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Merri-bek Community Gardening

Author : Conyak Support

Open Garden sessions are back at Pentridge Community Garden. Learn to garden in Coburg with your neighbours.

Posted in Events, Pentridge Community Garden By Conyak SupportPosted on

After a disrupted year, we’re very pleased to announce that Open Garden sessions are back at Pentridge Community Garden! Open Gardens will be happening Sundays from 10.30am until daylight savings ends (then we will move back to afternoon sessions).

If you’ve never attended an Open Garden before, here’s how it works:

  • This is our informal, weekly catch up for gardening members. We set the time loosely – people tend to start arriving from 10.30am, but it’s common to see other gardeners deep into the afternoon depending on people’s schedules.
  • We use these sessions as an opportunity to meet other members, discuss what needs to be done in the garden and assign jobs or activities. On a typical day you might see members planting seedlings, weeding, pulling out spent crops, preparing garden beds for new crops, staking vines, spraying fruit trees or pruning the bushes.
  • Open Gardens are also used to tackle some of the bigger jobs at the garden, like building new garden beds or working on the hydroponics system.
  • If you’re new to gardening, we recommend attending an Open Garden session. It’s the quickest way to meet people and learn from our more experienced members.
  • At the end of the session, we sit down for a cuppa and a chat.
  • Before you leave, make sure you take home some fruit and vegies. There’s always something to harvest and plenty to go around.

If this sounds really good to you, but you’re not yet a member, check out our membership options here.

If you’ve never visited Pentridge Community Garden before, you’re welcome to pop in and take a look any time the gate is open. Members of the public are also welcome to drop off their compost during Open Garden sessions.

We hope to see you at our next Open Garden – happening Sundays from 10.30am in the summer months.

Top 5 unusual things we grow at Pentridge Community Garden

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Luffa gourd on the vine
Luffa gourd on the vine

One great thing about having a large communal garden with plenty of room is that we have space to experiment. Yes, we members at Pentridge like our tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini and silverbeet. But we also like to get creative. 

Any member at Pentridge Community Garden is welcome to make suggestions about what we plant and harvest. Sometimes our experiments don’t go to plan – but that’s all part of the fun. 

Here are some of our most unusual crops from the past few years. Interested in getting involved? Click here to find out about becoming a member. 

Dried and prepared luffa

1. Luffa gourd 

The luffa gourd AKA loofa is not for eating at all. That’s right, it’s used to make an exfoliating sponge. Once the fruit is fully grown, we dry them in the shed and slice up the inside for members to use. Here are some that PCG member Steph prepared beautifully! 
Romanesco

2. Romanesco 

Sitting somewhere between a broccoli and a cauliflower, this brassica isn’t something you’ll find in the local supermarket. With beautiful lime green flesh, and a psychedelic fractal growth pattern, these have proven very popular at Pentridge. 

 

Daikon radish

3. Daikon

Daikon is a winter radish and a staple of Japanese cooking. They can be pickled, fermented, or even just grated and added to a sashimi platter. Here’s a large speciment plucked by Pentridge member Susan, before it was sliced up and added to kimchi.

 

4. Tomatillo

A tomatillo looks a bit like a tomato, but it’s so much more than that! These delicious fruit are native to Mexico, and no authentic salsa is complete without them. 
Members at pentridge sorting hops

5. Hops

An attractive vine with a beautiful aroma, and yes, the flowers are a crucial ingredient in beer! Here are members Rex and Aimee harvesting our hops, before the flowers are sorted by Kerry and Susan. 

Pentridge Community Garden is welcoming new members again

Posted in Pentridge Community Garden By Conyak SupportPosted on

Have you been wanting to learn how to garden in the inner city? Maybe you picked up up some skills over lockdown, and you’d like to move to growing your own vegies? 

Great news, because Pentridge Community Garden is accepting new members again.  We’re very excited to welcome new people to our friendly garden in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

You can join online here.

Our community garden is different to most. We didn’t want our garden to just be rows of private beds where individuals don’t interact with each other. So we’ve built a large communal space that we look after together.

Pentridge Community Garden bird's eye view
Yes, nearly all of this huge space is dedicated to communal gardening.

It means that we can learn from one another, experiment with different plants, and we have heaps of different crops on the go. Gardening members share the harvest, and there’s always plenty to go around!

