Boorowa Community Garden Luscious Life-Long Learning

Boorowa’s Community Garden, located next to the Men’s Den at the Boorowa Showground, has been growing – quite literally – in leaps and bounds. The Garden is currently in its second full growing season, and participants are busy harvesting broad beans, peas, celery, and silver beet, amongst other tasty crops.

Supported by the Hilltops Council, the Garden is maturing nicely, with mulched raised beds, a healthy composting area and a water feature surrounded by large rocks and planted with irises and local plants, which has become a flourishing habitat for frogs. Businesses in the community are also helping out. Kerrie Dansy from Kerrie’s Garden Nikity Naks very kindly supplied seedlings for the garden, and Chelle Gilbert from Chelle’s Kitchen provides used coffee grounds on a weekly basis to help boost the compost heap.

You might be surprised to learn that Boorowa has a Community Garden given that the area is known for its fertile fields and large residential blocks of land. Community gardens and allotments have long been associated with medium to high density housing areas, a way for people living in flats and apartments to get their hands in the soil and have space to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. But community gardening is much more than this: they are a place where people come together to grow food, foster good health, support life-long learning and cultivate vibrant communities.

Turning an unused plot of land into productive social hubs is just one of the benefits of community gardening. Neighbourhood groups with a shared passion for fresh organic produce work together to learn and share knowledge of growing food, help reduce family food budgets and provide opportunities for exercise, recreation and learning, as well as spaces for contemplation and relaxation. Community gardens point the way to living sustainably by demonstrating waste minimisation, composting and water usage techniques that can be used by people in their own backyards.

Secretary of the Boorowa Community Garden, David Evans, explains that not only have human residents been harvesting the spring bounty, but so have local cockatoos. The cockatoos have pulled up quite a number of garlic plants located in a bed under an old gum tree. No sore throats for these squawky neighbours! The Community Garden represents a wonderful opportunity for people of all ages and stages to learn about organic gardening. Individuals and families interested in getting involved should note that participants have the opportunity to meet once or twice a week as desired – Tuesdays and Sundays from 9am to 11am. Morning tea is provided. Please contact David Evans for more details: 0428 030 566.

• Topics:

• Gardening