Join our new Beeston Street Indigenous food garden project and you might find yourself planting seeds, digging swales or mulching the garden beds. The easy access and street-side position of our new community garden will invite our student and local community to work together and enjoy this new, natural area.
In part 2 of our Beeston Street stories, we asked our Gardens Group manager Julie how you can get involved. Feel free to reach out to Julie with any queries or offers of support on gardening@nfsspandc.com.au
How will our students be involved in this project?
We’re going to get our students involved in a whole range of activities. At this early stage gardening may not be part of an average school day, but we’re expecting a large number of our students to offer some before school or weekend working bee help. We’re thinking activities like selecting plants, meeting Turrbal elders, digging swales (broad, shallow ditches), planting seedlings, making signage or installing nest boxes and our pond.
As the garden progresses, our students will start to make use of the outdoor classroom which opens up a whole range of learning activities including monitoring the wildlife habitat. (Wildlife happens to be the next topic in our Beeston Street stories!).
How is the local community being invited to work with us?
Our school neighbours are already working with us to plan the new space. A wider call to our community to join in the working bees and beyond will be made through notices in the local library, the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre and the Village Voice magazine. We’ve also reached out to our ‘grand-friends’ at AVEO.
An integral part of this space is local Indigenous engagement and consultation. We will be inviting our Elders to honour and share the history of the land, and as paid consultants throughout the project.
Our wonderful local Teneriffe Habitat Helpers group, who have worked to regenerate other local spaces, have already helped us out by providing a local native species list and will be invited to join our working bees.
I’m a family member – give me a job!
Our parents and other family members will not miss out! We’re planning working bees throughout Terms 3 and 4 and during the September school holidays – all dates will be advertised on our Latest page, and through the usual school channels (class rep, school newsletter). Like the students, there will be a range of ways to get involved – from digging to planting to creating signage. We can’t wait to see you there.
I’m short on time, how can I help?
This garden project has already received one large funding grant and we have a couple of other grant applications pending. To complete this area properly however we will need our school and community to provide some additional funding support. We have great plans to get this moving, and will soon be offering a funding shopping page! Purchase a slab of fencing, a selection of your favourite plants or contribute to our wildlife pond. We are working through options to acknowledge our families and local businesses but please do reach out if you are interested to contribute at this founding stage (gardening@nfsspandc.com.au)
Interested in knowing more?
You’ve just read part 2 of our Beeston Street stories. Missed our first story? Catch up here. We’ll be keeping you up to date throughout the project, so bookmark our Gardens Group page for regular updates. We’ll also publish any new stories in our regular P&C newsletters.
Interested in other ways of gardening? Here’s a recent article on urban rooftop gardens. Let us know of any great stuff you’re reading!
Next time: Wildlife! What we’re expecting to welcome into our garden, and how we plan to keep our native wildlife population flourishing.