Right now you can visit the garden and expect to go home with rhubarb, zucchini and peas. And we’re planting chillies, capsicum and tomatoes for summer- yum.

We welcome members of all ages, ethnicities, abilities, genders and sexualities. And it’s ok if you are a complete newbie – we are here to help you learn!

Members at Pentridge Community Garden
Some of our members harvesting giant zucchini.

So if you’ve been meaning to get more connected to your neighbours and the environment, join us at Pentridge Community Garden!

COVID-19 update 23 June – Pentridge Community Garden

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This page was updated on 23 June 2020.

We have updated our guidelines in light of the new Victorian government rules, and in the context of Moreland being identified as a Coronavirus hotspot. Please take the time to read these.
The new guidelines for Pentridge Community Garden, effective immediately, are:
  • Gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed, providing social distancing is maintained. (1.5m)
  • Ad-hoc visits continue to be registered by posting in the closed members’ Facebook group. (The organiser starts the post and people who want to attend comment. Organiser limits attendees to 10.)
  • Open garden sessions will contnibue on Sunday afternoons. We’d like to see members register their intention to attend in the group. All attendees must tick their names off the attendance sheet.
  • We encourage the use of gloves where practical. Please bring your own gloves to the garden.
The shed will be open for use, provided the following guidelines are adhered to:
  • Gloves must be worn when opening and closing the shed.
  • Shared tools must be disinfected at the start and end of each session. If you’re using a tool, it’s your responsibility to make sure this is done.
  • A maximum of 2 people are allowed in the shed at once, providing social distancing is maintained. (1.5m)
The following guidelines have not changed:
  • Do not attend the garden if you are ill, you have arrived from overseas within the last fortnight, or you have been in touch with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
  • The compost hub will remain closed to the general public.
  • Avoid shared surfaces & common areas (tables, chairs, potting benches etc.) If you must use these areas, disinfect them before and after use
  • Soap and water and sanitiser is available at the garden for your use.
Moreland has been identified as a Coronavirus ‘hotspot’, which means we must be extra vigilant with hygiene, and limiting gatherings to 10. 
We encourage members from outside Moreland to reconsider whether you need to attend the garden over the next three weeks. This especially applies to members in the adjacent LGA of Darebin, which has also been identified as a ‘hotspot’.

COVID-19 update 19 June – Pentridge Community Garden

Posted in Uncategorised By Conyak SupportPosted on

This page was updated on 19 June 2020 and has been superceded. Please look for the most recent COVID-19 post. 

The new guidelines for Pentridge Community Garden, effective immediately, are:
  • Gatherings of up to 20 people are allowed, providing social distancing is maintained. (1.5m)
  • Ad-hoc visits continue to be registered by Facebook post in our closed members’ Facebook Group. (The organiser starts the post and people who want to attend comment. Organiser limits attendees to 20.)
  • Open garden sessions will start again from Sunday 7th June. We’d like to see members register their intention to attend in the group. All attendees must tick their names off the attendance sheet.
  • We encourage the use of gloves where practical. Please bring your own gloves to the garden.
Additionally, the shed will be open for use, provided the following guidelines are adhered to:
  • Gloves must be worn when opening and closing the shed.
  • Shared tools must be disinfected at the start and end of each session. If you’re using a tool, it’s your responsibility to make sure this is done.
  • A maximum of 2 people are allowed in the shed at once, providing social distancing is maintained. (1.5m)
The following guidelines have not changed:
  • Do not attend the garden if you are ill, you have arrived from overseas within the last fortnight, or you have been in touch with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
  • The compost hub will remain closed to the general public.
  • We are still not able to accept new membership requests.
  • Avoid shared surfaces & common areas (tables, chairs, potting benches etc.) If you must use these areas, disinfect them before and after use
  • Soap and water and sanitiser is available at the garden for your use.

March News

Posted in Uncategorised By Conyak SupportPosted on

Moreland Community Gardening and our gardens Pentridge and West Brunswick fully support the recent measures being put in place by the government to protect the community, including social distancing and closing down non-essential services.

Formal gatherings at the gardens will not be promoted. We love that the garden is a safe community space and encourage you to reach out and organise to garden together safely. Please keep in mind the Prime Ministers briefing from the 24th March, which encourages people not to congregate in groups larger than 10 and maintain your social distance of 1.5m.

