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New look Merri-bek Community Gardening

New look Merri-bek Community Gardening

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We are so excited to share with you the new look Merri-bek Community Gardening.

With the financial support of Merri-bek City Council and with our members’ endorsement and the permission of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Council we adopted our new name at our AGM in late Jan 2024. We are excited to share and celebrate our shared culture of caring for the land and each other. 

Merri-bek Community Gardening continues our passion for supporting the community to garden and grow in Merri-bek.

Pentridge Community Garden –

From these humble beginnings Pentridge Community Garden has thrived and grown into a beautiful community space.

As part of their journey, Pentridge Community Garden Inc have set up their own organisation separate from MCG, and are now custodians of the site.

We are so pleased to acknowledge all the successes and positive actions that have been a part of the MCG and PCG relationship over the past 7 years. The members of PCG, represented by a passionate organising committee have built a beautiful community space, and held space for numerous partner organisations to grow and garden together. Licence negotiations, funding, grants and opportunities have been managed through MCG to benefit the Pentridge group and we are so pleased to have helped them grow this far.

You can connect with Pentridge Community Garden in their new virtual home: https://www.pentridgecommunitygarden.org/

WBCG wine sale

Are you worried about what to get friends and family for the festive season? Or just running out of nice wine? Exciting news! The WBCG wine fundraising sale is now on! Pick up will be from 10 Dec in Brunswick West. Go to https://merribekcg.tidyhq.com/…/products to place your order and pay for it by 10 December to collect your wines by Christmas.
All proceeds of the wine sales will go towards the operation of the Garden & Food Forest.

Compost donation for Pentridge Community Garden

Thank you to Veolia Australia & New Zealand and Moreland City Council for donating 10m3 of Back To Earth compost to Pentridge Community Garden!
This compost is provided through the Back To Earth Initiative, which turns Moreland’s household food and green waste into compost. See more info here: https://backtoearth.vic.gov.au/.
The compost will be put to good use helping crops thrive this Summer ☀️

Top 5 unusual things we grow at Pentridge Community Garden

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. 

The gardens are open again!

Victoria is currently under strong COVID lockdown restrictions. We thank gardeners for their patience as we move to accommodate directions from different departments and areas.

As always we are working with the direction from the DHHS website, and with advice from Moreland Council.

Visiting the garden together under the Stay Safe Directions

Attending the gardens is for the purpose of growing and harvesting fresh food only.

We must maintain a register of members to the gardens for EVERY SINGLE PERSON that enters the garden to ensure we don’t exceed numbers allowed. We are still only opening these bookings up to members of MCG/our gardens.

There is a maximum limit of 2 people from 1 household allowed to be in the gardens at one time. This means that particularly on busy weekends, please stay within your allotted time and be considerate of others.

Additionally, for singles, they may attend the garden under the singles bubble rule where they may nominate 1 person outside their household to visit the garden with.

We recommend, as there is limited clarity between departments, that you carry a copy of the MCC email with you when attending. If you don’t have a printer, Richard and Kat have kindly agreed to print copies and leave in the shed.

We are using a simple spreadsheet to book times at the gardens. Links to the booking sheets have been emailed to members. ALSO you must check in at the garden using the QR code.

You should not visit the garden if you are sick.

You can only visit the garden if:

  • You are a member
  • You have booked a timeslot
  • You are not unwell, isolating or waiting test results
  • It is within your 5km zone
  • You check-in using the QR code

At all times while in the garden you must:

  • Wear a mask
  • Adhere to hygiene guidance provided under Staying Safe
  • Use sanitiser when entering/exiting the garden, clean and disinfect high touch surfaces regularly, including hoses etc. 
  • Bring your own water bottle / cup for drinking and take them home again.
  • Sheds will be allowed to be opened, there is only 1 person allowed in the shed at a time and everything used must be sanitised after use. Sanitiser/wipes are available at the gardens.

Other advice:

  • Compost systems – please follow your garden’s FB group directions (see details below)
  • New Members – we are taking new members – induction should include sharing this email and making sure they understand the booking system.
  • No visitors to the gardens
  • Wash all produce from the garden
  • Do not share food or a cuppa at the garden 

Facebook groups:

After the lockdown is over – gardens will return to COVID normal open settings. Please ensure you use the QR code to check in and do not exceed gathering number limits.

Happy Gardening,

Moreland Community Gardening

Temporary closure of gardens due to COVID-19 restrictions

Unfortunately, today we have some not so good news to share. Owing to the recent changes to the DHHS directives found here and here from the 22/8 and 21/8 respectively, we sought direct clarification from DHHS as to their position on the opening of community gardening spaces for the purpose of gardening and gathering food.

The directive from the department was that this was NOT a permitted activity, and we therefore are moving to close the gardens immediately.

We recognise this will be a blow for all of you – the gardens, the joy of growing and sharing space, even when we can’t do so together is a connection that has been important for all of us.

Members of the garden crew will be putting up signs and changing the lock codes so that we don’t miss anyone in this information.

We urge you to reach out to your community in other ways, both our gardens have active facebook member groups:
Pentridge Community Garden Members
West Brunswick Community Garden And Food Forest Members 

We’ll also be looking at scheduling some catch up events over zoom in this period. So, keep an eye on your inbox for news of these.

We hope to see you all at the garden soon,

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

Accessing the gardens during COVID-19 restrictions

Events at our community gardens are currently on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria.

Community garden members, you should have received an email with information about how you can safely visit the garden at the moment (if you didn’t, let us know). The gardens are closed to the public until further notice.

Keep an eye on the calendar on this website for information about events when we can safely meet again. We will also post updates on Facebook:

Moreland Community Gardening

Pentridge Community Garden

West Brunswick Community Garden and Dunstan Reserve Food Forest

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