We’ve been quiet for a while on the Eat My Garden Blog, but in reality 2016 has started with a mission to get out and about to provide increasing opportunities for people to be aware of sustainable living and natural environment in Point Cook.

Eat my Garden has run a number of activities getting involved in local festivals and events to help people understand how to live sustainably within their local environment and connecting people together to learn and share.

Eat My Garden Updates – January and February 2016

Throughout January and February Eat My Garden was involved in the Multicultural Lunar New Year Fiesta at Featherbrook Community Centre. At the festival we ran a stall that allowed us to promote  Eat My Garden and have conversations with the local community.

 The Living Future Festival (a part of Sustainable Living Festival 2016) at the Yarraville Garden also happened in February. Eat My Garden was there with our project partner, NatureWest. This was also a good opportunity for networking with local sustainability groups and the community.

There are heaps of upcoming events that Eat My Gardeners can get involved in:

Sunday 17 April from 11am to 1pm – Eat My Garden will have a Re-planting Day in Point Cook. Watch the Facebook Group for more details or this website.

Monday 4, Wednesday 6 & Friday 8 April – there is an Eco Action Fun Free School Holiday Program to entertain the kids which is run by NatureWest.

Date and Time: 10am to 12pm, 4^th, 6^th and 8^th of April

Where: The Natural History Centre at the Homestead Building in Werribee Park

(Please enter from Gate 5 on K Road and follow the signs)

Age: Primary School Students from Grade 4 to Grade 6

Please find the events on the Wyndham City Council Events Website

To book, please go to EventBrite or contact Miwako@naturewest.org.au

*This program is supported by Wyndham Council as a part of Wyndham’s Building Blocks Program

We look forward to seeing you out and about over the next two months. Please let us know through Facebook or this website if you are able to come along to the Replanting Day.

As the year comes to an end we wanted to thank you for your support and involvement in the events and workshops we have had throughout the year.

We thought we’d end the year with a recipe for a summer salad that uses ingredients that may be growing in your gardens including tomatoes, basil, cucumbers and (if you’re lucky to live up North), Mangoes.

This is a great salad, that just needs you to throw everything together and apply the dressing just before it’s served. You can vary the ingredients to suit your tastes (sugar peas are lovely) and seasonality.

Ingredients

750gms various cherry tomatoes, chopped in halves (if large tomatoes chop in smaller pieces)
2 mangoes chopped
4 medium sized Lebanese cucumbers chopped into chunks
2 cups basil leaves, torn
1 cup mint leaves, torn
300 – 400gms Bononcini  cheese, torn
1 red onion roughly chopped
1-2 table spoon of red wine vinegar (or balsamic)
2-4 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard

 Method

Chop all vegetables and fruits and place in a bowl, hold off on the herbs until just prior to serving. Tear up cheese and distribute through salad (Feta cheese is also lovely).

In a container with a lid add the oil, Dijon and vinegar with salt and pepper to taste and shake vigorously to emulsify.

When ready to serve add torn basil leaves, mint leaves and salad dressing. Don’t tear the leaves of the herbs until just before serving to prevent damaging the leaves.

This salad is beautiful with Christmas Ham and potato salad and can be really pretty if you have different coloured tomatoes to use.

Have a very Merry and safe holiday season and we will see you in the New Year!

The Masters Williams Landings workshop

The friendly staff at Masters delivered an instore planting workshop for members of the Eat My Garden community on Thursday 12 November.

The workshop was relevant, informative and practical and Masters provided fantastic support for the Eat My Garden members throughout the event.

The session commenced with a talk about the various types of seasonal vegetables and herbs seedlings, we learnt about soil types and the best ways to plant seedlings in pots for the best outcome. There were hands-on activities lead by the staff and everyone who attended were provided plants, pots and a pair of gardening gloves to take home!

At the end of session, Colleen Miller told members about our project partner NatureWest and the Natural History Centre project that is currently running from the grounds of Werribee Mansion.

It was wonderful to have Qin from the Meet-up group translating between English and Chinese for some participants, this was important multicultural support that made the session accessible for a number of people. Thank you very much, Qin.

Thank you very much also to Masters Williams Landing and all those who attended, it was a wonderful day!

