Happy New Life Garden visit

Here are some images of the fabulous Happy New Life Garden in Lennox St Richmond we visited on Sunday. In a very compact space these gardeners with a mostly Vietnamese heritage are growing an absolute abundancce of produce. We were most struck by their use of vertical space with polystyrene boxes loaded with seedlings packed into every spare corner. It was very inspiring and we all took home plenty of ideas for maximising the use of our space.

...Say,who is that stylish woman in that fabulous tshirt???!!! Where can I get one?

Swapmeet and FGA

The above leaflet is for a new Swapmeet for gardeners to swap excess produce, seeds, cuttings etc and is happening this Saturday (4th Oct) at Smith's Reserve Fitzroy.

Ros and Rebecca attended a public meeting last night of the Food Gardeners Alliance, a new organisation of home and community gardeners concerned about the water restrictions and their impact on food gardening. David Holmgren (of permaculture fame), Clive Blazey from the Diggers Club, Jane Edmanson from the ABC and Helen Tuton from Sustainable Gardening Australia all gave very informative speeches, and the public were able to ask questions at the end. There were also some local and state government representatives there.

David Holmgren believed that growing your own vegetables is one of the most powerful things you can do to save water. This is because when you compare the amount of water needed to grow food on a farm, then packaged and transported and to the supermarket and then to your home....home gardening uses a tiny amount of water.

It is in its early stages, but FGA could become a great lobby group for food gardeners and I urge everyone to check out their website here. (They've also totally coincidentally used one of our tshirt designs to promote their message...GROW Food and save the world!)

Working Bee This Sunday and Fringe Festival Event

On Saturday4th and Sunday 5th October the Lennox Street "Happy New Life" Community Garden will be open to the public as part of the Fringe Festival (thanks to Liz for this info!).

Please click here for more details.

A few of us will be going along on this Sunday 5th October, before coming to OUR WORKING BEE at 1.30 pm. Don't forget Daylight Savings time starts that day too.

Gardens History: Part 1

Marijka has a wonderful collection of photos of the development of the gardens dating back to 1997, and I thought it'd be interesting for everyone to see how far we've come!

So here is Part 1;

Summer 1997-ish...while the gardens and shed were being built, and before the shed was burnt.

Also, you can see this is taken before the revegetation area was a twinkle in anyone's eye.

You can order your own calendars now!

Yes, Red Bubble have now made it possible for anyone to purchase a calendar online, so you no longer have to go through me or Marijka...so just click here now and scroll down to the calendars (under the tshirts) and buy all your friends and family calendars for Christmas...don't forget all profits go into the gardens coffers!

Maybe you could pick up a few Christmas cards while you're there?

Revised Tank

Unfortunately the very attractive and perfect for us Tankmaster 12000 litre tank has been discontinued, but we have now put in a Landcare Grant application for this equally stylish- if not quite so handsome Tankmaster 10000 litre tank. Everybody cross your fingers... and toes...

Reservoir Library Display

This is a display of Ros's and Marijka's felt pieces, as well as a display promoting the gardens that we have set up at Reservoir Library for two weeks. Check it out if you're in the area.