AN edible garden project in Girrawheen is sprouting signs of community interaction.
The Hainsworth Edible Garden has been growing over the past year, bringing community members together to tend its plants.
Volunteer Brett Granger said the City of Wanneroo initiated the project in 2018 to encourage more community interaction and engagement, and to “beautify the area”.
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READ NOW“It’s open to all community members to get involved,” the Banksia Grove resident said.
“It’s a drop-in approach; people come and go and work on the garden as they are able to.
“There’s just a small perimeter fence – anyone wandering through the community can come and appreciate the space.”
Mr Granger said several community members had become involved to “champion the space”, drive its development and create the garden.
“It was decided that an edible garden was what we wanted to focus on,” he said.
The father-of-two said the emphasis was on growing local produce and on horticultural practices, and their motto was “share knowledge, share food”.
“A lot of emphasis is about like-minded community members (who) engage socially using that garden platform as a tool to do that,” he said.
Mr Granger said as well as active garden volunteers, some people got involved by contributing seedlings, others helped with administrative activities and some randomly dropped by when they could to weed it.
He said about 50 to 60 people had expressed an interest so far, and up to 10 had been actively involved.
The Hainsworth Edible Garden is at 29 Hainsworth Avenue, Girrawheen.
Visit the Facebook page for more information.
Perth’s inaugural Grow It Local Festival, which runs until from November 10, is part of nation-wide mission to get more people growing, sharing and eating locally grown foods, driven by the founders of the Garage Sale Trail initiative Andrew Valder and Darryl Nichols.