The Musselburgh community garden is located in a corner of Musselburgh School, Dunedin. The community garden is a “Heart and Soil” community project where volunteers work in the garden and reap the rewards of fresh produce.

Sue Novell, a member of the Dunedin Vegetable Grower’s Club (DVGC) and leader of the community project shares her wide experience of veggie gardening with both volunteers and the children of Musselburgh School. The community garden provides a close connection between both adults and children within the local community. Rob Taylor, the principal of Musselburgh School, is an enthusiastic supporter of community garden not only as an project to bring about greater community, but also as an educational space for the children in his school.

The Musselburgh Community Garden was originally set up by the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council to enable new migrants in the community to meet each other and learn veggie gardening practices in New Zealand. Participation dropped off over a number of years compounded by the more recent restrictions of Covid-19. The end result were fallow planter boxes  with a few still flourishing fruit trees. 

In early 2023 Lux Selvanesan, president of the Dunedin Multicultrual Council (DMC), contacted the South Dunedin Musselburgh Community Network with a view to reinvigorate the space. Sue Novell (DVGC), Jennie Upton (a facilitator of Enviro Schools), and Dream South D (a community-led development project) answered this call for interest and  invited members of the school community and local volunteers to participate in the project.  The team decided the space would be a combined community and school garden. Children attending the school dug out the beds, volunteers replaced the soil and installed fencing, Mitre 10 donated a shed, and Cook Brothers donated signage.

Members of the community garden meet each other and work together every first and third Saturday of each month from 10,00 am to noon while Enviroschools work with pupils from the school at lunchtime on Mondays and Sue Novell works with the pupils on Wednesdays.

Future plans for the community garden include creating a pataka kai (community pantry), where excess produce from the garden could be made available and plans are underway to extend the garden and plant a food forest.

For more information about the Musselburgh community garden and getting involved, email garden@dmec.org.nz