By Mikayla van Loon
With a vision of creating an educational and welcoming community garden environment, a collaborative project between two key Belgrave organisations has sprouted.
The project, initiated by the Belgrave Tecoma Township Group (BTTG), partnered with The Hills Food Frontier (THFF), aims to reinvigorate the garden beds located at the bottom of the Cameo Cinemas.
Having been neglected for nearly two years during the Covid-19 lockdowns, the once looked after community gardens are now completely overrun with weeds.
BTTG secretary and garden steering committee member Joanne O’Connor said initially an assessment of the garden beds is essential.
“One of our first steps is to, as part of that assessment, see if there’s anything still viable even whether we can collect seeds from things,” she said.
“We were talking about salvaging what we can and then even digging these plants in as green manure to just help replenish the soil.”
With the help of Shakti McLaren from THFF, the garden steering committee is working towards growing healthy and fresh local food to combat the food crisis that will one day be inevitable.
“I started The Hills Food Frontier about six years ago and mainly that was about food security. In 50 years time, we’re not going to be so secure with food in Melbourne,” Ms McLaren said.
“So I’ve just wanted to help people grow food, that’s the basic idea was to grow food and to interrupt the cycle of food that’s overseas driven and create a more locally driven food system.”
Yarra Ranges Council had granted THFF $4000 for an edible villages project which couldn’t go ahead, so instead Ms McLaren decided to put the funds into building a garden in Belgrave.
The grand plan for the restored gardens is to use them as an educational tool to teach people how to grow their own food, something that can be replicated throughout the Hills.
Ms O’Connor said one day she hopes a community garden network can form in the Hills, so that sustainable food practices can be shared right across the region.
Steering committee member Ellie McSheedy said she has never been a part of a community project like this but saw the power of what people can do when they work together through Covid-19.
“This is an amazing resource for teaching and education around food growth, harvest and really optimising food, as well as food waste,” she said.
“My real passion is in how you can best utilise everything. How would you utilise the peels and the tops and all that stuff to really maximise what you’ve got, particularly if you’re on a short budget.”
An important part of this project is also about reestablishing a space for the general public to sit and have a coffee and to socialise.
“There’s an amazing opportunity to make this a community space to bring people together and just really make it useful and vital because I think it’s very underutilised,” Ms McSheedy.
Belgrave Library’s Jasmine Molders is also on board to help incorporate the library’s facilities.
“We previously had, because when we were getting some produce out of the garden, we would often bring it and set it out on the table in the library,” she said.
“I saw the interactions with people, often they’d be coming here for a shower in the morning, they might be homeless living in their cars and they were using this space as it was and they felt a sense of connection to it. They’d have a little dig around and pick something and take it to eat.
“So in that state, as neglected as it was, it was really lovely to see it being used. If we can jump in on that and make it bigger and better, I think that’s a lovely opportunity.”
Inquiries about the gardens or joining the project should be sent to secretary@bttg.org.au
