A Rocha’s Wellington Local Group was invited to plant a hebe area at Kopua Monastery (near Dannevirke) this year, over Matariki weekend (June 20-22). The planting area surrounds the Hermitage, a tiny house for spending time quietly with God. The hebe area will provide great habitat for butterflies, native pollinators and lizards; and will also be beautiful for any guest at the Hermitage to look at, aiding in their meditation.

Richard Rhoades from A Rocha’s Waiu wetland team led the planting group. The volunteers stayed at the Monastery Guesthouse, which was warm and comfortable; and all meals were also provided. The time spent at the Monastery was a great blessing spiritually, as well as rewarding from a creation-care viewpoint.

The weekend planting went well. The six volunteers from A Rocha’s Wellington local group were joined on Friday by Stephen from A Rocha’s Manawatu local group, and Paul. Paul is a PhD horticulture student from Cameroon whom the group met last June, and who brought the plants.

Friday morning was windy but fine and the volunteers planted hebes around the Hermitage, and then released last year’s plants. Some totara were planted nearby along St Benedict’s Way in designated spots. On Friday afternoon, about 300 Karamu were planted in the area between Kopua Road and the Manawatu River. Saturday morning was fine and still, and more Karamu were planted in the same Kopua Road area. The volunteers then went down to the sloping grassed area near the fruit trees and planted more Karamu. The heavy grass and stones on the slope made this planting more difficult.

The first set of photos below are at the Hermitage site – first the team in the chill of the early morning, and then the Hebes settled into their growing site.