Grow and enjoy delicious fruit, crisp vegetables and tasty herbs in our edible garden city.
Growing food at home is a great way to eat healthy, save money and doesn’t have to take much time or space.
Benefits of growing food at home:
Things to consider when growing at home:
Christchurch has a great climate for growing a wide variety of fruits, nuts, herbs and vegetables. The Food Resilience Network have developed guides on what plant varieties are particularly suited to our local growing conditions. These guides contain delicious, nutritious, disease resistant and hardy varieties suited to Canterbury. Many are heritage varieties that perform well and taste great.
People grow and share fresh, healthy food at community gardens throughout Christchurch. Community gardens are great places to meet people, learn new skills and enjoy food.
Community gardens need many helpers and resources to support their activities and enable them to provide ongoing benefits to communities. If you would like to support, volunteer or donate contact a community garden near you.
This map(external link) provides the locations and contact details for community gardens in Canterbury.
The Council has developed a guide for creating a new community garden [PDF, 192 KB]
Answers to commonly asked questions [PDF, 20 KB] [DOC, 58 KB] about creating a community garden
Key steps to consider:
Growing and collecting food from public places is fun and a great way to enjoy affordable food.
Food foraging is thriving across our edible garden city. Find and collect fruit, nuts, vegetables and medicinal herbs from public places near you.
Please enjoy nature's bounty, leave some for others, take care of yourself and the trees when harvesting.
An Edible Park is Council land, where edible plants are grown, cared for and enjoyed by the community in a way that complements the other uses of the park.
Often fruit or nut trees are dotted around the park, along borders, pathways or in clusters to add diversity and amenities for park users. Plants can be harvested by anyone, but the plants must be cared for over time by the surrounding community.
This is different to a community garden because the land is not formally occupied by a particular community group. It is simply a park that incorporates edible plants in its landscape.
Many parks in Christchurch can become Edible Parks. If you would like to grow and care for edible trees in a Council park near you, contact your local Council community advisor.
Many schools and early child care centres grow edible plants. School gardens provide hands on learning and a source of fresh, healthy and affordable food.
The Edible Canterbury Facebook page(external link) provides more information and locations for school gardens.
Meet artisan food producers, growers, farmers, brewers and bakers at your local weekly farmers market.
If you are aware of other local farmers markets or changes are needed to this information please contact us.
Christchurch aims to be the best edible garden city in the world, where all people have access to healthy, affordable and locally grown food to support healthy and active lifestyles.
The Council is also a founding signatory of the Edible Canterbury Charter, which supports a sustainable local food economy.