Arts Garden planting seeds of connection

MAINTAINING sustainable gardening practices and creating community connections have been ongoing at the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden for more than 14 years and Geelong-based services like genU have already jumped on board.

genU’s community-run Bellarine Connections program took NDIS participants to the community arts garden, where they met Senator Linda Reynolds and Corangamite Liberal Party candidate Stephanie Asher to showcase the garden.

The Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden caters for people who do not have access to their own gardens or do not have enough garden space at home.

Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden’s coordinator Ian Linley said the garden holds 40 gardening plots for the community varying in terms of size which makes up their 100 total members.

genU’s plot has created a vital community connection with the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden.

“We see the group once or twice a week, they either tend to the garden or sit around having a pleasant time and take a little bit of produce home every now and again,” Mr Linley said.

“Groups like genU are one of the primary reasons why we worked hard to attain a city grant to build a new greenhouse, fully accessible for people in wheelchairs and with disabilities.

“One of our committee members has become quite close with genU’s photography group, so we have a few of their photos on display to give them a bit of promotion.

“The group certainly livens up the place.”

Bellarine Connection’s Community Connection facilitator Elaine Onekawa said the garden visit was “warm”, “inclusive” and “empowering to be a part of”.

Ms Onekawa’s main objective is to make participants feel included and set them up with connections within the Bellarine.

“Once the participants are set up with these connections like they are at the garden, they can then become independent and become active members of the community,” she said.

“The connection Bellarine Connections has with the garden has been an ongoing one, but it will be a community organisation that we will continue introducing to our participants.”

The garden also boasts a communal veggie patch, an orchard, a room for meeting, a covered space with cooking and storage facilities, a pizza oven, a kid’s play area and a poly house for propagation and seed raising.

To find out more about what the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden has to offer, head to
www.bhcommunityartsgarden.com.