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Thank you to all interested residents and friends who contributed their ideas and comments to this conversation. This conversation has now closed.
Thank you to all interested residents and friends who contributed their ideas and comments to this conversation. This conversation has now closed.
Information on a website would be good, a 'starter kit' to help someone on their way. A guide of sorts detailing what tools are needed, supplies and of course where an appropriate place to begin.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know what will grow well in my local area. Also graded by levels of effort/maintenance required... if I knew something just needed to be looked after for a few weeks early on and would then flourish all on its own, I'd plant it this weekend! (or whenever was appropriate to plant it)
ReplyDeletePlanting of herbs and small fruiting trees and shrubs on nature strips - Many species are very hardy and would not need a lot of maintenance. Would like to see more land allocated for community gardens - ideal for food production, would be good to have more green space in built up areas. What about raised garden beds in children's playgrounds? Our kids love gardening but we have tiny garden and there a few other places for them to dig and grow things in this area.
ReplyDeleteThe community could start gardens on all the vacant blocks of land lying around doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteJoin together with Moonee Valley and Hobsons Bay City Councils in the My Smart Garden program www.mysmartgarden.org.au
ReplyDeleteWe would welcome Maribyrnong's participation in this program which is aimed at helping residents to grow more food.
We run free workshops on how to garden throughout the year and provide people with an action checklist to select from to guide people's in the program. It's available to anyone however, only residents in Moonee Valley and Hobsons Bay can be active participants...at this stage.
Please email contactus@mysmartgarden.org.au should Maribyrnong Council like to this outstanding program www.mysmartgarden.org.au
Bees! I think we should plant more bee forage plants on nature strips ect, whilst native grasses and shrubs may be good, flowering plants are much better.
ReplyDeleteThey look nice and we need as much bee forage plants as we can get.
The community should be actively involved in the planning and implementation and evaluation of all projects that impact upon them. Maribyrnong could hold forums or ask for proposals from small community groups or streets about how they could support increasing urban food production. For example, there are a number of streets that are keen to get edible trees planted. Council could also help to engage streets with nature strips to plant edible things. Schools and local community groups also hold a lot of knowledge and capacity to assist with food production projects on nature strips and in local parks. Increasing the publicity of the benefits of urban food production (e.g. pictures and info from Europe, Cuba, etc) as well as locally may also boost community spirit.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of community gardens with personal plots, like at Veg out in St Kilda, Ceres and Collingwood Childrens Farm. Vasili or Costa can't remember who, says we should have 4 community gardens per suburb. Land is getting smaller, some of the newer homes don't have much garden to plant in, might not even get sufficient day light. What kind of public space are we going to reserve for these people? There is a great site cnr of Thomson & Norfolk St in Maidstone. A disused Public Hall and Tennis Courts. Would be great to get in there and start a community garden. Is fenced off and everything.
ReplyDeleteI'd also love to see the development of more community vegetable gardens, both for increased food production and for facilitating connectedness between people of all ages and background in the community. I'd also really like to see more food-producing trees and shrubs in our nature strips.
ReplyDeleteCommunity gardens have there place. However, I'm a fan of an even closer communtiy garden plot - my nature strip!
ReplyDeleteCommunity members could be involved in harvesting communal food produce and preparing community meals and/or donating excess food to charities that assist those who struggle to access fresh fruit and vegetables.
ReplyDeleteCommunity members could participate in or deliver workshops on growing food and methods of cooking and preserving etc to share knowledge.
Community members could volunteer on community gardens to support their own production of fruit and vegetables.
Community members could participate in urban food swaps to share excess produce with others.
Community members of Maribyrnong should be consulted about locally appropriate responses to the concerns of food security and production.
Here's a brilliant and beautiful example of community food production, sustainability, and connectedness - one street in Dulwich Hill, Sydney. Really inspiring, and I'd love to see similar things happening in our streets.
ReplyDeletehttp://sustainabilitydrive.com.au/entry/93324/dulwich-hill-new-south-wales#
A great place to start is by planting up nature strips, fruit/nut trees instead of ornamental, each block growing a different species. The sooner the better as most trees take a quite a few years to develop and fruit, there is no time to waste.
ReplyDeleteUsing up any available land for vege plots- you will be unindated with people wanting a plot!
Invite any gardening TV celeb Cos, Visili, pick a street, invite the neighbourhood, give out free plants and soil- and make a great community day of it! Bring back community spirit and offer incentives for any household to apply it.
I certainly agree with the idea of a community garden with individual allotments. There is so much that can be communal about gardening and the multicultural nature of the community in Maribyrnong makes a community garden allowing people to show the wide range of vegetables and fruits that are grown by so many different nationalities.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should be aiming to grow as much food as local as possible. Playgrounds, parks, nature strips (with herbs and edible trees) and community gardens could all help us to achieve this. Green spaces look great too.
ReplyDeleteCommunity gardens would provide a great place to meet new people in the neighbourhood - to share ideas, seeds, food and gardening skills.
Admittedly I’m no gardener but I keep looking at the northern fence which runs along the train line from Tottenham station to West Footscray and keep thinknig that it would be a good place to grow fruit vines such as passion fruit. The idea of riding my bike and stopping for a quick snack really appeals to me. The further advantage of such plants are that it will provide a screen (mostly visual but partly audio) which will block out the unsightly rail sidings and furthermore it will act as a biological barrier to further restrict people’s access to this potentially dangerous area. Whilst general fruit trees could also provide a barrier, and of course fruit, I’m guessing that rail companies may be concerned about sighting requirements hence the recommendation for vines over trees.
ReplyDelete…of course I’ll leave it to you real gardeners to discuss how feasible my idea is.
I am really keen to see council get involved with assisting local residents set up community gardens on vacant land and in unused laneways. Without council assistance its impossible to get access (legally) to unused land and to access things like water connections. I plan to be in touch with council soon about my vision for a community garden space of the discontinued roadway off Pitt Street (between Palmerston and Ashley Streets) in West Footscray. I have also heard of successful projects elsewhere in Aust to make use of food thats currently growing on both public private land but is not being utlised (eg Elderly people unable to pick fruit or use all the fruit themselves)- I think it worked by a coordinator approaching the land holder and offering volunteers to pick and process (eg.jam making, preserving) the fruit- giving some to the landholder and the distributing the rest to needy people etc.
ReplyDelete