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Spring is here, the leaves are bursting and flowers are blooming all over, as even the briefest of walks around Warkworth is starting to show.
Floral displays in beds, boxes and planters are brightening up the town, whether it’s on berms, in parks or outside businesses.
Who does all the planting and keeps everything looking its best, though?
When it comes to parks, reserves and public areas like outside the information centre, or the flower bed at the Hill Street junction, it’s Rodney Local Board’s parks contractor Green by Nature who keep the grass trimmed and flower beds well stocked.
Many of the town’s business owners or landlords also make an effort to make sure the outside of shops and offices are kept neat and looking smart – witness the brick wall flower beds between Harts Pharmacy and The Photo Store, or the manicured hedges outside our own Mahurangi Matters office.
But a lot of the work to brighten up the town is done by volunteers, individuals or groups who quietly go about trying to improve the streetscape and keep things looking lovely off their own bat and with limited funds.
Take the painted planter benches outside the town hall and along Queen Street – this was an initiative started by Warkworth Lions in 2021, then expanded with business sponsorship into the main street in 2023. Warkworth Men’s Shed made the majority of the benches, with the local ITM, Mitre 10 and Guthrie Bowron supplying materials.
Now they’re established, the boxes are maintained by Tim Chapman, a keen gardener who is hoping to establish a community garden for Warkworth, if and when he can find the right plot of land.
In the meantime, he’s working with another streetscape-improving stalwart, Katie Mitchell from Warkworth Library.
She rescued several former rubbish bins from Warkworth wharf a few years ago and turned them into community herb planters for the library entranceway, as well as establishing a popular gardening group.
Together with library colleagues and a group of keen gardeners, Mitchell is now establishing a mini-community garden and orchard behind the old Masonic Hall.
Four large planter boxes have already been installed and planted, and the team is starting a fundraising push for four smaller boxes in front of them, which could cost up to $3000.
Mitchell says it’s not so much about being “able to feed Warkworth”, as passing on the passion for growing flowers, fruits and veggies.
“It’s all about education, community and getting like-minded people together.”
Another quiet achiever in the ‘Keep Warkworth Looking Lovely’ stakes is Peter Furniss. For the past few years, he has gone out daily, rain or shine, to pick up rubbish around the town.
A familiar sight with his trusty litter-picker and red carrier bags, Furniss not only keeps the streets tidy, he looks after the garden beds around New World, too, removing weeds as well as rubbish.
“I weed the little tussock gardens at New World, pick up branches around Walton Park, and I keep an eye on six units in Auckland Road,” he says.
“I don’t know why I did it, I just started. I meet a lot of people and people give me cups of tea or a glass of water.
“I go all round Warkworth seven days a week, even if it’s raining. And the amount of rubbish is less now.”
However, Furniss says not everywhere is making so much progress.\
“I go once a week to Snells – I go to church and then pick up rubbish – and it’s always messy around the shopping centre, I don’t know why. They don’t clear up the palm leaves, so I put all the branches in a pile,” he says.
