The original idea was for the nursery to survive on the generosity of donations and volunteer labour. Soon it was conceded that a sale of a portion of the plants grown was the most effective and sustainable means of financial support.
Tim Jenkins was on student radio in 1990, talking about the importance of trees for the environment. At the end of his talk he invited anyone who was interested in helping make tree planting in Canterbury more possible to contact him.
The solution was conceived – to create small nurseries that could supply community groups and organisations with the trees that they required. The main initial sites of the Trees For Canterbury project were volunteers back yards (the first nursery sites). Back yard nurseries were set up in various other places around Christchurch and eventually all this was focussed on the site in Opawa Road. It has now moved into larger premises at 42 Charlesworth St.
From the start there was a strong trust (The Green Effect Trust) with people of widely varying experience and expertise to spearhead the cause of Trees For Canterbury. What made the difference between a good idea and a successfully accomplished good idea was the commitment of people working at Trees For Canterbury. These people were mostly on employment work schemes at first, and community support in general – seeing to it that Trees For Canterbury grew from a small operation in back yards to the fully operational nursery that it is today. In 1992, (April 1st) Steve Bush was employed full time to undertake the day to day management of the Nursery and the projects undertaken. Steve has continued in his role to the present time and has taken the nursery from a small community project focussed solely on tree planting to the successful community project it is today. His commitment to our project has assisted Trees for Canterbury to continue to focus on its aims of:
- Employ; establishing a sense of involvement in the community for disadvantaged people (physically, intellectually and long term unemployed) and providing an environment of acceptance as well as support and training for self-development – instilling self-esteem and work habit.
- Educate; working with educational institutions, providing assistance in the teaching of environmental awareness.
- Regenerate; cultivating native plants for community planting’s and our own revegetation projects using plant material eco-sourced from local areas.
The original idea was for the nursery to survive on the generosity of donations and volunteer labour. Soon it was conceded that a sale of a portion of the plants grown was the most effective and sustainable means of financial support.
Our Charlesworth St nursery now provides services for 80-100 clients (nearly 2500 people have gained some form of training or community involvement) and also produces in excess of 150,000 native plants each year. On average, 45000 of these plants are planted and or donated into the community each year. These figures will grow as we become more settled into our premises. We have three full time and three part time staff. To date over 1,100,000 native plants have been donated or planted by Trees for Canterbury. This converts to over 100 hectares of native plants. Another 2,000,000 have been obtained through the nursery for other projects and the public.
One of the interesting features of Trees For Canterbury has been the use of recycled materials. This has included old greenhouses, hessian pretending to be shade cloth – all features of a shoestring budget in combination with a recycling ethic. The fully professional nursery facilities now present disguise this past somewhat. The use of recycled articles including cleaned old planter bags, plant pots, two litre soft drink bottles and re-used root trainers, led to the conclusion that the 1 litre milk carton was just right for the vast bulk of Trees For Canterbury’s production needs. The milk carton allowed good, healthy vigorous root growth, encouraging roots down more than around to achieve a more drought resistant seedling. The square shape also helped with space economy. Nowadays, many of the sale plants are grown on in planter bags to satisfy expectations and to allow larger grades of plants to be sold.
We have developed our own carbon calculator as a simple tool for small business’ and individuals to calculate their current footprint. People will be able to decide to either do nothing or donate money towards plantings on reserve land. This helps with biodiversity and also carbon offsetting.
Trees for Canterbury is strongly linked to the local community, providing environmental education, providing trees and undertaking planting’s with community organisations and schools throughout Canterbury.
If you would like more information regarding our project please contact Trees for Canterbury .
