Rollerson Park Community Garden

A community garden in the heart of Papakura — growing food, friendships, and a quieter kind of resilience since 2014. Come on a Sunday afternoon, get your hands in the soil, and meet the people who keep it alive. No forms. No fees. No prior gardening experience needed.

Show up on Sunday. Get your hands in the soil.

Rollerson Park Community Garden started in 2014 on what was then a barren patch of grass — one of those forgotten reserve areas every neighbourhood has. A handful of locals decided to grow something there. Twelve years on, it’s a living example of what invested neighbours can do with a hidden corner of public land.

What you’ll find here:

  • Raised beds of seasonal vegetables, planted, tended, and harvested by the community
  • All the gardening tools you’ll need, on hand
  • Soil that’s been nurtured year after year through composting and care
  • People from across cultures and generations, growing together

Where we are

44R Rollerson Street, Papakura, Auckland 2110

Open every Sunday afternoon — 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Facebook: facebook.com/rollersonparkcommunitygardens

Community directory listing: cab.org.nz/community-directory/KB00036830

Come on Sunday

The garden is open every Sunday afternoon. Come for an hour or stay the whole afternoon. Bring a sun hat. We’ll provide the tools.

You don’t need to know anything about gardening. We’ll show you. Plant something, weed something, harvest something — and take some produce home with you.

group of school children at garden

How to be part of it

  • Just turn up. Sunday afternoons are open to everyone. No introduction needed.
  • Volunteer regularly. Become a familiar face and help shape what we grow.
  • Bring a school class. We work with Papakura High School’s Horticulture Team and welcome enquiries from other schools.
  • Donate seeds, tools, or time. Practical contributions of any kind go a long way.

Get in touch via our Facebook page to talk about any of these.

For teachers and schools

Rollerson Park is a working classroom as well as a working garden. Our partnership with Papakura High School’s Horticulture Team brings students out of the classroom and into the soil — and what they discover often surprises them.

Students get outside, find wonder in the smallest creatures, and learn first-hand how vegetables are grown and harvested sustainably. They develop skills — composting, seed-saving, working with the seasons — that don’t disappear when the bell rings.

If you’re a teacher at another school and would like to bring a class to the garden, please get in touch.

Why this matters

A community garden is more than the vegetables it produces.

It’s a place where you meet neighbours you’d never have crossed paths with otherwise. Where families share growing traditions across cultures. Where rangatahi discover food doesn’t come from a packet. Where the simple act of slowing down — breathing fresh air, watching a bee at work, noticing water on a leaf — quietly changes how you feel.

It’s also a small but real hedge against uncertainty. The skills you pick up here — growing, sharing, preserving, working with what you have — make households more resourceful and communities more connected. In a world that feels less predictable, that matters.

Pop in and see for yourself what grows in your soul. It could be gardening knowledge, friends, or fitness. You will always gain something — because when you extend your hand to give to others in a community space, you always receive more in return.

Paula Unger

With thanks to

The garden is supported by:

  • Donna Hansen and the Auckland Teaching Gardens Trust — our umbrella organisation and a steady source of practical support
  • Jody Deer and Citycare Property — ongoing community partnership
  • Dominic Lee and the Auckland Council Papakura Local Board — local government backing
  • Papakura High School’s Horticulture Team — turning the garden into a classroom

And above all, the volunteers who show up Sunday after Sunday.