Foodtopia Dreaming Episode 8 Food forest community garden
It’s a community garden gathering. Meeting in a demountable - you know an insulated portable shed on stumps. We’ve been plugging away in the back blocks, running on air for a few years now. Councillor Genevieve (Gen Y as she’s known to all locals) tells us the good news. Council gets the benefits of the horticultural therapy courses we have been running, the community houses that have plots at the garden, and the guys and gals on community orders from the corrections that have been doing the hard work to keep the garden running. Of the oldies that plug away at their plots getting their bit of social contact. And of the plot farmers that practice here and make mistakes and learn before heading to their own market garden plot.
Gen Y lets us know our application for a grant to create a food forest garden has been given the go-ahead. We are bursting with excitement.
“And,” she says “there’s money for a part-time Garden Coordinator”
She knows we have projects lined up that need a few dollars. And that we cannot do it alone.
The food garden blitz gets underway. Created by a permaculture specialist that gets the needs of the land and of the community. Sees the resources available and sees our vision for our space, of how it can grow and thrive. And inspire people. Those permaculture designers have skills that are unique. You can’t get that knowledge from going to uni or doing a TAFE course. You get it by working and living with likeminded people. Helping them with their vision while building your skills.
We know the site needs to be cleared and water secured. The next-door business allows us to harvest water off their shed to feed our two 60,000 litre water tanks funded by the local water authority - they get it. The garden is replumbed for the future assuming a changing climate. Gardening in our region without water security is plant suicide. Drip systems and ollas are installed in the plots. Timers set up so that barriers to garden participation is reduce and made accessible to all.
Manu is jumping out of his skin with a whole garden to provide compost for. The Garden Blitz is on. Weekends of transformation galvanize the neighborhood. Tools and equipment come out of the woodwork, machines appear when needed and resources materialize. We take down the cyclone fences that were a barrier to garden participation and build trellises of boysenberries, youngberries, raspberries and currants, and blueberries. Cane stock for future garden plant sales is part of the dream. The verge gets a makeover too. A perennial garden on steroids. One for the community, full of herbs and fruit trees, citrus, and nuts. Flowers and natives, layers upon layers of green, with not a blade of grass in sight that needs mowing.
A sub gardening group develops - a subversive group that calls themselves the N.S.A. They were joking when they got together with a motto “Gorilla Gardeners of the verge”. The Nature Strip Association gets media attention. People started to contact them for advice and help. It became a fundraising group for the garden. Their knowledge grew and so did their produce.
Manu can’t keep up with the composting courses. Each course pays for more materials for the garden and free labor to build the pallet bins and turn the last course’s compost. New sources of browns and the greens - carbon, and nitrogen for the compost come from the participants. Did you know that farmer John has a stack of old hay? Those mower men and women could drop off their clippings. Share waste starts. Oh and Manu knows where to get cow and sheep poo. The cafes deliver their spent grinds and a social enterprise dops a shipping container in the car park to grow the best mushrooms in town.
The compost thermometer - a meter long probe gets a workout. Seeing temperatures increase in a pile of green grass, straw and leaves, some water, air, and animal manure is an alchemy to participants. Leaf mould compost wire bins materialize and the leaf teams gather. Some leaves are mulched first, others added to the browns for the real compost.
Weed teas are concocted, virgin plots are mulched, lasagna beds created and green cover crops planted. Wood chips are placed between plots to reduce the need to mow. A plot is dedicated to seed saving and the seed savers group created. Recycling garden pots happen and compost sales skyrocket. Demand is outstripping supply and a wholesale process started.
The weekly market is needed for the produce of the plot farmer. Friends of the market run produce stalls and a once a month car boot sale closes the street. A mid-week food swap begins and excess produce goes to the community houses and community food programs. People eat our food and want to know how to connect, contribute, and learn.
We no longer have to call the local paper about possible stories. They just appear magically each Monday. Getting the dirt for their Garden Report. They are after the weekend plot report. The play that has happened. Who’s compost is hot, who’s plants are thriving, the market sales, and what to grow next week, next month, and the jobs for next weekend. The events that are planned.
The Garden Report starts to move. From the classifieds area to page three, to the sports section. Gardening is a sport for many. Their CrossFit and mental health program, their protein powder, and supplements in one activity that produces food for their families.
Then it happened. Gardening took over the back page of the local paper. We celebrated. We knew that growing food has truly become the most important thing in peoples minds and lives. The drama of whose running around the ground takes a back seat to the drama and excitement of what’s in the ground. When will the garden tipping competition begin and the betting on growers start we wonder?
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