A couple of times a week for the past year, on my way to Punk Monk headquarters in Alexandria, I pass this vacant block of land on Erskineville Rd. For the most part (and apparently for the last 40 years) it has been wasted space fenced off with a gate sporting a big lock.
For a while a hand drawn sign read "Another development?" with a box ticked NO and underneath "Community Garden?" with a box ticked YES. When this was torn down I panicked assuming that the council land was to be re-zoned, sold and would become another ugly block of flats like the ones that loom behind it.
A few weeks ago I almost wet my pants as I set my eyes upon what appeared to be the beginnings of a community garden. A compost bin, a no dig garden (with tomatoes), a small passion fruit plant to climb up the fence and beautiful colour artworks- it seems that "Erko kidz heart gardens" and "want change". This couldn't make me happier. All the times I have walked past, yearning for a community garden and getting worked up about it ,I've not done a thing about it. The Erskineville youth are now making their mark, with another working body behind them (The Watershed or Redwatch are my guesses).
With the possibility of unused space, right near the proposed garden being turned into a supermarket, its exciting to think that some kids these days actually care about the fact that real food comes from the ground, not Coles. Redwatch have had this in mind as they have struggled for some time now trying to allow the council land to be opened up for community use. Council will not budge- WHY?
Read more here.
With 13 community gardens across Sydney including my favourite at Love Grub, just around the corner from Punk Monk headquarters in Alexandria, can we please have one more?
Watch this space, ideas about how we may get involved are brewing....
No comments:
Post a Comment