SLC Garden Diary

Autumn / Winter 2006 – The Beginning

On Thursday 16^th March 2006, at the launch of the Sustainability Learning Community, students expressed a desire to start an organic garden on the ANU campus.

The objectives of the garden:

• Increase interaction amongst staff and students
• Foster a sense of community among participants
• Provide opportunities for hands-on interdisciplinary educational experiences
• Create a living laboratory / outdoor classroom
• Make use of available composting materials from ANU campus (landscaping waste currently and food waste in the future)
• Create a relaxing and creative space on campus
• Provide alternative outdoor physical activities (other than sport)
• Foster sense of involvement and belonging to the university
• Employ organic gardening principles and offer workshops on gardening topics

During this time students put together a detailed garden proposal to be submitted to Facilities and Services and for approval.

 

Spring / Summer 2006

 

The garden proposal was approved and we were allocated a site in a beautiful and hidden away corner of the campus near Lake Burley Griffin. Work began with students preparing the beds with compost from the campus gardeners and then putting up a fence and planting tomato and pumpkin seedlings.

In January 2007, just a few weeks after our first planting, we found out that we were going to have to move our new garden! We were notified that a transportable building was being moved in to house none other than the Canberra Environment and Sustainability Resource Centre. After the initial agony of this news, we realised the Environment Centre would be a terrific neighbour and their presence would likely mean that the garden would not be threatened in the future. So we spent several afternoons preparing new beds and transplanting the veggies.

 

Autumn / Winter 2007

 

While traumatised, the plants survived the move (and a massive hailstorm in February) and we saw a small harvest this May.

Also in May, the SLC garden was donated a worm farm.  It was set up in early June and we have since run several vermicomposting workshops.

A green precinct is being formed around our garden now with the presence of both the Canberra Environment Centre and the new ANU Bike Co-op. Together with the Canberra Environment Centre, the Sustainability Learning Community has put in a proposal to expand the garden and implement Permaculture and no-dig garden principles.  A trained Permaculture designer created a plan for the space around the Centre and we are awaiting approval. We will also pursue funding for rainwater tanks as water use restrictions get ever tighter.

 

Spring 2007

Our no-dig garden proposal was approved and we are making plans to create several terraced garden beds on a slope behind the Environment Centre.  Our terraces will be built with retaining walls of old yellow pages in an attempt to reuse a waste material.  It will be an interesting experiment.
 

This winter we have hosted several gardening workshops on composting and vermicomposting and are ready for spring to arrive!

Summer 2007

Two terraced beds have been built thanks to the hard work of a very dedicated group of students!  The soil came from the university's in-vessel organic recycling unit (the HotRot) which composts food waste from the campus residence halls and cafes.  The phone book retaining walls have held up to some torrential rains - so far, so good!  We have more basil than we know what to do with so pesto making is on the agenda!



For more on recent happenings in the garden, see the blog at www.slcgarden.blogspot.com.