Ten months ago a plot of land earmarked for use by Taree Community Garden was a blank canvas.
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Today the Wynter Street site features raised garden beds lush with produce, a pergola bearing passionfruit vine, a children’s sensory garden featuring colourful furniture and painted tyres filled with blooms, a pallet garden, a bush tucker garden, a greenhouse, storage shed, compost bays and now there is a paved social area that features a timber table. It is also bordered by a large mural that is a work-in-progress and is being painted by About Inclusion clients and indigenous students at Chatham High School.
It has been a productive and transformative year for the garden, and its community of volunteers is celebrating its first harvest of a garlic crop that is to be sold to raise revenue. It also recently secured $8186 in the first round of MidCoast Council’s Stronger Communities Grants Program. The money will be used to purchase signage, a rotary tiller and irrigation.
The concept of Taree Community Garden and its committed community of volunteers also captured the attention of the federal government and it invested money and teams of Work for the Dole participants to create most of the hard infrastructure on site.
Mid North Coast Community Work for the Dole co-ordinator Heather Hands recently advised the partnership was “just about to come to an end at Taree Community Garden.”
“The team will be working up until Christmas and will finish in January.
“The past six months has seen the team complete a work area with sink and water, the construction of a storage shed and the social area which incorporates a timber table and seating under the shade of beautiful tree.
“The team has been finishing off the paving over the past week and it has given participants the opportunity to develop skills in paving and open up employment options.
“The creative flair of the paving represents the shadow of the tree above and we believe this will be a well-utilised area for future workshops and social gatherings as social inclusion has always been a focal point of the garden with pathways and garden beds created for all to access and enjoy.”
