Mooroolbark’s new Community Garden is rapidly taking shape and is on track to the official opening on 2 September.
The pop-up garden is in the temporary car park on the corner of Charles and Station Street in Mooroolbark and was selected following the completion of the Mooroolbark Station and carpark upgrades, funded by the State Government as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project.
Melba Ward Councillor, Sophie Todorov said that construction began on the pop-up garden in early August.
“When complete, this space will provide a locally-grown and self-funded food source for local traders and the wider community.
“The Mooroolbark Community Garden Group, made up of passionate local green thumbs, will take a lease on the site from Council when construction is complete, and I look forward to seeing this space blossom in coming months.
“The community garden will not just provide healthy, locally-grown food, but plenty of education for locals on sustainable food production and gardening. It will be a place to share skills, knowledge and ideas while connecting socially.
“This is ultimately a temporary use of the space, and we’ll engage with community and stakeholder groups on how the space should be used permanently. Rest assured that the garden is designed to be almost-completely relocatable to another site.
With the start of construction, crews moved in, and it’s been a flurry of machinery and people on site.
The first task was to cart in and place more than 70 Jersey Barriers (large concrete barriers) to define the site and ensure the safety of everybody there and particularly children using this space.
The barriers have all come from other sites, so they are in harmony with the garden’s, philosophy of reusing, recycling and reaching for zero waste.
The next task was to build the twelve large (9m x 2m) garden beds, requriing 120 holes and steel frames, then the installation of more than 160 sleepers, each cut to fit.
To fill the beds, Council has brought 100 cubic meters of mulch to site, which has its origins in the June 2021 storms. This will be used as the base layer in the garden beds with some great commercial grade garden mix soil, creating a viable growing space of around 230 square meters for the Community Garden.
A storage container has been placed on site for the group’s storage needs and one of Yarra Ranges Parklets which will be rehomed here to provide a seating space.
In coming months, the group have a range of other growing spaces that will be used as a children’s garden space, a portable and herb gardens.
Council will investigate an art project with local young people and engage young adults and children in the community garden.
