A garden is a lovesome thing, god wot

[Warrigal]

"A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!" is a line from a poem by Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897)1. The poem describes the poet's garden filled with all that came to his mind: grotto, pool, ferns, roses, fish, and more1. The phrase "God wot" is an archaic expression meaning "God knows"1. The poem is a reflection on the beauty of nature and the love of God2.

It certainly is a lovely thing, especially if it is an old garden that has shady places to sit and relax, or a veggie garden where we can grow fresh vegetables.

My back garden is my delight and also my cloistered sanctuary. I share it with 5 (free range) pet hens, an elderly cat and a possum that visits at night for the feed of fruit that I put out after dark.

Because of the little chookies, I notice a few other wild birds becoming rather bold and sharing their scraps and laying pellets. Most regular are a pair of pied currawongs but I also see a white cockie and a crested pigeon starting to make daily visits.

These are my little hens. Their names are Betty (White), Ginger (Rogers), Goldie (Hawn), Ruth (Bader Ginsberg) and Colin.



A pied currawong. I have a nesting pair in the gum tree out the front

 

[Warrigal]

Private gardens are one thing but a community garden is something else.

A community garden builds social capital by allowing people who have no opportunity to have a garden of their own to join a group. It allows lonely people to find purpose by tending the garden with people who love gardening and who welcome anyone of the same mind.

My church community decided some time ago that we should have a community garden out front of our building. All we had at that time was a large expanse of grass that had to be mowed regularly by volunteers.

Now we have raised garden beds to grow food, including one bed dedicated to growing plants that are food for bees. There are also plants that are traditional sources of food for our indigenous people. The garden is not large but it is inviting. There are places to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee or to silently contemplate. The gate is never locked and anyone at all is welcome to enter and stay a while.


From the harvest of the beds we are able to provide fresh meals for people in our district who are doing it tough. At the back of the church are 8 units for seniors and we encourage them to come down and pick few spinach leaves to have for their dinner. At different times of the year there are other foods on offer. Cherry tomatoes are very abundant in the Summer.

This weekend we are finally having an official opening of the Rivergum Garden, so named because the church is located on The River Road. It will be very informal and we will have a few stalls on what is left of the grass. I'm serving Devonshire Tea in the foyer and the ladies have been baking all week for the cake stall.

This photo shows a team of ladies working together to make and bottle pickles, jams and chutneys. Another example of building social capital.



All proceeds of the day will go to maintaining the garden.

 

[Capt Lightning]

When this village was founded in 1760, the housed were built on 1/5 acre plots. This provided the occupants with a garden to grow vegetables and maybe keep a few chickens. Today, many of the gardens are just kept in grass and few seem to be used for their original purpose. Why go to the effort of growing vegetables, when you can buy them? We do grow vegetables and some fruit and we believe that it's worth it.

Modern houses in this area have 'gardens' about the size of a window box. Developers try to tell you that people don't want big gardens, but the truth is that they are greedy for profit and just cram 'Jerry built' box houses on to any available bit of land.


My garden - some years ago . Since then the hedge has grown and we've planted apple trees.