Community gardens

GETTING down and dirty at your local community garden is a great way to meet people, grow food and have a great time getting your thumbs greener,

In Torquay we are fortunate to have the Danawa Community Garden which is run by some very passionate an hard working people.

Danawa recently celebrated it's 10th anniversary with a celebration at the garden. People attended who could recall when it was a large patch of grass and now with it's bountiful beds, fruit trees, structures, greenhouse and pizza oven, wow!

If you have a community garden nearby, it's well worth popping in, saying hello and getting involved.

Danawa Garden Update

THIS SATURDAY 10 am.

Danawa Garden's chairman, Perry with Leanne, Claire and John

at the vibrant community garden.

PICK ’N’ PLANT

THIS SATURDAY 2pm.

Weather permitting, the plan this Saturday is to drag the branches out where Council can mulch them up.

All welcome – pitch in and reap the harvest for your dinner!

Come along and meet other keen veggie gardeners in the Torquay area.

The garden is between the Surf Coast Hwy and the Torquay footy ground and tennis courts. See you there.

More info, contact Perry Mills on 0428 848 646 or via perryagmills@gmail.com

 

DANAWA COMMUNITY GARDEN FOOD SWAP

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Community gardens are a great melting-pot of your neighbourhood. Residents of all ages, professions and backgrounds come together to grow food, share ideas, seeds and conversation as they plant, weed and harvest.

When I rocked up to the Danawa Community Garden in Torquay, I was delighted to find a like-mined group of people who are some of the nicest gardeners I’ve ever met.

Some of the great people who keep Torquay's Danawa Community Garden growing.

Community gardens are places where people don’t give a toss about the car you drive, the size of your house, the brand of your jeans or which footy team you follow.

OK, they do care if you follow the Cats or the Bombers. But they are also places where the ability to grow really good corn, a sweet tomato or a fantastic heritage pumpkin far outweighs the size of your plama TV or which school your kids attend. As it should be.

If you can make a good, hot compost heap, advise on permaculture, chooks, bees or how to build a worm farm - or want to learn - you’ll be welcomed with open arms.

And while not everyone at the community garden may qualify as your new best friend, you’ll meet a fantastic array of people who really care about the important things in life; growing delicious and nutritious food, bees, worms, chooks and enjoying a cuppa while talking about compost.So pull on your workboots, pick up your gloves and prepare for a great gardening adventure!
Find out where your local community garden is here or if there's not one listed, contact your local council.

Madeleine’s marvelous garden

Madeleine has an amazing and inspiring garden that thrives between Bells Beach and Anglesea on the Victorian south-west coast.

Madeleine with Violet, one of her cheeky chickens.

Her chooks enjoy their own run which includes a hen-friendly garden, secure wired-in paddock they access through their own hen-door and a fox-proof shelter. They enjoy lazing under the shade of sunflowers, eating the veggies she growsfor them in their run, are experts at munching unwary caterpillars and turning over the compost in the open bin. Surrounding the front of the chook run Madeleine grows a cascade of beans, strawberries, capsicum, eggplant and cucumbers.

Her garden is an amazing tribute to hard work and it’s hard to believe it’s only a few years old. Mostly grown from seeds or cuttings, there are many varieties of beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, beetroot, silverbeet and lettuce. In pots by the house Madeleine grows a great many types of salad greens, citrus, strawberries and many flowers to attract bees.

Dahlias are her favourite flowers – in a long bed sheltered by the water tank her dahlias boast a wonderful array of colour. Ranging from the demure palest pink or lemon through to real raggedy show-stoppers that would have enchanted Van Gough, these dahlias resemble a chorus line of show girls as they bob about in the breeze.

Not only does she tend her garden to perfection, Madeleine makes the best pear chutney on the surfcoast!

Her husband Barrie runs the Watermarks Photo Gallery in Torquay which is well worth a visit when you are next down the Great Ocean Road.