Supporting communities  |  26 Oct 2021

Summer with your neighbours is all about bringing people together and celebrating the unique mix of each neighbourhood - which for Shirley Poppelwell takes the form of a potato growing competition.

Mrs Poppelwell has organised one of the more unusual activities this summer - a judging of the annual potato growing competition.  

The idea first started about a decade ago and since then residents of her Russley cul-de-sac have made it their summertime meeting occasion.

“We all have the same size buckets that we grow them in and whoever wins has to buy the potatoes for the following year,” says the 77 year old retired accountant.

“The winner gets their house number engraved on the trophy - a potato masher mounted on a block of rimu. We usually get someone not associated with the competition to do the judging. Rest assured we’re all checking!’

Judging is done by weight and there’s no particular variety that's grown says Mrs Poppellwell, it can change from year to year.

She has won the competition once before but the current trophy holder is Dick Jones (pictured above with Mrs Poppelwell).

Over in Linwood it’s not potatoes bringing people together but heritage roses.

The Beverley Park Heritage Rose Garden volunteers will get together in December to prune the rose bushes and afterwards set up trestle tables in the park where neighbours gather for a shared lunch.

Organiser Henrietta Hall says the volunteers and local community have been gathering in the rose garden to share food since it was first planted in 2000.

“It's really lovely. There are lots of people bordering the park and it brings the community together - it’s such a beautiful space.”

Neighbourhood get-togethers have also been organised for little folk.

Richmond locals under the age of five are invited to a Teddy Bears Picnic where they eat homemade teddy bear biscuits and honey sandwiches and are entertained by the Natural Magic Pirates.

Neighbourhood Week was the brainchild of the Shirley-Papanui Community Board back in 1998.

It was extended for the entire summer in 2018 and is now known as ‘Summer with your neighbours.’

Anyone can apply to their Community Board for a subsidy to help host a local gathering. Applications for this summer closed last month and a total of 243 events were approved across the seven Board areas.