EVERY Saturday, rain, hail or shine, a group of dedicated gardeners get together in George Lay Park to tend to and maintain their community garden.
“We’re the oldest of the community veggie gardens, we started in November of 2013, and that was just after the actual park itself had a major rebuild,” gardener Brian Butler said.
“Every month we have a meeting on the first Saturday, we have a coffee and a bit of a chat, but this [Saturday] we’re digging over the strawberry patch, pulling all the old strawberries out and replanting.”
Mr Butler encourages everyone to come along, and grab some of the extra strawberry runners to plant at home.
The garden features a patch and above-ground beds and was initially funded by the Swan Hill Rural City Council, but is now entirely run as a community project.
“At the moment we’ve got cabbages and some broccoli, that sort of stuff, winter greens, all growing quite well,” Mr Butler said.
Alongside that there’s also silverbeet, broadbeans, strawberries, kale, peas, parsley, beetroot and fancy lettuce.
“What we’re looking for is more people to come and help dig and water in summer, and also if the people come along and say they want a patch, well we’ve got a small patch above ground that someone could have.
“Anyone that’s there, that comes down, can help themselves [to the produce].”
If you want to get involved, or just score yourself some strawberries, the gardeners are meeting at 10am tomorrow at the community garden patch, just by the basketball courts in George Lay Park.
