Community managed planter boxes bloom in the Courtenay precinct

When developing our Courtenay Place Precinct Plan, we heard that Wellingtonians wanted the area to be a high quality and well managed public space, that meets the needs of residents and visitors.

These needs included more greenery, and the opportunity for the community to have ownership over the space. 

So, when Council had spare planter boxes from our other urban design projects, we turned to the Inner-City Wellington Residents Association to ask if they wanted space and resources for a community gardening effort.

“The inner-city community is amazing” says Central City Manager Prak Sritharan, “together we’ve been able set up this great public space, which ICW will maintain as a group.”

Jill Wilson, ICW committee member, says the residents’ association jumped at the chance to put planter boxes around Courtenay precinct. The group reached out to their community for garden volunteers to keep the space beautiful, but say to contact them if you're interested in contributing to the initiative.

“It’s a great initiative for everybody, especially as a lot of our volunteers live in inner-city apartments and don’t have gardens of their own,” says Jill. 

The owners of the Exchange building, which connects Blair and Allen Street, offered up space to ICW to store their gardening equipment and refill their watering cans.

Extending the community aspect of the project, Jill and ICW also reached out to the Tory Street Bunnings team for a community activities grant to get more plants and gardening supplies.

“We’re super grateful to Bunnings for donating their funds and time to this project,” says Jill.

"We had some beautiful plants donated from Council's Berhampore nursery, but we were also able to get additional flowers and plants with our grant.”

A mighty team made up of folks from ICW, Council, local businesses and Bunnings came together to plant over 100 plants. The areas also have picnic tables donated by the NZ Fringe Festival, so that people spending time around Courtenay Place have a space to socialise in the sun and enjoy some kai from the nearby businesses. 

Jill notes that she’s excited to see how the space flourishes over time.

“It’s going to be a great community space, especially as we started seeing people sitting at the tables in the sunshine before the plants had even gone in!”

These planters are just one way that we're working with businesses and residents to make Courtenay Place a destination for everyone.

We’ve been funding businesses to run a series of entertainment activations in the Courtenay precinct, including street performances and food festivals. We’ve also implemented a new cleaning schedule and have installed temporary lighting to keep the space well-lit, clean, and ready for people to celebrate, socialise and have fun in the area. 

This short term mahi precedes Council’s work towards making the area safer, better looking, and a more comfortable and fun place through the Golden Mile project.