For nearly forty years, Havelock North gardener John Timpson has been lovingly tending his quarter-acre section growing fruit, vegetables, flowers and trees alongside each other and practicing companion planting, shading, composting and non-chemical solutions to any issues such as bugs.
Today 39 Breadalbane Road is an exemplar of urban sustainable living – it is a beautifully crafted garden bursting with every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable. Trees such as varieties of avocados, feijoas, hazelnuts, plum, peach, walnut and olives have been creatively pruned to provide shade as well as fruit. Sheep’s wool mulches ground crops like asparagus and strawberries while roses, hydrangeas marigolds, bougainvillea, white kaka beak, gladioli and much more give the garden colour and diversity.
But now that John is getting older and has no children, he wants to develop the garden into an education and community facility that will go on in perpetuity as an asset for the local community.
“We have to green the planet and green urban areas,” he says, “and that’s why I want to set this up so when I am gone, it is used for something useful.”
John has already established Breadalbane Eco Trust, has support from the Guthrie Smith Trust and is working to get the Breadalbane Eco Trust registered.
Crucially, he has also been able to enlist the support of researchers at Waikato University. In a paper published in 2020 looking at the plan to promote sustainable living at Breadalbane Road, researchers Katherine Edwards and Dr Silvia Serrao-Nuemann confirmed that the property “is as an exemplar of how a typical quarter acre residential property within an urban area can be sustainable, or at the very least, how gardens can be best utilized to grow and produce year-round crops.”
The Waikato researchers went on to suggest that the unique nature of the Breadalbane project means it could create a space where community members, educational groups or keen enthusiasts can get together and learn about sustainable living practices, food connections or gardening techniques.
“Simultaneously, this project would promote education, recreation, wellbeing and outdoor activities to the people of the local Havelock North community.”
The paper went on to say that “sharing produce, resources and skills between individuals will reduce reliance on external resources and imported goods … Collectively, this has the potential to reform the local area and extend sustainable practices beyond the boundaries of 39 Breadalbane Road.”
John, a former officer in the NZ Army, studied Economics at Canterbury University and has taught Economics in local HB schools. He grew up on the land at Hawkins near Darfield in the South Island and says he has always been grounded in the land and understood its importance as a place of nurture for our mental and physical health. Now he says his “humble, ordinary suburban garden” is his happy place and he wants to share it with others.
Breadalbane Eco Garden is still a work in process. John is looking for like-minded people who might support, and even add to/enhance his vision, and join the Trust. He has had help from Duart House Trust volunteer gardeners and has a handful of committee members so far. They are working towards getting the Trust registered and some “capital works” on the property completed. Open days are planned, possibly the first one sometime in March. BayBuzz will keep you updated.
In the meantime, for anyone interested to know more, contact John Timpson at john@timpson.nz or 877 6678.
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air