Ruowan Cheng, 4, of Dunedin, plays in the ball pit during the Garden Ōtepoti Dunedin family picnic day at the Dunedin Botanic Garden on Labour Day.

The free day of children’s entertainment, stalls and garden activities was the culmination of the first GO Dunedin Bloom Spring Garden Festival, which took place from October 1 to 26.

From open gardens to “hands-in-the-soil” workshops, a wide range of events ran throughout the month celebrating the wonder and wellbeing of getting dirt under your fingernails and enjoying the great outdoors. The festival was the first of four seasonal events planned under the umbrella of GO (Garden Ōtepoti), a year-round, not-for-profit celebration of Ōtepoti Dunedin’s gardens across the four seasons of the South, founded by Clinton Chambers. The next festival, GO Autumn: Harvest, will focus on food resilience and is anticipated to run from March to May next year.