The community garden experience < our gardens

Western Sydney's garden of celebration

The community garden at the Holy Family centre is part of a widercommittment to community wellbeing.

Kerryn Valeontis, a member of the Gardens for Western Sydney team, reports on how a religious institution embarked on a journey of community gardening...

The Garden of Celebration at Holy Family at Emerton is the other community garden in the Mt Druitt Food Project.

Just driving around the grounds of Holy Family you immediately realise that there is a lot going on there:

• an Aboriginal flag is proudly displayed on the Buntal Aboriginal Arts Centre near the entrance
• set in the bush tucker garden and mounted on giant clap-sticks is the world's largest didgeridoo - which plays - superbly decorated by local artists; alongside is a boomerang-shaped pergola.

Mounds of soil and gravel lie in radiness for the construction of garden paths. Inside the office the walls are plastered, literally 'papered', with photographs of the myriad of community activities that tke place here. These walls definitely talk!

Sister Katherine Ryan, who showed us around, offered us a bowl of soup - a lovely-smeling pot of 'help yourself' broth made from vegetables grown in the gardens and that certainly warmed the spirit.

Taro by the fence

I immediately recognised a taro patch down by the fence. Sister Katherine said it was the initiative of the large Pacific Island community who use the place. She was quick to emphasise that they are growing people here, not veggies!

The vegetable patch was very healthy, chock full of winter lettuce, carrots, peas, cabbage etc in staggered stages of growth.

Sister Katherine said that anyone was welcome to come and work in the garden. The produce is shared by the communiy and the Holy Family community which, I discovered, was a very broad one.

Cheap groceries for families

Among many initiatives at Holy Family, providing cheap groceries for families is one way the produce is shared.

Demand is strong for the cheap, staple items sold rom a small grocery store. Those who spend ten dollars or more are treated to a bonus at the end of their shopping - often this is seasonal vegetables harvested from the garden.

The garden, indeed the whole campus at Holy Family at Emerton is a marvellous example of using available resources, be it old tyres, garden seats or even houses. The garden is only one part of a very vibrant and diverse facility serving the community.

Holy Family has a master plan for development which Coral McLean, director of the Holy Family Education Centre, told me included recent success in obtaining WASAS funding for a community development programme.

The three year programme will focus on the Gardens of Celebration and will celebrate the cultural diversity of Mt Druitt through communoty arts projects.

< top

PAGE UPDATED... Monday, 28 November 2005