Report by Peter Croft on recent Unley Group activities.

In previous updates, we talked about our focus on food security as a practical way of connecting with the concept of sustainability: as the world population grows from 7 billion now to (a likely) 9 billion by 2050, where will our food come from?

In our first year, we got an Unley Council grant to distribute planter boxes with seedlings to the community. Since then, using further grants, we have run workshops on growing food and typically attract 40 to 50 people to each session. Our next workshop (12 June) is all about garden design.

We have also had a growing number of verge gardens set up to promote connections in the community while also pursuing food security – the idea being, if it can grow here, it can grow at your place. The verge garden pictured below is in Urrbrae Avenue, Myrtle Bank and was the focus of a welcoming party, when it was installed, and a Christmas gathering in December last year.

The GGGYO group met with a number of the verge garden hosts in late May (see picture below) to share insights. All hosts had positive things to say about the way that the verge gardens were drawing the community together e.g. stories about neighbours popping over to get a few herbs for dinner. Herbs seem very successful.Our latest grant from Unley Council provides for food-growing workshops aimed particularly at renters. Steven Hoepfner and Silvia Volonta ran a series of inspiring workshops in May. The picture below is from the herb workshop using Steven and Silvia’s own herbs.

Our connections with Unley Council have also been growing:

• on signage for the fruit trees now being planted in Unley’s parks
• on the tree strategy that Council is adopting: assists Unley to adapt to climate change
• in supporting the green measures in Council’s budget.

Our experience is that Council is an important player in shaping the liveability of the local community. We are happy to help anyone interested in connecting up with his or her Council.