Experienced viticulturist Mick Palmer teamed up with ABC director Pip Walsh to install an "Easy Veg" garden at the centre last weekend.
Ms Walsh said the garden had been an instant hit with the children and she hopes it will help instill a lifelong appreciation of gardening and good food.
"It's absolutely fantastic and provides a great opportunity for the children to get back to basics and learn about responsibility, caring for their environment and healthy eating," she said.
"Mick was great with them. He spent ages answering all their questions and showing them how to care for the garden - we couldn't tear the children away."
The garden has been so popular the centre had to set up a water roster.
"I can see it's going to be a great summer project for them," Ms Walsh said.
It is not just children who get a buzz from growing things, Mr Palmer said. Adults facing rising living costs would appreciate the savings they could make by growing their own vegetables as well as the fresh taste of home-grown.
His Easy Veg gardens could be installed within four hours and were a cost and time-effective way to grow a garden, save money, eat healthily and savour the "super-fresh" flavour of home-grown vegetables.
Mr Palmer is sharing his love of gardening, knowledge of soils, nutrients, irrigation and plant growth to provide people with an almost instant vege patch with a very high success rate.
If his instructions are followed, his gardens should remain weed-free, meaning less work for busy people.
The gardens are delivered, installed and planted within four hours and he will check on them once a month as a part of the service.
Although the international credit crunch has caused some people a bit more financial worry, a positive side to it has been that more people are re-discovering the joys of gardening.
He had been getting many inqquiries from people interested in gardening but who lacked the knowledge, skills and time to get it right.
"I've established several raised vege gardens around my house which are all organic and weed-free, so I wanted to pass on my knowledge to make it fun and easy for people to create their own bit of Eden," he said.
"Vege gardens were a way of life for our older generation but have lost momentum in the last few years," he said.
"Now that times are tighter there's been a massive increase in people getting back to basics and growing their own veges."
• For more information or to order an Easy Veg garden visit www.easy-veg.co.nz