NatureWest will be having an event on Saturday 28 November, including lunch which is open to everyone. For more information about NatureWest you can visit their website

For more information about Meet-up group, please contact Point Cook Learning and Community Centre:

Address: 1-21 Cheetham Street, Point Cook Phone: 03 9395 6399 Email: pointcookclc@wyndham.vic.gov.au

The State Rose and Garden Show

On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November, NatureWest participated in the State Rose and Garden Show at Werribee Park and Eat My Garden was privileged to have a display in NatureWest’s Tent.

The display consisted of native and local plants, information about NatureWest and other environment groups and a mini-shop, run by Eat My Garden, of handmade crafts made of natural materials as a fundraiser to support the Natural History Centre project.

We enjoyed the beautiful weather and met many people who were interested in supporting and protecting the natural environment and our activity at the weekend.

Thank you to those who visited our tent at the show. It was nice to see you all face to face!

For more events keep an eye on our Facebook page and perhaps we’ll see you Friday 27 November at the People’s Climate March in Melbourne or on Saturday at 11am at the NatureWest event.

Remember the event we had in early spring – the Nature Strip Planting on 27th of September?

What a great day we all had learning about the local habitat and hearing from landscape architect, Arki who introduced the concepts involved in creating useful nature strips in other areas of Melbourne. 

Take a look at Arki’s blog on his visit to Point Cook, he points out other projects that we can take as models for our ideas for community gardens and public spaces.

Some of the examples are so incredible, the use of public space for growing food and creating community is exciting.

We would love to keep building a stronger and more extensive Eat My Garden community in Point Cook.

If you are interested in becoming more involved in Eat My Garden we are always looking for new volunteers and members … with or without green thumbs!

Don’t forget the Eat My Garden Planting Workshop, Thursday 12 November 2015 at 11am at Masters in Williams Landing

For more information or to contact us complete the form below: 

Eat my Garden had a great start to spring in September.

There were two community events, one of which involved the construction of a new Eat My Garden bed. In all we installed three more garden beds this month, which is wonderful!

That brings the total to 10 Eat My Garden beds for people to enjoy!

Our first community event was Spring into Fun, held on Sunday 20 September.

We had lovely day outside enjoying sensational spring weather as we planted our new garden bed and enjoyed a sausage sizzle, salads provided by our community members, games and Origami.

The winner of our first ‘Salad competition’ was 10-year-old Anisa!

Anisa picked parsley from the herb garden on the day and made a tabbouleh that was full of flavour and colour.

She also drew a beautiful poster for the event ☺ Thank you, Anisa for all your hard work.

The second place was awarded to Takeshi Oda who made Japanese white radish salad with two different dressings – Yuzu & Shoyu dressing and Onion dressing.

The prize is a beautiful chopping board donated by Werribee Men’s Shed. Thank you very much!

Special thanks also to Point Cook Community and Learning Centre, Werribee Environmental Community Park Inc, Weaving – The Loom Room – Williamstown, Werribee Men’s Shed, Western Melbourne Catchment Network, and all the volunteers and the neighbours!

Our second event was the Nature Strip Planting on 27th of September. The location was delightful, alongside wetlands, perfect for learning about both natural environment and nature strip planting.

Because Eat My Garden is not just for gardening, it is also for creating sustainable society by

sharing, caring natural environment and developing sense of community the event commenced with a sustainability educator, Bob Winter’s ‘Walk and Talk’ along the wetland.

We learnt a lot about the local Point Cook environment from the experience of taking a walk amongst the local environment.

For the second part, a landscape architect, Arki introduced the concepts of unique and successful nature strip uses in other areas of Melbourne. Following this we constructed a new Eat My Garden bed on the nature strip with Arki’s instruction and help.

Thank you to Kim Nguyen who filmed the session for us. Many thanks also to Bruce for his photography skills and Cakebread Catering for the healthy refreshments!

 Thank you very much for Bob and Arki for the enjoyable and informative session.

Keep an eye on our Facebook page or the website for upcoming events and let us know if you would like to get involved or plant an eat My Garden bed on your nature strip.

You might also like this short film, launched 25 September, about Werribee Park Community Garden is filmed by No Frontiers Media (Kim Nguyen).

 For more information or to contact us complete the form below: