May 2008

Community garden for Park Towers

Keen public housing gardeners at Park Towers in South Melbourne now have access to their own community garden.

Housing Minister Richard Wynne joined local tenants and representatives of gardening group Cultivating Community to open the Park Towers community garden near the high-rise estate in South Melbourne.

The Park Towers community garden had grown out of discussions with tenants in September last year.

‘Gardening together is a wonderful way of relaxing, getting fit and building the community,’ Mr Wynne said.

‘This new community garden is a wonderful achievement and I’d like to thank Cultivating Community and, of course, the local tenants for their hard work in getting this new garden up and running.’

Cultivating Community is funded by the Government to provide, support and manage 20 community gardens on public housing estates across Melbourne.

The garden is available to the tenants of the nearby high-rise towers, which includes Russian, Arabic and Turkish speaking groups.

The garden includes;

•           Twenty-two individual plots for gardeners;

•           Eight communal garden beds consisting of fruit trees and herbs for shared usage;

•           Raised garden beds to help those with mobility impairments;

•           Usage of recycled materials where possible;

•           A water tank and composting system.

‘Tenants have been actively involved in the design of the garden and have shown great enthusiasm as the garden neared completion,’ Mr Wynne said.

‘I understand that a number of long-term unemployed people helped to build the garden, through the Brotherhood of Saint Laurence Social Enterprise Program.

‘The program provides training for people who have been out of the workforce for a long time, by giving them apprenticeship opportunities.’