Docklands’ busiest working bees

The Docklands Community Garden has been left looking fuller and even more colourful after its successful spring clean working bee on Saturday, October 15. 

The event was a time for Docklanders with a green thumb to come together for a couple hours of trimming, weeding, watering, mulching and planting new crops, and attracted nearly a dozen volunteers during the course of the day.

“We were really grateful for the high level of community support for the event, and we had a lot more community members there helping plant the spring crop than we thought we were going to get,” garden volunteer Greg Wise said. 

“[The number of volunteers] is indicative of how important the community garden is for a lot of people who live in Docklands, and since [the working bee] we have been very fortunate with the weather and reasonably warm and moist conditions which has helped everything that everyone planted on the day start off very strongly.”

As a community garden, the Geographe St space is one that thrives and survives on volunteers and support from other organisations, and a recent donation from Bosch in the form of a battery-powered whipper snipper has not been lost on the volunteers. 

“The community garden is 100 per cent totally funded by money that is raised by the community garden volunteer group and we are absolutely grateful for any contribution we get from businesses and corporations that help us maintain and run the garden to a standard that makes it very attractive for Docklands residents,” Mr Wise said.

“On this occasion we would like to thank Bosch for the donation of the battery-powered whipper snipper.”

Regular garden volunteer Shane Mason also expressed thanks to Bosch, and said having a battery-dependent whipper snipper, as opposed to a fuel one, had made their job that much easier. 

As someone who makes it down to the garden every fortnight to water, Mr Mason has been able to see the difference the space is having in the lives of fellow neighbours and office workers. 

“The garden is a vital part of Docklands, and for many Docklanders it is seen as their chance to have a garden while still living in apartments and high-rises,” Mr Mason said. 

“I also get a lot of comments from people who work in Docklands who have their lunch at the garden and say it is so beautiful and relaxing.”

Both Mr Wise and Mr Mason are hoping to spread awareness about the great community aspect of the working bees, which wrap up with a picnic lunch or a sausage sizzle. 

“We can always do with more volunteers, and we are more than happy to have anyone interested in the garden come onboard,” Mr Mason said.

“To get out in the sun and breathe in the air is therapeutic and serves a lot of purpose.”

For anyone interested in getting involved with the garden and a possible mid-November gardening event, to check on the seeds and plants recently planted, contact Greg Wise on [email protected] or visit the Docklands Community Garden Facebook group. •