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21/09/2009

This week the garden has been a hive of activity as spring has started to poke its head round winter's corner.

We have planted our first crop of mixed lettuce which will be harvested for the BDS Annual General Meeting in October. Some of this has been direct sown into our garden beds and the rest is getting a head start in the hot house. The other Community Garden beds are still being prepared for planting by mulching with newspaper and pea straw.

The hot house is being put to good use with pumpkin, pea, tomato, and leek seeds being planted. We have also linked in with the Princes Hill Community Garden group and are looking after a number of seedlings and plants for them. This is a great example of BDS linking in and assisting the local community.

The general grounds are also getting a spruce up thanks to Hume council and students from Kangan Batman TAFE. The council generously donated some tree chippings and the students who have been coming regularly on Friday afternoons did a great job in spreading it on to some of the beds.

We are also looking for your assistance in helping to design the grounds of BDS. We have had a site report prepared by Steven Wells the former President of Horticultural Therapy Association of Victoria and currently coordinator of the therapeutic garden program at Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre.

To download and read the draft site report please click here.

The document gives some background information and makes a number of suggestions on how to improve our site. We need your ideas and suggestions too, please contact me with any that you have. These will be added to those of our members who are currently visiting a number Therapeutic gardens around Melbourne.

Thank you for the generous donations of newspaper which we now have enough of, we are still looking for donations of vegetable seeds and seedlings, succulents, clear plastic bottles or your time.

Thanks
Ben Neil
Community Development Facilitator
0416 179 952
ben@bds.org.au