The first phase of the Community Garden in Moora, behind the Gardiner Street ARts Collective premises, began in 2019, with Tracy Humphry and Joey Seymour, ( with the artistic assistance of Emma Seymour ) drawing up plans for garden beds, paths, a fire pit, water features and seating. The idea is that the garden is a place for sharing, contemplation, story telling, enjoying fragrance, learning skills and taking some quiet time from life and activities undertaking in the Gardiner Street Arts Collective.
Herbs, veggies, citrus, bush tucker and native plants have their places. The idea of the garden is to purchase very little and to recycle or up-cycle as much as possible, to use the skills within our community, to bring in the skills we do not possess and to share a community of creativity built around the Garden.
The area is quite inhospitable. Hard car parking area, no fencing at the back, no shade bar one tree which has half fallen over now! So it must be
- Waterwise
- containerised
- easy for volunteers to manage
- heat tolerant
- able to be progressively built
- movable.
The first workshop run by Ross Adams of Walebing on Wicking Garden Beds provided the first places for planting. Donations of shuttles, soil ( BGC), cow manure from feedlot ( Ross Adams) and blue metal, plants and tools meant the only cost was the geo-fabric for the entire day.
Fifteen people worked all afternoon learning the process, lifting the wheelbarrows of soil and poo, drilling the pipes and chatting all the while. More offers of mulch, pea straw , plants and tools were offered during the day.
From the original garden plans, we have workshops on water-wise garden beds,
- how to run a worm farm,
- composting,
- citrus in ground and in containers,
- Growing herbs in containers
- Native plant cultivation
- Bush tucker planting and stories
- Making water features
- How to plan and landscape your garden
If you have a skill to share in the garden, please contact us and let us know. We are looking for someone who knows and does composting in our region who can teach that day.
Many thanks to Ross Adams, Tracy & Michael Humphry, Elders, BGC, Shire of Moora Community Budget for donations in kind, for their time and for grant money to assist with the vision.
You can find the instructions for wicking garden beds on the website www.gardinerstreetartscollective.com.au and on the Instagram and Facebook pages for more photos of the day.
If you are interested in becoming part of the community garden, sign up as a member for $35 for a regular newsletter of the next things coming up, and contact Sarah Murray the Co-ordinator of GSAC or myself. We would love to see you there.