The Launch

What a Launch!

The Northcote Library Food Garden was officially launched on Saturday 3^rd September. Around one hundred people visited the garden on the day and enjoyed the great community atmosphere.

The Melbourne Ukulele Kollective (MUK) set a rollicking tone for the launch, entertaining the crowd with their garden-themed tunes and equally ‘green’-themed outfits. Cr Trent McCarthy, of the City of Darebin, launched the garden, noting that the Food Garden is the first in Australia adjacent to a public library and the possibilities that such a partnership could entail.

Visitors gathering in the sunshine to enjoy MUK

The Darebin Urban Harvest Food Swap re-located to the garden for the morning (find out more information about their monthly swap by clicking on the link). Angelo Eliades gave visitors a garden ‘tour’, explained the garden’s design, particularly that of the Food Forest, and described the broad permaculture principles at work throughout the garden.

Seila Hierk gave lots of tips for successful Spring planting

Children were able to propagate some summer vegetable seedlings to take home during the children’s gardening workshop,before planting sunflower seeds in the garden.

Our first two workshops were well attended and very informative. Seila Hierk ran an informative workshop on seasonal planting and preparation and John Pinnegar led a discussion on fruit production in the home garden. See his guide to Year Round Fruit in Melbourne below. Our thanks go to Seila and John for running these workshops. We hope to develop a regular schedule of gardening workshops for the community to attend throughout the coming seasons.

A gallery of more images from the launch will appear soon!

The Darebin Urban Harvest Food Swap table laden with produce

The crowd enjoying the musical stylings of MUK in the sunshine