Nashville State School Permaculture Design Workshop

On 16th July 2009, eight teachers, parents and volunteers of Nashville State School’s wondrous food garden participated in a full day Permaculture Design workshop, giving them a range of skills for maintaining the various natural and developed systems that make up a functioning garden.

Participants learned about integrated pest management, relative placement of elements, soil fertility management (including composting) as well as gaining a strong understanding of the ecological principles that underpin this sustainable design system.

Many participants were surprised to discover that Permaculture design is not synonymous with organic gardening, but is actually a system or approach that can be applied to many aspects of life including human social systems, educational methods and economic structures.

The day was lots of fun and participants are looking forward to a cming wokshop in organic growing techniques, followed by a session on linking curriculum to the school garden.

The workshops have been developed for the school by Growing Communities and Living Schools.

School gardens seminar – Melbourne

A Professinal Development short course to be held in Melbourne, Victoria commences September 28th, 2009. A successful collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and Cranbourne and Cultivating Community brings the best of Melbourne’s school garden expertise, educators and horticuluralists to share inspiring information and stories. It is a course designed for those wanting hands on practical activities and ideas that will sustain students and staff in fun, outdoor education and connection to nature. Check their website for full details.

Catchment Connections workshops

Living Schools is working with the City of Ryde, Hornsby and Hunters Hill Councils to deliver series of three free workshops for local residents who are interested in learning how to better care for and protect their catchment.

We all live in a catchment and the decisions we make in our homes and gardens, such as the chemicals we use, how we design our gardens and the plants we choose, can make a big difference to the health of our creeks and bushland.

The first round of workshops will be held over the coming weeks. Bookings are essential and places are limited to residents of the partner Council areas. The workshops are as follows:

•    Understanding our impact – Sat 9th May, 1pm to 3.30pm
•    Low impact design for healthy ecosystems – Sat 30th May, 1pm to 3.30pm
•    Caring for our creeks by gardening sustainably – Sat 20th June, 1pm to 3.30pm

Each workshop builds on the previous one and participants are encouraged to attend all three, although this is not essential. A second round of workshops will be held in July and August.

Catchment Connections is assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust. For more information or to make a booking contact the City of Ryde on 9952 8222.

Write it up project update

In late 2009 Living Schools worked with the Australian Association for Environmental Education (NSW) to implement the Write it up! workshops and mentoring project. Write it up! was all about encouraging educators for sustainability to develop case studies of their projects and to share what they’ve learned with others in our community of practice.

Ten workshops were held successfully across New South Wales and then ten educators were mentored in the development of their case studies. These case studies are available online at www.aaeensw.org.au. They provide an intimate look at a range of excellent EfS projects including school garden projects, indigenous culture reclamation, online learning and more.

Write it up! was supported by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change through its Environmental Trust.

Carss Park Community Garden on-track

In late 2008 Living Schools worked with Kogarah Council to initiate a community garden project on a local disused bowling green in Carrs Park.

Following initial promotion and community consultation regarding the concept an enthusiastic group had formed, eager to learn and to put their ideas to the test. Educators worked with the group, facilitating two full-day training session, the first focusing on strategic planning and group development and the second on site assessment and design.

Council’s landscape architect attended both sessions, listening closely to the ideas generated so that they could later be translated into a professional design. At the end of the process a strong group of about twenty people agreed on the date for their first independent planning meeting.

The top-down approach to community garden development is often cited as being problematic, probably due to the many examples where such an approach has failed because the community were never actually given ownership. This project suggests that with communication, respect and genuine shared ownership a community garden can indeed be successfully initiated from above. Council is now working collaboratively with the community group to make the garden a reality. We are eager to see how it progresses.

Living Schools have collated the work of the community group during the two training days to develop policy recommendations for council as well as a gardeners’ guide, gardeners’ agreement and initial action plan. These are available upon request to interested parties.

Stephanie Alexander’s kitchen garden program

Earlier this year funding was allocated to Stephanie Alexander’s kitchen garden program by the Commonwealth Government. This program has been piloted in Victoria and is providing funding for the development of both food gardens and kitchen facilities. Today Nicola Roxon announced funding to government primary schools to support the development of food gardens and kitchen facilities in primary schools.

The first process is for schools to submit an expression of interest via the website.

Getting started in community gardening – a guide

Living Schools has recently partnered with the City of Sydney Council and the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Networks to produce a guide for anyone interested in setting up a community garden in their area. The guide covers setup, management and maintenance, as well as some of the trickier aspects of social dynamics. Download the 80 page guide for free here

Write it up – case study workshops for educators

Living Schools is currently working with the Australian Association for Environmental Education to deliver a series of workshops on developing case studies of education for sustainability projects around NSW. If you are an educator and are interested to attend a workshop in your area, please get in touch as soon as possible by emailing info@livingschools.com.au or you can download a copy of the Write it Up! guide at http://www.aaeensw.org.au/

Canterbury Youth Environmental Leadership Program

Over the last couple of months Living Schools has been working with Canterbury Council on a youth leadership program to celebrate Youth Environment Day. Through the program, students from four local high schools participated in visioning and strategic planning workshops designed to empower them to take action within their schools and local communities. Projects developed ranged from biodiversity gardens, worm farms and recycling systems to solar panels and rainwater harvesting, demonstrating a broad understanding of environmental issues and their solutions. More importantly, students showed that they have the imaginative vision to design a sustainable future.

10th Queensland Community Gardens Network Gathering

This important event will be held on Saturday 29th June from 9am to 4pm at Westfalen Community Garden in Brisbane. The day will include community garden tours, hands-on workshops and presentations on the how to, why and what of community gardens, local food, social enterprises and other topics. This is a great chance to share knowledge and skills, catch up and make new contacts and friends. Registration details and program are available by contacting Gav at Growing Communities.