Hi, we are really looking forward to saying hello to everyone as we resume our action packed Friday program. It has been great to get some phone calls and emails from our regulars already.

This year we will be running a similar program to last year - but with a few tweaks to the timing of things, so please note …

Community Gardening/SHEd

From 10am, come along and join Clare and Corrado outside as they work to improve our lovely grounds. Over the year you will have the opportunity to learn about growing and maintaining an urban orchard and vegetable garden, composting and pruning and how to save seeds, grow seedlings … all the things! And depending on interest, there is also the opportunity to work collectively on small scale projects in our community shed.

If you have passed by recently you will see that our raised garden beds will be looking for some love after a month of wild growing (the tomatoes definitely need staking!). And as always I am sure Clare has lots of creative plans for the year ... This is a great opportunity to meet local people. No need to enrol, just come along with your hat and gloves and join in.

Community Craft

From 10.30am we’ll be running our inside craft group - suitable for knitters and crocheters etc. We are always delighted to welcome new people of all abilities and skill levels to join in. Bring your own materials along if you’d like to work on your own project, or you can use our donated stash if you’d like to make things that we can sell to support the program. Again, no need to book, just come along and join in.

Community Lunch

At 12pm you can join us for a light lunch. We’ll come together to enjoy foods such as pasta bakes, soup, toasties etc. with a cup of tea or coffee and dessert, including fruit. This program is supported by our lovely friends at the Alphington CWA who donate amazing sweet and savoury home cooked dishes. Yum!

AAA Art in the Shed

For anyone needing to access all abilities programs, you can join Clare, Corrado and Hazel from 1-2pm for some arty fun. This program is tailored to the interests of participants. It costs $5 weekly, and you must book in for the term on our website. Please note that places are limited.

With rain and sunshine and warm weather our garden is looking fabulous at the minute. Some beautiful pale blue ixia bulbs have popped up in our front garden. Clare tells me they are from a donation in the seed library - so thanks for sharing neighbourhood friends!

We’ve started growing spring seedlings, and over the holidays Clare took our tomato seedlings home (along with some basil seedlings I think she said) to keep an eye on them, and they are now starting to look strong and healthy … so we should have some ready to give away in our seed library soon - keep an eye out if you haven’t got around to raising your own this year.

Last week Lee and Elena added some more hand-crafted bling to the very front corner. We’re trying to protect that garden bed as it gets established.

More generally all our programs are back up and running this week. AAA Arts recommenced last week, and our AAA Bowls along with our two Women in the Shed courses are starting mid week.

We have our AGM coming up very soon - let us know if you’d like to attend - and then two repair weekend workshops - clothes mending and bike repairs … these are part of the sustainability workshop series we’ve been running this semester with other houses in Yarra.

There’s always lots on at ACC. And we hope to see you here soon.

Our new bee garden right on the front corner benefitted from a mulch delivery on Friday. Thanks Bert and team at Darebin Council. It is looking great!

And … in the rest of our garden we’ve got lovely flowers 🌸 of all colours … and blossom emerging on our fruit trees. Happy nearly spring days.

How lovely are these little seed packs created by our gardeners on Friday!

They’re out in the seed library ready for neighbourhood planting … if you’re ready to start your spring garden pop past!

Over the last month or so we’ve been working on the somewhat neglected garden bed right at the front corner of our site. It’s always been a bit unkempt, and we’ve never quite known if we are maintaining it or if Council is. But recently we officially agreed that we would take charge into the future … and we started giving it a new lease of life with a little garden bed on top (donated by the neighbours across the road when they moved out - thanks!) and we filled it with fogo compost goodness … and we also took out the scrappy woody bushes that were making it awkward to sit on the bench seat … all in preparation for the planting of an insect attracting garden.

This week (on Friday) we started our replacement planting, thanks Darebin Council for the tube stock. We’ve got lots of lovely low growing mostly local indigenous plants going in - building on the legacy the Graeme started with the grasses he planted a few years ago - and we’re hoping the new plants survive and thrive. We’ll also be adding in some fabulous outdoor art I expect (we just have to come up with an inspiring idea!). So keep an eye out …

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the planting - and thanks to all the passers by who shared words of encouragement as we toiled away!