” have never gardened before.

“We got one complete beginner set up with a vegie pod and started sending her deliveries.

“Three months later she asked: ‘What do I do now?’ We’d forgotten that some people simply don’t know to harvest, so her pod was bulging with enough vegies to feed 20 families.

“It was hilarious but also really useful because that’s when I came up with the idea of mentors.”

The mentors are Steve Kirkby and Jill Parsons, who’ve converted their backyard in Arataki into a sustainable garden. They’ll demonstrate how to use the Veg Babies in a 2m by 1m plot.

“They’ll give advice on how to get set up as well as how to plant, harvest and stake,” says Heidi.

“All our members get the same plants; so they’ll be shown what to do with those as well as tips and tricks along the way.”

Steve says: “As a culture, we’ve become less familiar with plants”.

“I think it would be useful to share some of our experiences and learnings in that area. Veg Babies enables ‘little and often gardening’ that works so much better than planting out the whole garden at once.”

“You really develop a relationship with plants, and if you nurture a plant it will nurture you,” says Jill.

“This is a good way to start without getting overwhelmed by a big garden.”

Harvest year-round

Veg Babies is designed for time-poor people who have limited space at home and want to learn how to grow a small harvest year-round.

“You don’t have to think about what you’re getting,” says Heidi.

“Each month you receive one herb; one flower that’s beneficial to insects, plants or has a purpose; a quick turn-around leafy green like lettuce or bok choy; and a long slow grower like cauliflower or broccoli in winter or tomatoes in summer.”

The trust has a crowdfunding campaign online to gather support.

“Those funds will enable us to set up the website and ordering system and put some marketing together so we can launch with confidence,” says Heidi.

“You could also choose to gift a box to a family and we’re working with Foodbank Tauranga so they go to the right people.”

Find the Veg Babies campaign on the PledgeMe website to support the initiative and to order a spring box to start your subscription.