The New Cooroy Community Gardens;
Mission: To develop and manage Community Gardens that offer a place for local people to meet together to learn and share skills in growing and enjoying plants; to create demonstration sites for living and consuming in a sustainable manner, following the principles of earth care, people care and fair share.
Dream – What might Cooroy Community Garden look or be like in the future?
It is to become a focus of energy in the community for individuals and groups of all ages and backgrounds that develop skills in growing and enjoying plants and food using a holistic approach to living now and for future generations. We envisage the gardens to become dynamic gardens that continue to evolve to meet new opportunities and horizons. They are to become a place of beauty and health that will incorporate teaching and cooking, school groups, tourists and tours and will be filled with people that teaches how to grow food sustainably.
The committee for the Cooroy Community gardens consists of fifteen keen members of the local community whom have been assigned to various sub committees such as Growers Resource Management and Design, Funding Opportunities and Marketing and Promotion, Education and Community involvement.
- The location of the gardens are between the butter factory and the new Cooroy library and a garden design has been drawn up by Rosina Buckman, Nikolee Ansell and Elisabeth Fekonia and the concept plan has been digitally created by Nikolee and this is displayed at the Cooroy library for the public to view.
A monthly article for the Cooroy Rag is contributed by Celia Donellan with an update on the progress of the gardens so that the local community may keep informed.
The official opening of the CCG was earlier this year on May the 1st with Costa from SBS television giving a wonderful talk of encouragement to around a hundred people who attended. The opening was celebrated with a sausage sizzle and comfrey fritters and Rosina organised the first garden activity of creating a banana circle. It was a beautiful morning with lots of sunshine and the air was a buzz with great anticipation for the new community gardens. The garden design was drawn up on the ground with yellow paint so that people could see what the garden layout was to become on implementation. Regular working bees have been held to start with the weeding out of undesired plants to make room for the future gardens. There is much work to be done but with the community involvement that has been shared so far, it looks like many hands make light work. The enthusiasm for the gardens is very evident by the Cooroy community and anyone is welcome to join in. Working bees are held about every six weeks and for those that would like to join in you can find out the date for the next working bee and see what is on the agenda at the Cooroy library.
We look forward to creating a wonderful opportunity to help people to become more aware of growing their own food through demonstration and participation at the Cooroy Community Gardens.