Bruce Molloy - Edible Landscapes

Over the past several weeks Edible Landscapes has been looking for a venue in the Deception Bay Region to host an 8 week health literacy program which is kindly sponsored by MB Council & Qld Health. One of the venues suggested to us was the PCYC where we hosted our Community Gardening Workshop late last year. This was a perfect opportunity for us to discuss the possibility of combining the health literacy program with a community garden.

A site assessment for the program was done over several sites and the PCYC won hands down. See this document for full details of the top 3 sites - site-assessment---fiteracy-edible-garden.pdf. Jeremy Arato from PCYC then took our suggestions to the committee and they agreed, in principal, to having a community garden in the front of the building. Understandably they would like to be involved in the design process.

The proposed site that borders the PCYC is outside their lease and is managed by MB Council. When Council was approached verbally with the idea their response was "a number of approvals, plans and governance model would have to be applied for and drafted to attempt to make it happen, with no guarantee of use."

Although frustrating, this is understandable. So... NOW IS THE TIME FOR COMMUNITY ACTION if you would like to see a garden at the PCYC.

For those of you who were at the workshops you could recall 'The Lone Nut' scenario, below is a reminder. I have gone as far as I can at the moment with this, so I'm looking to embrace the 'first followers' and to help you make this garden possible.

The next step in this process is to let Jeremy Arato from PCYC know asap that the community WANTS a community grarden and that you're willing to help make it happen. Follow this up with a public meeting and invite your local Councillor.

Edible Landscapes can help in any way we can, but for now it's up to the community to gather support.

Send the link to this blog to others in your community, re-post it on your Facebook status and LIKE the MB Community Gardens Facebook page if you haven't already done so. This way you can all stay in touch and make this garden happen.

This website has been set up for you to use. We can create a blog specifically for the PCYC Community Garden that feeds directly into the Facebook page, so contact us if you wish to contribute.

Together, we CAN make a difference.

Edible Landscapes hosted 4 full day workshops in various locations throughout the Moreton Bay Region in December 2011.

With over 35 people attending each workshop the program has been hailed a success.

Thanks to the great support from Moreton Bay Council and Qld Health, a large group of the community are now beginning the journey of creating a sustainable food production garden in their homes, at community groups or have started negotiations with Council for some land.

The workshops included hands on activities on composting, garden design, soils, no-dig gardening, planting seedlings, testing soils, plus lots of other fun activities.

The workshops were designed to be fun and engaging and although it was a long day most participants went away full of energy and enthusiasm.

If you attended the workshops, please share your new found knowledge with others in the Moreton Bay Region.