Group working on growing community garden in Port

A GROUP of volunteers from Portarlington are currently working on growing a community garden in their seaside town.
The Portarlington Community Garden Discussion group met through their volunteer work for the Portarlington Food is Free Laneway and thought it would be a great idea for Portarlington to have its own community garden.
“A lot of people think that there is already a community garden at the school, however that garden is not open for the public to use,” member Celia Adams said.
“We want to have a place where people can have their own plots to grow food and also have a community plot to grow food for the laneway project.
“We envisage that the Food is Free Laneway will be moved to the site of the community garden once it’s established.”
Celia said the group was currently at the very beginning stages of formulating a vision for a community garden in Portarlington and wanted to put a call out for any interested people to come and join them.
“The proposed Portarlington Community Garden will be a welcoming place for all locals to come and grow organic food and form community connections,” she said.
“It will be a place of inclusion and acceptance for citizens of all abilities, ages, gender and cultural background.
“The garden’s guiding principles will be to bring locals together to promote food security, sustainability, health, well-being, and making new friends.”
Celia said the group was looking for a central site in Portarlington for the community garden and have approached the council (COGG) and Bellarine Bayside for help.
“Bellarine Community Health has approached Barwon Water on our behalf also,” she said.
“We look forward to being able to secure a permanent site for this exciting project.
“As one of our current members commented; Portarlington is long overdue for a community garden!”
If anyone is interested in getting involved they can visit their Facebook group “Portarlington Community Garden Discussion” or come to the next meeting on Saturday November 9 at the Freemasons Hall (the former site of the Portarlington Neighbourhood House), 28-32 Brown Street, Portarlington at 2pm.