The garden remains open for members to garden in their own time. We see gardening as a valuable activity in these difficult times. We do not want to minimise access to anyone. Our essential service at this time is harvesting and planting food and maintenance (ie watering, weeding).

If you are isolating to protect your health and would like to access the garden alone, please use the facebook group to let your fellow gardeners know. We all want to support the health and wellbeing of all our members including the most vulnerable. If you are unwell or have been directed to self-isolate please contact your garden to ask for help to maintain your plot or for other support, and stay home, rest and recover.

In order to protect our current membership we are putting a temporary hold on new memberships, as at this time we cannot safely welcome new members to the garden.

Also, if you are experiencing financial hardship, please reply by email or contact your garden via email. We can extend memberships through this period.

Your garden Organising Committee is actively looking at ways we can still garden and keep engaged.

– Even if you are not a Facebooker – we encourage you to sign up and join your garden’s Facebook group. These groups are an easy way to connect with your community & for organising committees to share tasks at the gardens.

Pentridge Pentridge Community Garden Members

West Brunswick West Brunswick Community Garden And Food Forest Members

You can also contact us at hello.wbcg@morelandcommunitygardening.org or hello.pentridge@morelandcommunitygardening.org

You can keep in touch through our members only facebook page, the noticeboard at the shed or via email.

And please remember to:

1. Wash your hands

2. Practice social distancing

3. Stay home and recover if you are unwell.

4. Maximum of 2 people in the shed at a time

5. Please wipe down tools and high touch surfaces such as door handles, hose fittings and locks after use with the supplied spray and/or wipes

6. Please bring gardening gloves with you from home, or if you use a pair from the shed take them home to wash after use

7. Wash all produce you take home

We will continue to monitor the advice from the Federal and State governments and will make further announcements as required.

Stay safe and support each other. We will get through this together.

Moreland Community Gardening, West Brunswick Community Garden and Pentridge Community Garden.

Happy Gardening!

The Head Gardener

Statement on COVID-19

Posted in Uncategorised By Conyak SupportPosted on

Statement on COVID-19

Gardening and safety with COVID-19
Update on 27 March 2020

Moreland Community Gardening and our gardens Pentridge and West Brunswick fully support the recent measures being put in place by the government to protect the community, including social distancing and closing down non-essential services.
Formal gatherings at the gardens will not be promoted. We love that the garden is a safe community space and encourage you to reach out and organise to garden together safely. Please keep in mind the Prime Ministers briefing from the 24th March, which encourages people not to congregate in groups larger than 10 and maintain your social distance of 1.5m.
The garden remains open for members to garden in their own time. We see gardening as a valuable activity in these difficult times. We do not want to minimise access to anyone. Our essential service at this time is harvesting and planting food and maintenance (ie watering, weeding).
If you are isolating to protect your health and would like to access the garden alone, please use the facebook group to let your fellow gardeners know. We all want to support the health and wellbeing of all our members including the most vulnerable. If you are unwell or have been directed to self-isolate please contact your garden to ask for help to maintain your plot or for other support, and stay home, rest and recover.
In order to protect our current membership we are putting a temporary hold on new memberships, as at this time we cannot safely welcome new members to the garden.
Also, if you are experiencing financial hardship, please reply by email or contact your garden via email. We can extend memberships through this period.
Your garden Organising Committee is actively looking at ways we can still garden and keep engaged.
– Even if you are not a Facebooker – we encourage you to sign up and join your garden’s Facebook group. These groups are an easy way to connect with your community & for organising committees to share tasks at the gardens.
Pentridge Pentridge Community Garden Members
West Brunswick West Brunswick Community Garden And Food Forest Members
You can also contact us via email at

hello.wbcg@merribekcg.org

hello.pentridge@merribekcg.org

You can keep in touch through our members only facebook page, the noticeboard at the shed or via email.
And please remember to:

1. Wash your hands
2. Practice social distancing
3. Stay home and recover if you are unwell.
4. Maximum of 2 people in the shed at a time
5. Please wipe down tools and high touch surfaces such as door handles, hose fittings and locks after use with the supplied spray and/or wipes
6. Please bring gardening gloves with you from home, or if you use a pair from the shed take them home to wash after use
7. Wash all produce you take home

We will continue to monitor the advice from the Federal and State governments and will make further announcements as required.
Stay safe and support each other. We will get through this together.

Moreland Community Gardening, West Brunswick Community Garden and Pentridge Community Garden.

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