Rotary gives community garden a makeover

That’s just what happened at the Yass Community Garden for two days last week, thanks to Yass Rotary.

When a new member joins Rotary, they are invited to propose a project which will help out their local community in some way. Lynette Cram, on joining Yass Rotary, decided she would like to do something to assist the Yass Community Garden.

Lynette arranged for Rotary to sponsor a team from the Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) to spend two days at the Garden. CVA  attracts and manages volunteers who are interested in participating in projects to enhance Australia’s environment and heritage. 

Over the two days, the volunteers carried out a range of tasks, including installing a new raised bed and filling it with topsoil, removing the woody weeds on the street side of the Garden, turning all the compost in the bays to help it decompose faster, weeding the large Berry Bed, and pruning and tying up the boysenberry and raspberry canes. They also carried out small maintenance tasks such as weeding the raised beds and watering the fruit trees.

The Yass Community Garden has a small but dedicated membership, and having so much help with large, labour-heavy tasks makes a huge difference to what can be achieved by members on site.

A range of winter vegetable seed has already been planted in the new bed, and we look forward to some rain to kick off the growth of the broad beans, peas, spinach, kale, silverbeet, turnip and lettuce.

The Berry Bed is now ready for some new bare root bushes in winter (currants, gooseberry and Jostaberry) and some blueberry bushes in spring.

The Yass Community Garden aims to be a welcoming place for new and experienced gardeners, and anyone who is interested in increasing the sustainability of our community and our food supply. Thanks to the generosity of Yass Rotary, we can move on with some of our projects to continue to make our Garden a fun and enjoyable place to be.