Healthy soil, healthy kai and happy people

Soil genius Luke Baker and the team at Growing Point have partnered with Te Hōnonga a Iwi to bring their expertise to Rosedale Park.

Growing Point came about from a shared passion for community, kai, mātauranga Māori and regenerative growing. Luke says working with Te Hōno was a natural fit because of the shared interest and excitement shown by project coordinator Nicky Shave at how the land could be revegetated.

“It felt like a great opportunity to see values around soil health put to the test (and working really well!). We especially loved the kaupapa around rangatahi leadership and making sure that they had the skills to check in with soil health over time, making it much more accessible. We're passionate about making the unseen world of soil visible, so coming on board as the "soil nerds" was a natural fit.”

Growing Point was born at Dignan Street Community Garden after seeing how powerful a living, microbe-rich soil or compost can be in creating abundance, says Luke.

“Our māra has gone from a weedy, poorly-drained ex-bowling green to an oasis of kai and biodiversity with a real sense of mauri.”

After learning through “hand-in-soil-experience” along with studying composting, soil biology and microscopy with world-renowned soil microbiologist Dr Elaine Ingham, the team at Growing Point now comes from a range of different backgrounds all united through a love of “healthy soil, healthy kai and happy people.”

Growing Point is helping us at Te Hōno learn how to take soil quality assessments to ensure we are setting up our planting for the best chance of success.

As Luke says, healthy soil is the foundation for everything, and if it is kept in good condition nature can take care of itself.

“It still blows our mind that plants don't actually need us to 'fertilise' them, that they're capable of partnering with microbes and doing it themselves as they've done for millions of years!”

Not only that, but there are also things you can do to improve your soil health at home. These include making compost out of garden waste and food scraps, growing cover crop every few seasons, and “chop and drop” non-seeding weeds and spent plants in the right place, says Luke.

“These practices, along with occasionally adding some living compost, allow the soil ecosystem to thrive and feed your plants for you, which is much cheaper too!”