We’ve had an exciting week in our front garden this week with Mark and Mark from Pacific Australis Landscapes here finishing off all the big things that were in the pipeline before COVID put a halt to plans.

They’ve rearranged the rocks in our front garden to create some small seating areas, and have made room for a third raised garden bed (round this time). These garden beds will form the centre of what we hope will be an even more productive community garden. They are connected up to the water tank that was kindly donated and installed by Yarra Valley Water and we’re anticipating that they become a fabulous community resource, both in terms of creating opportunities for people to come along and get to know each other as they garden together, but also in terms of generating some food that can be used for local cooking and eating (for classes, for catering for morning tea etc. ).

If you pass by you might also notice that Jenny built a potting bench … and we’re looking forward to putting in a small greenhouse next to it so that we can germinate some seeds and have seedlings available in our street seed library into the future. So many fun new things …

Mark and Mark also finished off the landscaping out the front of the community shed, putting in some beautiful slabs of stone to create a dedicated seating area. Our community shed space is so well used and it is wonderful to think that it is 95% complete. Next week we’ll plant some native violets and white thyme in the gaps between the stone pavers and plant out the rest of that corner garden under the lemon tree and we’ll be done. Hooray!

Last Friday Anne (our chair) and I were delighted to show Cr Gabrielle de Vietri, Yarra’s new Mayor, around the house and talk to her about all the exciting and neighbourhoodly things we do here. Gabrielle came along with Kathy who is our main contact and lovely colleague at Yarra Council and Elly who supports volunteering across Yarra.

It was a great morning to visit as it was Brett’s birthday and we decorated him a pretty fancy cake. We’ve attached some photos so that you can admire our efforts and wish you too were here to partake of the sugary delight!

So, if you would like to eat cake and coffee with nice people in the neighbourhood any Friday during school term, just pop past at 11.30am. Alternatively join us from 10am for art, craft and gardening (and possibly some cooking/cake decorating). We hope to see you soon!

A few ideas to further your gardening knowledge today.

Did you know that Yarra City Council is part of the My Smart Garden program? The program is a multi-Council collaboration that supports residents to adapt to a changing climate and to resource scarcity by turning outdoor spaces into productive, functional gardens.

The My Smart Garden program promotes ‘smart gardening’ through workshops, events, online resources, incentives and community connections. It takes a holistic approach to sustainable home gardening across five elements: food, shelter, waste, water and habitat.

Just click on the link above to access the wide range of great resources.

In addition, you may also be interested in the free webinars that Council is running …

Love your soil! – Tuesday 2nd March 6:30 – 9:00pm

Understanding soils and how to build their health and fertility, increase their water and nutrient holding capacity and balance pH, and nutrients is the most important step you can take towards a continual good harvest! Join Kat Lavers as she discusses why soil health has many implications for the health of your plants, levels of pest damage and even the exposure to heavy metals. This is a free online workshop, however registration is essential. Book in here.

Seed saving and propagation 101 with Kat Lavers – Tuesday 9th March 6:30 – 9:00pm

Join passionate gardener and facilitator Kat Lavers and be guided through the basics of seed saving and propagation. This webinar will explain how to save your own strong, locally adapted seeds, discuss methods of effective storage, and also outline a few ways to propagate plants easily at home, including growing from seed without spending a cent on seed raising mix! This is a free online workshop, however registration is essential. Book in here.

We are hoping that some local people might have an abundance of fruit or vegetables from their garden they would like to send our way.

Last year we had a once-a-month preserving session at ACC on Friday morning. And we’re keen to start it back up again.

So if you have extra zucchini or cucumbers, stone fruit … or anything else we could turn into pickles or chutneys or jams please let us know as we have some keen local volunteers waiting to get to work :-)

Keen to get to know others in the neighbourhood? Join us for community gardening or community craft each Friday morning from 10am … and then share morning tea out on the corner from 11.30am. You’re welcome to come along for any part of this low key community-building morning.

We’ll be starting a new yarn bombing project with community craft participants inside - all skills (and no skills) gratefully received - at the very least everyone’s always keen for a chat! And the garden needs some love after our month of holidays if you’d like to be active outside for an hour or so.

We hope to see you here in 2021!