Yack Community Garden officially opened....

It has been a tough slog at times, but last Saturday we finally got to officially open the Yackandandah Community Garden. Read more over at the Yack garden blog.

Full steam ahead.....

We have only got 5 weeks until the Yackandandah Community Garden official opening, so it is full steam ahead to get as much done as we can. With daily temperatures continuing to be over 40C, there have been working-bee's in the cool of the evening or early morning to try and get things finished. On Saturday we had a 7am start, and it was the perfect time of day to be in the garden. The sun light streaming down was glorious.

There was rock edging being built, gabion baskets at the end of the terrace beds to be filled, concrete sleepers to be cut and squeezed into position, and of course the daily watering. It really was a hive of activity, until we decided to call it quits at about 9.30 when it was already getting too hot to work.

So how are the seeds and seedlings we planted before Christmas going? Fantastically. I think we are all a little surprised at how well things have grown and survived with the heat.

We have even started to pick zucchini and cucumber in the last week or so. Can't wait until we have all the infrastructure in place, and we can plant it all out. Next summer should be spectacular!

Shade glorious shade.......

Things are moving ahead at the Community Garden. Our main shelter  has come to life in recent months. Just as with the rest of the garden, the shelter has been made from recycled materials. The main beams have been made by "laminating" layers of recycled timbers (once we pulled all the old nails out!).

The upright posts are solid tree trunks complete with bark, and took some fancy chainsaw work to get them all level.

The next step is to have a concrete slab poured, but that hasn't stopped us using it for shade. And boy do we need it, with the next 4 days forecast to be between 41C  - 44C

Step to it......

It may not look like much has changed at the community garden, but it has been buzzing.

One of the community corrections gang is a qualified plumber, so it has been great to have his help laying the main irrigation pipes, and hooking up to the water tanks.

We have planted out the steep slope at the base of the "utility area" to stabilize the bank. They are all tube stock of local species grown by Jill Dawson from Our Native Garden, and are super healthy. They have been in for 4 weeks now, and already starting to flower. Jill gave us a great tip to suppress the weeds. She suggested we use water soaked shredded paper around each plant (up close to the stem) to block out any light from the weeds that would inevitable grow. Together with layers and layers of soaked newspapers and a generous layer of mulch, it seems to be working well.

The recycled concrete drain pipes have been driven into the ground to build a retaining wall to help support the bank. We are going to smooth off the rough edges and plant into the pipes. Should look great with plants trailing over the edge.

 

The real success  over the last few weeks has been the building of the main steps from the lower level to the "utility space". Being a gardener on a slopping block, I really value the importance of a good step. These ones are fantastic.

A community garden is about "community" as much as it is about "garden", so I want tell you about the people who are part of our garden community. 

Les has his back to us in this shot, and he has been a driving force in getting the garden built. He wasn't happy with how the steps had worked out first time round, so ripped them out and started again. So at 5.30am he was mixing concrete, read to re-lay the steps.

Elaine is getting an update from Les, and is our project coordinator and mentor from Sustainable Gardening Australia. She has been instrumental in getting our garden and four others built through the "Community Gardens in Bushfire Affected Areas" project, and is passionate about community gardens and the benefits they bring. Unfortunately the government has pulled the funding from SGA, and Elaine is the last staff member remaining. Thankfully she is staying on to see our project to conclusion at the end of the year. Even though she will not have a "business" connection to the garden any more, we all hope she will still feel a personal connection to what she has helped build.

So what next for the garden? We have the planning permit through to start a build the pergola / shelter on the lower level, so that looks like the next step!

The first planting in the Community Garden...

It has been a busy few weeks at the Community Garden. 

Weather has not been our friend over the last couple of weeks, with rain making the site too muddy to work on many days. So when the sun has shone, we have made the most of it.

We have had a great workshop on grafting. Having been the recipient of a surgical graft, I can sure see the similarities.

The Corrections Victoria guys have been back a couple of times to continue with the retaining walls, and this week they start on building the steps between the beds. I have to say that without their help, we would be so much further behind.

The steel bars have been driven into the ground for the curved gabion wall, and there has been heaps of shoveling of very heavy wet soil to back fill the retaining walls.

And most importantly, we have the first plants in. The top terrace is a row of fruit trees, that will be espaliered across the pool fence.

Full steam ahead....

It sure is full steam ahead at the Community Garden. 

Saturday dawned a beautiful morning, just right for a working bee. 

The angle iron was cut and welded to form a "T", so that it will hold the concrete sleepers that make the retaining walls. They sure were heavy!

around 300 metres of recycled steel have gone into the ground

Thanks goodness for Ron and his digger (I know it has a proper name, but we just refer to it as the digger). He was able to push each "T" at least 1.5meters into the ground. We would still be there if we had to drive them in by hand!

You can see from these photos that it is not a flat site. Far from it. The terracing really is going to be the focal point of the garden and is going to give us about 90m of veggie beds. Should be plenty of room to grow what every we want here. With the community swimming pool right next door, we hope people will drop by after they have been for a swim.

where there is will there is a way

Today we had the wonderful help of the residents from the local Corrections Victoria establishment. They worked so hard and were extremely polite. I was even referred to "madam" when I was in the way and they needed to get past. They physically lifted the recycled concrete sleepers (about 100kg each) into place on all three terraces. I'm sure they all slept well tonight.

the retaining walls still need to be tweaked and back filled

 So what next? Well, we need to get the top terrace in shape so we can get the bare rooted fruit trees in place. They really should have been in the ground 3 weeks ago, so it's all hands on deck on Saturday to get them in the ground.

More later...

Building a "Community" garden...

Our community has been fortunate to be able to secure a grant to build a "Community Garden" through  Sustainable Gardening Australia & the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust. There has been a lot of decisions to make, and ideas to follow up. The struggle to find a site that would work for us, took us through two other options before the local council was able to commit to "our site". Sitting between Commissioner's Creek and the local swimming pool, it has huge potential. The garden isn't a garden where people have an allotment. Rather it is a garden for the community. To garden together, to catch up, to chat, to laugh and to share skills.

willow tree removal - photo thanks to Yackandandah Community Garden web site

There has been community forums to talk about what we want to use the garden for. This was a really interesting session. We have people who are keen amateur gardeners through to professional nursery men. People in their 20's through to people in their 70's. People who have large country gardens and those on town blocks. We are a true cross section with a wealth of experience. We pooled our ideas to come up with a draft plan.

Brainstorming design ideas

Plan designed by Tabatha Barclay

 It has been a wet winter, but on Sunday things started to progress.The two donated 22,000lt water tanks were man / woman handled into place. It has been fantastic to see what has been donated. We are very fortunate.

many hands make light work

We are using a shipping container as our shed, and will cut a door and add a roof with veranda to make it look more like a "shed".

fancy foot work to attach the moving chains

The positioning of the container at the top of the site has the potential to go so very wrong, but thankfully went really well.

So after a morning of progress, a cup of tea and scones was just what we needed.

As a keen gardener, it is so exciting to see progress. Can't wait for the raised beds to go in, and w can start planting!