Mullumbimby Community Gardens Makes Headway

Do you remember that a couple of months ago we headed a little east to help some Mullumbimbians out with earthworks advice? Geoff and Nadia did their cool observing/surveying thing, a few interns went along for good measure to get some experience, and I took a few snaps so you guys didn’t need to feel left out.

Anyway, a few days ago I had opportunity to revisit the site on my way somewhere else. I wanted to take an updated panorama so you can watch progress. While there I was lucky enough to catch up with Jeannette Martin – one of the main driving forces behind getting this new Community Garden off the ground (or onto the ground, as the case may be).

First – take a peek at the ‘before’ and ‘slightly later’ shots below:

before…

…a bit later (click to see both panoramas in full view)

If you click on the bottom of the two images, and ensure your browser isn’t resizing the image to fit in the window (click on the image if necessary to zoom to full view) and then squint a bit, you’ll make out a few shallow swales on the farther side of the property, and you’ll see the start of new gardens emerging in the foreground. You may also notice a few trees – camphor laurels – have been sacrificed to the cause. (We trust what is yet to come will compensate.)

There will be about fifty family and individual plots scattered about the roughly five acres of land. Of those, 28 are already spoken for.

In the centre foreground is an area designated as part of their planned ‘Food for All’ program, which aims to provide food for needy people – like regional soup kitchens, etc. The plan is for people, with or without plots in the gardens, to donate a few hours of their time here and there to develop and maintain this section.

Jeannette Martin, Mullumbimby Community Gardens Co-ordinator

Jeannette was very pleased to note the great support the gardens have received. There was $39,000 from the Department of Community Services (DOCS) for a horticultural therapy program for disabled people, $1,000 for a cob oven from Nortec (an employment and training company), $5,000 from the NRMA for the Food for All project, $4,600 from the Foundation for Regional & Rural Renewal (FRRR) for raised garden beds and a rotunda, $7,000 and $5,000 respectively from a couple of local philantropists, etc.

The council did come through with some assistance with water as well. A tap has been set up for the property, and Jeannette is in the throes of organising a pipe to get buried along the border of the circular road you can see in the picture.

A lot of what is happening now is infrastructure building, so there are no harvesting photos quite yet(!), but I’ll shine a light on the site again in another two or so months, so stay tuned. Next time I’ll try to time it for when people are working on site – after all, that’s what a community garden is all about!

While you wait, why not start to organise one of your own, in your local community? Get a few people together, and see if you can’t get your local council on side to donate some land for the cause. Tell ’em about the need to transition and invest in local natural capital. Remember, councils work for you – not the other way around….