..... and beyond .....

..... ust some notes on other organisations and groups to reseach as time allows .....

 

 

Still Gardening

Friends of Groups

RTBG - Community Food Garden
           - Heirloom Tomatoes
           - Friends of the Gardens

Land Care

Conservation Volunteers

Mt Stuart Gardeners

West Hobart gardeners??

Urban Farming Tasmania

Second Bite

Stephanie Alexander School Gardens

Spring Community Festival

Sustainable Living Tasmania

Runnymede (and other heritage homes)


..... and so on and so on as more discoveries are made .....

............and beyond

 

If you already have a back yard which consumes enough of your time and growing more food does not interest you, there are various other ways you can get involved in your community and get your hands dirty. Many suburbs run Friends Of groups which engage in bush regeneration, track clearing and weed removal in their local reserves. These are mostly run by Hobart City Council, Landcare and interested volunteers.

 

Conservation Volunteers Tasmania run “working holidays” where volunteers participate in programs that protect and enhance our environment and heritage. These involve everything from track clearing, sign painting, animal counts and trapping, weed removal and other conservation based projects.

 

The Still Gardening program helps older people to stay active in their gardens, eat well and live independently. They take on “Garden Mate” volunteers to work with these people to help keep their gardens well cared for. It is a rewarding task which makes a tangible difference and enriches the lives of both the volunteer and the home owner. For details contact Juliet Chapman on 62369349 or email stillgardening@hobartcity.com.au.   

Other Gardens

 

Other gardens which I intend to write on and investigate in the future despite the fact that this course has finished include Taroona Community Garden, Goodwood Community Garden, Chigwell Community Garden and Kingborough Community Garden.

TASMANIAN COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN

 

The Tasmanian Community Food Garden is part of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. It has replaced the much-loved Pete’s Patch which has been redeveloped and extended with wider paths, attractive brick walls and various irregularly shaped patches. Rather than holding plots for individual community members these plots are available to community groups so far including a veterans group and Second Bite.

 

It is has been designed as a place for Tasmanians to come together to learn about cultivation and cooking skills which they can then share with their communities. More than twenty community groups are making a cooperative effort to create and maintain the garden beds. It aims to develop “a model community food garden demonstrating best practice in sustainable food production and preparation, supported by a community of food gardens and food gardeners”. It is funded by the Tasmanian Community Fund.

 

They are currently running workshops on various propagation and plant growing themes. These are on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 to 2pm and are free to Feeding the Future and Tasmanian Community Food Garden members. Other participants will need to pay $15. To book for these please contact the RTBG on 62363050.

 

Facebook information include photos of the scarecrow wedding and honeymoon can be accessed at www.facebook.com/TasmanianCommunityFoodGarden/timeline.

 

ST JOHN'S ORCHARD

Behind the Anglican rectory at 9 St John’s Avenue New Town was once a large urban back yard with room for fruit trees and chooks. The Lenah Links community group took out the lease on the garden to allow local residents to grow some food or just spend time in a large shady space.

It has a variety of fruit trees including apricots, nectarines, apples, peaches, a mature walnut and a mulberry tree. There is a chook shed with large healthy chooks and the regular and competitive crowing of roosters next to a large herb spiral.

 

Ogilvie High School has plots where they grow vegetables for use in the school canteen, a group from St John’s Anglican Church grows flowers, and Work Skills help maintain the orchard. The space also has a large green shade cloth covered potting and propagation shed.

 

 

They also run regular community events such as Music in the Orchard and a Harmony Day picnic in the orchard throughout the year. 

 

On the last Sunday of every month between 11.30 and 3 a working bee is held followed by wood-fired pizza cooked in a wonderful domed stone pizza oven. More information can be found by ringing Ruth on 0408344105 or via www.lenahlinks.com.

 

SOUTH HOBART COMMUNITY GARDEN

 

The SoHo Community Garden at 106 Cascade Road was transformed from a grassy plot to a productive garden by community volunteers. It was funded by various grants and people took the opportunity to sponsor fruit trees. Apparently there are still some fruit trees left to sponsor if you’re interested.

 

 

It is run under a garden management and maintenance plan and has a forest garden plant register to help members identify and use plants. Their website is quite useful with a sowing guide and details of the management and maintenance plans.

There is an online form for membership which comes in two types. There is general membership for between $20 and $40 or personal plots available for between $20 and $50 depending on the size of the plot and whether or not you have a concession card.

