Garden open to growing Community

THE Meredith Community Garden opened on Monday afternoon and is now accessible to local residents keen to try their hand, or green thumb, at growing.

The planning, designing and development of the space is an ongoing collaboration between charity, Hands of Change and Meredith Primary School’s grade 5 and 6 pupils as part of life skills program, Nurturing Young Minds for Their Future.

Pulled together in less than a term, with the support of experts who mentored the children and community volunteers, principal Steven Trotter said the garden was meant to be a 12-month project on the block adjacent to the Meredith Sharing Shed.

He said community engagement has been “remarkable” in accelerating work at the site, to help the children gain experiences they normally wouldn’t get in a classroom.

“The skills that are being developed, like the critical thinking and creativity, are 21st century skills,” he said.

“Heavy lifting was done by adults, but all the hands-on development stuff, the kids have done themselves. Everything from the design, where the paths and fence posts are, they’ve built the garden beds, planted everything and dug up the turf.

“As a principal, I’m extremely proud of what they’ve been able to achieve and the concepts they’ve developed, and this will be something they’ll look back on in years to come and keep an interest in it.”

Twelve-year-old student leader Harley said he’s had fun building elements of the space alongside his mates.

“A lot of us like gardening, so we’ve all enjoyed working as a team and coming over on a Monday and Thursday,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to seeing people use it and we feel proud that we’ve done something for the community.”

Hands of Change co-director Chris Ardrey said the garden is open for anyone to use, and will be a place for ongoing collaboration with the school next year.

“We’re looking forward to working with the new year fives, and those moving up to year six,” he said.

“We’ll be building out the garden a bit more with more wicking beds, we’ll get a roof on the pergola for shade and put some irrigation in.”

The Meredith Community pantry, which has been well-used during the pandemic, has moved to a discreet corner at the back of the Garden, previously down the side of the school.