Volunteers were thrilled to receive recognition for their efforts with a Landcare Community Group Award for the Inverell Community Gardens.
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“It’s very exciting,” gardens chair person Jenny Cracknell said.
“We’ve all put so much work into getting this garden going that it’s really nice that somebody says ‘You’re doing a good job.’”
Co-ordinater Jane O’Brien, who also took home the Landcare Facilitator/Coordinator Award for her efforts, said she believed the gardens stood out for their collaborative focus.
“We’ve created that space where everyone is welcome,” she said.
Many local groups spend time in the gardens.
“Anybody is welcome here anytime,” Jane said. Jenny agreed and said the gardens were a “fertile ground” for disparate groups to come together.
A support group for parents with autistic children meet regularly in the gardens and Inverell District Family Daycare children love to explore the space.
Jane said the committee appreciated the wealth of knowledge students from the Danthonia Bruderholf brought with them each week.
“Danthonia are well renowned for their amazing homegrown produce in their community,” she said.
Macintyre High School students visit weekly as part of their sporting requirement – so many signed up this year the committee had to turn some away.
“I guess it’s popular because there’s a variety of activities you can do here. We also give the kids some choice and a place for creativity, and coming up with their own projects,” Jane said.
Last year the group created a water feature for the space. Cooking with the garden’s produce is also a favourite activity for many.
The gardens have a wide range of ongoing projects catering to a variety of interests to encourage the local community to work together to produce sustainable food.
“We have the garden beds where people garden, we have market produce available every Saturday that’s grown here… we have chooks,” volunteer and committee member Katherine McGee said.
“We also have a composting project. We have Brighter Access collecting waste from cafes downtown and the garden guys that bring their waste down. That gets turned into compost that then goes into the garden to grow food.”
Jenny said the group works hard to fulfill their motto ‘Nurturing Plants, People and the Planet’. She said the gardens were created to counteract the imbalance created by global food energy and security issues.
“In the 1900s, Inverell was completely self sufficient. We thought ‘If we were once, we could be again,’” Jenny said.