Any contributions of time, labour or financial support are welcome. For any further information please contact the facilitator’s group via communitygarden@southhobart.org.

WEST MOONAH COMMUNITY GARDEN

 

West Moonah Community Garden is run out of the West Moonah Community House on Springfield Road. Plots are available here for community members for a very minimal price of $30 per year. There appeared to be plots available when I visited.

 

They also sell bags of compost for $5 and run a community shed from this sunny patch of land. The shed provides equipment and a space for people to share and learn skills in a safe, social and supportive environment. The shed is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 12.30 pm. For more information on this space you can contact Patrick on 0409419911.

The West Moonah Community House is contactable on 62732360 or you can email info@westmoonahcommunityhouse.com.

From here they also run the West Moonah Community Volunteer Program. This involves volunteers who do general garden maintenance for aged and frail people in the area including mowing, weeding, pruning and so on. For more information on this program please contact Barbara on 62732362.  

LENAH VALLEY COMMUNITY GARDEN

Lenah Valley Community Garden is located at 42 Creek Road Lenah Valley, near the creek and park lands, and is managed by Sustainable Living Tasmania. It is divided into plots which are leased to participants for the cost of their Sustainable Living Tasmania membership. 

This garden is full of productive beds and is next to the tracks which are used by dog walkers, exercisers and families. On the hill across the creek there is even an old farmhouse and paddock full of sheep. It seems like a busy garden and there are often several people working in the space. It is fenced off and accessed by a combination guarded padlock. 

Membership fees are as follows:

		1 year		3 years
Single		$30		$75
Concession		$11		$30
Family		$40		$100
Organisation		$60		$160

This membership also includes a subscription to Linkup newsletter, a 10% discount for their bookshop and membership of the Environment Resource Centre. I had a plot in this space when I lived in an apartment and found it was primarily people just doing their own thing without any specific community focus around the garden. This is fantastic if you are looking to simply have a space to grow your own food and enjoy some peace in the outdoors but not so much if your desire is for something more social.

Sustainable Living Tasmania also runs a garden in Nubeena Crescent, Taroona which I am yet to visit. 

For more information you can contact the garden manager David Stephen on 62278390. 

 SOURCE COMMUNITY WHOLEFOODS

 Source, a garden and shop on the Sandy Bay Campus of The University of Tasmania was started by a group of volunteers.

It combines a garden, working to some extent on permaculture principles, and a food co-op where both bulk and fresh groceries can be purchased along with daily lunches. Some of the vegetables such as lettuce and silver beet can be selected and picked straight from the soil before purchase which I feel is a lovely idea.

On an often busy campus and on days full of power point lectures and fluorescent lights, it is a pleasant escape providing a place to go and spend some time with a picnic table in the sun, a few inside seats and a shady balcony below vines with tables and couches and a view of the garden beds.

Lunches made with garden produce and other local food is sold Monday to Friday from 12.30pm until sold out.

Run by and relying on volunteers, they hold monthly working bees on the first Saturday of the month from 9am til 1pm ending with shared food (take something along to share) and sometimes the wood fired pizza oven gets fired up to create home made pizzas.

Future plans for the garden include planting olive and nut trees, creating a frog pond, a shady hang-out spot and many more food and flower plants!

 A worm farm and compost bins allow for recycling of nutrients and the chooks (sweet looking fluffy headed bantams) also eat scraps and provide eggs for cooking (and sometimes for sale).

If you choose to become a member, it costs $25 waged and $18 unwaged for the year. With this, you get a 20% discount when you shop in the co-op. You can also volunteer and become an 'active member'. If you volunteer for 4 hours a month you will receive a 30% discount on food.

           

https://sourcewholefoods.org.au/

Introduction

I am starting this blog as part of a course in Community Engagement. I initially intended to get involved in a community garden, learn about its processes, grow some food and distribute it through Second Bite (an admirable group that spreads left over food from supermarkets, bakeries and other shops throughout the community to people who are struggling).

However, with limited time, I have decided this wasn't really feasible. Instead, while researching community gardens initially, I found there was no simple list of all the community gardens in Hobart, so I am now attempting to fill this gap with a list, contact details, some information and some pretty photos of gardens (just to make it more fun for me).

So, here we go. Wish me luck! :)

ps - if you are interested in knowing more about second bite, or getting involved or donating, their web site is http://secondbite.org/.