Sustainability in focus

THE Bass River Garden was one of the 15 open gardens participating in last weekend’s inaugural Bass Coast Open Edible Gardens event, with more than 300 visitors, inspired by all aspects of sustainable agriculture.

Maddy Harford of Bass Coast Adult Learning (BCAL) said the weekend run event began as an experiment to gauge interest, and has been successful beyond their expectations.

“Staff and volunteers from BCAL have been working with the gardeners since last year, to provide a diverse range of garden settings, from containers to hobby farms, including five community gardens,” said Maddy.

Visitors came from near and far, Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, the Dandenong’s, Latrobe Valley and the Northern Territory, as well as locals in their hundreds.

Lisa Wangman of Bass Coast Landcare guided visitors through the Bass River garden and shared her knowledge of sustainable gardening.

Sharon Willcox, volunteer liaison with the gardeners was ‘blown away’ by how well the growers prepared information about their gardens; some with photo histories of their development.

“We have a great foundation on which to build next year’s event and later this year we’ll be calling for expressions of interest for 2023, in the meantime, BCAL is running a series of gardening workshops,” said Maddy.

To be involved in BCAL gardening workshops call 5672 3115 or to take part in volunteer days or master classes at the Bass River Garden visit www.basscoastlandcare.org.au