Welcome to Heroic Gardens,
an Auckland summer garden festival
Co-founded by The Fifth Season and GABA, Heroic Gardens was started as a fund-raiser for Auckland City Mission’s Herne Bay House, a respite and treatment centre for people living with HIV and AIDS. The festival has become an annual event ever since. Over the last eleven years Heroic Gardens Festival has given over $415,000 to two charities who assist those living with or affected by HIV. In the first ten years $375,000 was donated to the Auckland City Mission for this purpose. Herne Bay House has since closed and since 2007 and beyond the organizing committee decide in conjunction with input from the gardeners themselves, who to direct the funds too.
First held in 1997, Heroic Gardens is a yearly event which has become a much enjoyed part of the Auckland summer calendar. It appeals to a broad spectrum of the community and provides an opportunity to see a diverse range of gardens and to meet the garden owners.
As a Summer event, the festival celebrates the subtropical aspect of Auckland’s gardens, its casual relaxed life-style and is a chance to be inspired while supporting a worthwhile cause.
Newsflash...
2009 Dates Released
Heroic Gardens Festival 2009
7 and 8 March 2009
10am to 6pm
This summer’s festival will be the thirteenth and it will showcase gardens from the past (where they are still available) as well as some new ones.
Many of the gardens have featured in magazines and on television and most of the garden owners will be present to talk about the ‘how-and-why’ of what they have achieved.
Cafes, raffles, sculpture and plant sales will again be part of the Festival.
We are delighted to announce that hospice will be the beneficiary charity for Heroic Gardens 2009. Hospice provides care for people living with terminal illnesses and supports their family and friends. Hospice cares for the whole person – their physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in or where you live, hospice care will be free of charge. There are nine hospices serving the greater Auckland community and approximately thirty hospice services nationwide; to find out more about hospice visit www.hospice.org.nz