Bringing joy and inspiration with our garden beds

For Martin Simonlehner, our Horticulture Team Manager, “Wellington’s flower beds are all about planting beautiful plants and bright vegetables and herbs, to bring colour into our city, and joy to people walking by."

Large pile of colourful picked silverbeet with gardeners in the background working hard.

This week it was time to take the herbs and vegetables planted outside Wellington Station out and share them with the community. Our fantastic gardeners spent Wednesday (20 October) morning removing the silverbeet and parsley from the garden beds outside and preparing the area for new plants in the coming weeks.

“There is a bit of work to be done now to prepare the soil for the new plants. We plant vegetables outside Wellington Station for crop rotation and due to the shadow of the railway building during winter. For the summer, we’ll be bringing in colourful flowers to blossom in the sun.”

Our Horticulture Team Manager, Martin, smiling with a bunch of parsley in his hand.

Our Horticulture Team have been planting a variety of herbs and vegetables across our city for a number of years now, to inspire Wellingtonians to create and grow their own vegetable gardens at home.

“Creating your own vegetable garden or planting fresh flowers at home is easy to do. It may take time to nurture and grow, but the benefits at the end are worth it.”

Group of gardeners smiling with their thumbs up whilst picking the parsley and silverbeet from the garden beds.

We all know that the wind isn’t our garden’s best friend, but there are some things you can plant that will survive the wind here in Wellington. “Herbs are the best plant to start with. Silverbeet, parsley, kale, marjoram, thyme, sorrel, and garlic chives are also great options for your garden.”

To ensure that your herbs grow successfully, make sure that they are grouped together and have a good source of sunshine.

Collection of silverbeet still in the soil growing vibrantly with gardeners working in the background.

This Friday (22 October), our gardeners were out on Lambton Quay planting new impatiens (also known as Busy Lizzie) to liven up the busy strip.

“Our goal is to brighten up our city and our streets, whilst inspiring Wellingtonians with what they can do in their own backyards."

Group of gardeners on Lambton Quay smiling at the camera whilst planting new impatiens (flowers).

“We’re also getting the flower beds outside Michael Fowler Centre on Wakefield Street ready. We’ll be putting in an ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket design this month - it may take a few weeks for the design to show, but it’ll stand out.

“As pretty as they are, we do ask that you do not pick any of the flower displays as they bloom. We want to make sure they survive in their location, whilst ensuring that the rest of Wellington and our visitors can enjoy the displays.”

When the flowers are ready to be removed by early April 2022, people will be able to come and take some. All remaining flowers will go to the southern landfill and turned into compost, then back on our gardens.

Image of silverbeet and parsley and brick at the Railway Station

27 May 2021

Why on earth are we growing herbs and vegetables?

Wellington City Council is proud of its beautiful flower beds and plants on display around Pōneke – but why on earth do some of these include parsley ...