Sister Loyola in her garden after winning 'Gardener of the Year' in 2008.

A Wellington nun's much-celebrated vegetable garden has been bulldozed because it was no longer viable to keep it going.

A fixture of the Island Bay community, Sister Loyola Galvin, 96, and her garden captured the hearts of New Zealanders in award-winning documentary Gardening with Soul.

She tended to her garden at the Home of Compassion in Wellington for over 15 years, providing organic produce to those in need and teaching visitors how to compost.

Thomas Manch/STUFF The site of Sister Loyola's garden after it was demolished in February.

The garden was demolished in February. Bare earth and a lone shed are all that remain at the back of the Rhine Street property.

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Sister Margaret Anne Mills, congregational leader of the Sisters of Compassion, said without the hard work of Sister Loyola it was no longer viable to keep the "vibrant" garden.

"It was her passion and her input [that kept the garden going], and no-one could replace that."

The garden had gone "downhill" after Sister Loyola retired to the sisters' Silverstream resthome in 2013.

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Kristen Neely, a gardener formerly-employed by the sisters, worked alongside Sister Loyola for 15 years.

She said staff were notified early last year that the garden would no longer be functioning. Gardening staff who maintained the property were made redundant for "cost-saving" in August.

It seemed a strange way of doing things, she said.

The garden was open to locals and a source of inspiration for many people. "For 15 years I thought I was building community."

Sister Loyola was widely recognised for her contribution to community. She was awarded 2008 Gardener of the Year by New Zealand Gardener magazine, and became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013.

Gardening with Soul, which followed Sister Loyola for a year, won best documentary at the 2013 New Zealand Film Awards.

Neely said that after the documentary came out they had "busloads of people" coming out to visit the garden.

"It just seems odd that the film was so hugely popular, but for what?" she said.

"Why has that gone nowhere?"

Jess Feast, director of the film, said people really responded to Sister Loyola's practical way of connecting with what's important through the garden.

Changing with the times, the Home of Compassion has in recent years become a spiritual retreat and conference centre.

Sister Margaret Anne said the demolition of the garden was a sad change, but change is constant.

For her, the legacy of Sister Loyola and her garden had become part of the Home of Compassion's continuing story.

She said there were plans to fill the remaining void with native plants, extending the neighbouring Tapu Te Ranga Marae's bush.

"One garden goes and another comes."

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