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Troppo Blog
Swing by our latest blog post for a treasure trove of garden tips, Q&A fun, and a handy monthly planting schedule! 🌱📝
Whether you're a newbie or a garden guru, we’ve got the scoop to keep your garden game strong.
Dive in and let’s get growing! 🌼🌿
Whether you're a newbie or a garden guru, we’ve got the scoop to keep your garden game strong.
Dive in and let’s get growing! 🌼🌿
Northland Tropical Food Forest Design Guide
Warm northern and coastal New Zealand regions can grow subtropical and tropical edibles year-round — avocado, macadamia, banana, passionfruit, feijoa and more. This guide links practical food-forest design to Troppo's living nursery in Te Puke.
Plan layers and species with our free NZ grower tools a...
Edible Plants in the Nightshade Family
A Grower’s Guide to Solanaceae for Food Forests, Greenhouses & Resilient Gardens
The nightshade family (Solanaceae) contains some of the world’s most important food crops — including tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, tamarillos, pepinos, and many rare tropical fruits.
These plants ar...
Food Forest Quiz: Regenerative Learning for Aotearoa
A new interactive quiz helps growers and learners across Aotearoa explore food forests, regenerative agriculture and layered edible ecosystems — part of Vector Group Charitable Trust's kai resilience education work.
Take the Food Forest Knowledge Assessment and browse more resources at Kai Resilienc...
Troppo Edible Jungle: Urban Food Forest in Action
Troppo is the hands-on, muddy-boots side of Vector Group — a living urban food forest in Te Puke where theory meets practice. We grow and trial subtropical edibles that show what is possible in warm Bay of Plenty conditions.
Explore our food forest articles and the national Kai Resilience network.
...
Troppo: Cultivating a Tropical Future in Te Puke
Troppo is more than just a nursery; it is a vibrant, tropical urban food forest and a cornerstone of the Vector Group Charitable Trust’s mission to redefine food security. As a sister initiative to Grow Te Puke, KaiResilience.food, Kiwifruit.Capital, and Te Puke Digital, Troppo focuses on the exotic...
NZ Garden Bugs for Kids: Aotearoa’s Tiny Heroes
New Zealand gardens teem with insects, spiders, slugs and springtails — many found nowhere else on Earth. This kids' guide explains why "bugs" matter for healthy soil, pollination and food webs.
Pair with What's a minibeast? and our NZ garden bird guides.
Aotearoa is home to thousands of fascinatin...
Te Puke Garden Ramble 2025: Kai Resilience in Focus
The Te Puke Coast Lions Garden Ramble 2025 ran across three days — a curated tour of local gardens and a chance to tell stories about community growing, creativity and food resilience in the Bay of Plenty.
See more Community & Te Puke events and the Kai Resilience archive.
The Te Puke Coast Lio...
Te Puke Local Food Innovation & Kai Resilience
Troppo.nz shares Te Puke's roots in fresh, local food — where nursery innovation, community gardens and kai resilience meet. This is how the Bay of Plenty experiments with practical food security close to home.
Read more in Community & Te Puke and connect nationally via Kai Resilience.
Troppo V...
Partnering for a Greener Future: Troppos and Shona Ua-Marsh
Troppo is excited to announce our partnership with Shona Ua-Marsh, a local visionary whose work at Giggles Te Puke Early Learning Centre and Whatu+Co is deeply rooted in sustainability and growth. Shona’s philosophy mirrors the principles of a food forest: nurturing the ground, fostering symbiotic r...
Pineapple Plants Tender: Vector Group Te Puke
Vector Group Charitable Trust, based in Te Puke, is inviting tenders from suppliers for bulk pineapple plants — a core kai-resilience initiative to strengthen local food production and nursery capacity in the Bay of Plenty.
Learn about our charitable work at Vector Group and the wider Kai Resilience...
From IT to Orchard
Our team at Troppo has always been inspired by people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty and forge a new path. So, when the opportunity arose for the Troppo/Vector Group Charitable Trust to visit Bay Tropics, an innovative orchard in Oropi, we jumped at the chance. It was a day of productive...
Te Puke’s Community Shines: Sirens and Services Day Lights Up the Town!
Today, Te Puke literally lit up with excitement as the "Sirens and Services Koha Ice Cream Day" unfolded at the Te Puke War Memorial Hall. The sounds of sirens filled the air, and Mr Whippy was scooping delicious ice cream as the community turned out in force for a truly memorable day dedicated to c...
