Veges on the verge: Alex Hall's prolific vegetable plot on the main highway north of Dannevirke is an absolute traffic stopper

摘要

Alex Hall has a real man's garden. There are no frills or flowers. Vegetables are what it's about and Alex's extensive edible garden -which observant motorists will have spotted beside the highway north of Dannevirke - draws plenty of attention from the passing public. As cars flashed by on the highway, mere metres away, I asked if anyone had ever crashed into the garden. Just once, it turned out, when a teenager in a stolen car tore through a section of hedge and fence posts while trying to elude the police. (Alex went along to the police station shortly afterwards and asked them to pay for the garden repairs. They responded with the teenager's address in Lower Hutt and suggested Alex ask him for payment!) Contact with passers-by is usually much more pleasant. One lady who stopped for a chat followed it up with a letter, addressed simply to "The green cottage with the magnificent vegetable garden just north of Dannevirke, about 1 km, on the left." Of course, the postie knew just where to deliver it.