What is it?
Vegetables such as celery (pictured), silverbeet and curly kale, being grown in window boxes in the old National Bank building on Princes St, Dunedin.
How unlikely is that?
Perhaps best measured in bed nights.
Once, when curly kale was in the boxes, a visiting Scotsman reported staying an extra night at a nearby hotel because he so enjoyed looking at the bushy brassica, which he had not seen for years.
(Scots have long been fond of kale: "kaleyard", or "kailyard" is a traditional word for kitchen garden)
Also, in general, the vegetables' likelihood is decreased by the fact they get nicked from time to time.
Seventeen silverbeet plants in 2008 went Awol, but surprisingly just one this year.
The celery, because of its root system, has proved harder to remove and has never been a victim of wee-small-hours abduction.
So how did it get there?
The vegetables are personally tended and harvested by the landlord of the building, Octa Associates managing director William Cockerill (the source of the above information).
The idea behind planting anything in window boxes at the site was "to indicate to the citizens of Dunedin that somebody loves and cares for this old heritage building", Mr Cockerill said.
He began planting vegetables "that grew upwards" because they could be easily seen from the footpath and from across the street, and he chose varieties that could be cultivated in the winter, when flowering plants were dull.
When was it spotted?
The window boxes have been in use since 1999.
Is it still there?
There's always something growing in these window boxes, although the plants are "seasonally adjusted".
You're more likely to spot veges in winter.
