Aww … how cute. And such a happy end to a Monday! I spotted this porcelain frog 🐸 in our seed library as I was leaving work - minding some new seed packets donated by an unknown lovely community friend.

Neighbourhoodliness is the best! Thanks Darebin Council for installing our seed library. We love ❤️ it.

Some silverbeet, spring onions, tomatoes and dried beans (that we wlll save to replant) … came from the garden this week.

It has been a long hot summer and we haven’t quite got our automatic drip system right yet …so it was nice to even harvest these after 4 weeks of accidental neglect. I expect the families who have been using our garden every day over summer probably helped out and had a tomato 🍅 or two along the way … better to be eaten than wasted!

Thanks Anne and Elaine for coming along Friday to help wrestle things back under control.

Well that was fun! And exhausting!

Thanks to everyone that came along to the Alphington Open Studios opening on Friday night, our Christmas Makers Market on Saturday, and/or popped in to the Open Studios salon show at ACC right across the weekend. We had great weather and it was just fabulous to see such a cross-section of our community enjoying our facilities.

I will quickly add some pictures below … and include some more next week, with some detailed thankyous etc. then.

But don’t forget the studios are all open this coming weekend as well! Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm. You can collect a map from ACC this week (or when our salon show opens again on Saturday morning). Isn’t it just great to collectively celebrate our lovely, creative, arty community … it warms the cockles of the heart!

Locals Annie and Silvana have booked a stall at our upcoming market featuring plants and seedlings … to raise awareness of Kinfolk. All off their own bat.

Which is fabulous … because we actually have a partnership with this organisation and have Kinfolk meals 🥘 in our freezer for anyone needing food support.

Here’s the pitch Annie asked us to share about their stall …. Wonderful!

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Walk away with a fabulous FREE plant from the Makers Market on Saturday 27th. We have plants that are perfect for the balcony, plants that withstand the harshest conditions - the salvias, the succulents and simple daisies. We have plants that flower - button daisies, bush daisies and more. We have herbs.

Every single plant has been grown with love to raise awareness of Kinfolk’s Food Relief Program.

As we emerge from lockdown, we're feeling grateful but not completely unscathed, and we know we're not alone. For many businesses in Melbourne, the impact of necessary but commercially damaging lockdowns has been serious, and the profits few and far between.

Kinfolk are a Melbourne social enterprise, providing in-house capacity building to people from all walks of life, and essential food relief to people in hardship or escaping family violence. Like many in the hospitality industry they are struggling, and need our help to bounce back.

So that’s why at the Alphington Christmas Makers Market, we're inviting you to #PlantForKinfolk🌱!

Pick up a new plant for your post-lockdown garden and check out the pantry re-stocks, staples, and dinners that this wonderful social enterprise and its volunteers keep coming to women in need.

Look forward to seeing you on the day! And look out on Instagram for #plantforkinfolk🌱

Families came along on Friday to join in our garden program and decorated some gorgeous tins and potted up some cuttings for our street seed library. If you are passing by and would like a rosemary plant or some Vietnamese mint for your garden you might like to collect one this weekend! Cute hey?