Secateurs Community Garden
Post
Subscribe
Community gardens are places where people come together to grow fresh food, make new friends, enjoy the green spaces and learn new things. Adelaide is fortunate to have a thriving community garden right in its centre. The wonderfully productive
can be found on the grounds of Waverley House, St Andrews Hospital on South Terrace.
Behind the Heritage Listed Stone Walls
The garden is a haven in the city with charming cottage plantings alongside herbs, fruit trees and vegetables. The signs tell you that any produce is for garden members only, but anyone is welcome to visit. The garden is contained within the substantial heritage-listed stone walls of Waverley House.
Relaxing Garden Haven
is a relatively unknown community garden within the hospital grounds in front of the historic Waverley House, and also close to the parklands. It is a relaxing space for hospital staff, patients and visitors, with its leafy scented green spaces.
Waverley House
Waverley House was built in 1865 on the edge of the South Parklands and is one of the oldest two-storey mansions to survive in the south-east corner of the city, with its grounds still covering an acre of land.
Benefits of Community Gardening
There are many benefits of participating in community gardening including access to fresh, nutritious food, making friends with people in the neighbourhood, building a sense of community and learning the new skills of gardening. It is also a healthy way to exercise and learn how to make decisions and cooperate while creating a successful community garden.
Companion Planting
is an organic, pesticide-free garden that seeks to foster a community of plants, birds and insects that work together in a cohesive, balanced way. Some examples of companion planting include orange-flowered calendulas which are grown as companion plants with seasonal vegetables, for their ability to keep pests at bay and help soil health. The wormwood hedges assist as a natural insecticide to combat bugs.
In the Beginning
The garden began in earnest in 2010 when local gardeners got together following a campaign to find a location to start a community garden. St Andrews Hospital came on board and gave the gardeners the space to develop a garden on the Waverley House grounds, with an old coach room to keep their tools in. Previously the garden was quite a barren space, which is hard to believe looking at the space today.
The Secret Garden
The garden features a corner of space known as the Secret Garden, in which children from a nearby childcare centre regularly visit to play. Clearly there are many connections formed by this city garden project, including with the patients from the hospital.
Therapeutic gardens
Therapeutic gardens are increasingly being planted at hospitals. Flinders Medical Centre has one on level 7 in the new rehabilitation building, there is one at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and there are many green spaces in the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. McLaren Vale Hospital also has garden spaces that are greatly assisted by volunteer gardeners.
Productive Garden
in Waverley House is extra special as it's a productive garden that provides vegetables and herbs for the gardeners and hospital. All while being a source of refuge and green space in the city metropolis. It is indeed a garden haven in the city.
#adelaide_city
#adelaide_hills
#child_friendly
#eastern_suburbs
#free
#gardening
#gardens
#greater_adelaide
#handmade
#historic_houses
#near_adelaide
#northern_suburbs
#outdoor
#south_australia
#southern_suburbs
#things_to_see
#western_suburbs
%wnadelaide
212868 - 2023-06-16 06:50:08