With its freshly painted shed, seats and picnic table that are placed in the shade of one of the beautiful trees, the lot on the corner of Swanbrook Road and Byron Street is growing more and more into a fertile hangout for people with green thumbs.

And there is more to come. 

A working bee on Saturday, February 15 should result in three large raised garden beds with timber sleepers, a couple of compost bins and benches in the hot house to propagate seedlings and in the next couple of months a fenced area will be put in to place to keep chooks. 

Landcare co-ordinator Sarah Priest said although the community group was amazing already, working together growing produce on most Saturday mornings, she was hoping to welcome more members.

“Logistically and practically we need more people to fulfil our vision of having a fully operational ,productive, environmentally sustainable garden, to enjoy and were members can share their passion and learn from each other,” she said. 

The community group currently has around 30 paying members, but they are not all active.  Sarah explained that being part of the community garden did not have to cost heaps of time. “We don’t expect everyone to be there every Saturday or even every second Saturday,” she said, and added everyone was welcome to come as much as they pleased.

Membership for the community garden costs $30 for a family, $25 for an individual and $20 concession per year, and for that a member can take part in growing produce on the public plots, or choose to lease their own plot for $10 per meter per year. 

Members also get a token that gives them discount and specials at the Farmers’ Market once a month and membership. 

During the working bee Sarah plans to have some signs for in the public garden created such as ‘Water and weed, and pick a feed’,  The public garden operates under the principle ‘help out, and help yourself to the produce’.

Members don’t need gardening experience Sarah said, inferring the garden is the right place to come to learn the trade as there are plenty of knowledgeable people around and everyone learns from each other.

“It is such an encouragement to be part of the group,” she said. “During the morning tea we often have discussions ranging from the state of the world to the state of the garden.”

Not only individuals can be part of the community garden, and two education providers are about to join in.

The Community College has just signed a lease for a four-meter plot to engage students of the life skills program in gardening, teaching them about ‘healthy eating and healthy living’, and the Macintyre High School will soon have their sheep roaming around at the back of the community garden. “There is more feed here,” Sarah said.

The plan is to keep improving and decorating the garden, and donations of material such as timber or corrugated iron, or even garden art are more than welcome. 

After a month of absence, the Farmers’ Market is back on tomorrow from 8am to 1pm. 

Sarah urged everyone interested in gardening to come along and not to miss the lunar gardening workshop by Jane O’Brien at 10am and the screening of the 30 minute documentary ‘Waste Not’ about garbage and recycling, that will be ‘on repeat’ from 10.30am onwards. 

The garden committee has a lot planned for 2014 and Sarah revealed that the internationally renowned sustainable agriculture and horticulture expert Graeme Sait will come to Inverell to host a weekend workshop on sustainable farming. The committee is open for expressions of interest, but an exact date has not been set. 

Before heading back to her veggies, Sarah said she’d like to thank the BEST Employment’s Work for the Dole team for mowing the lawn before every farmers’ market.

Now that BEST Employment was mentioned, Sarah also clarified that the BEST food gardens behind the nursery should not be confused with the community garden. 

“At BEST they grow food for pensioners, whereas the community garden offers members of the community the opportunity to grow their own food.”