Yass Valley Men's Shed and Yass Landcare Group have been busy bees preparing a community bush tucker garden to showcase local native plans that can be eaten, used as medicine and turned into tools.
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President of the local Men's Shed, Wayne Stuart, said the garden would provide members with another hobby and hoped it would bring local Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together.
"There is so much disconnect and disrespect (between those communities) and this garden can help to overcome that," Mr Stuart said.
"The big thing with this project is education. We want school children to come up here."
The garden will be planted on land shared by the Men's Shed and Yass Landcare Community Nursery, located behind the Men's Shed on Yass Valley Way.
The land not currently in use is owned by Yass Valley Council, which has given the garden the green light.
Yass Valley Men's Shed members have wanted to establish the garden since the Men's Shed opened and are thrilled to see the project finally get off the ground.
"This will improve the amenities and welcome at this end of town, as well as productivity of the land and bring back birds and insects," Mr Stuart said.
The Men's Shed has engaged local Ngunnawal Gamilaraay person Aaron Chatfield of Dreamtime Connections, which works with local schools and community groups to promote Indigenous cuisine and culture, to guide the selection of plants for the garden.
Mr Chatfield has also been working with Berinba Public School to plant a bush tucker garden for the students and teachers and was aware there was also a bush tucker garden at Yass Community Garden.
Ha said it was exciting to see community support for native plants.
"The demand keeps going up and up, especially in schools. I think it's because it's new and restaurants are using ingredients such as native pepper, finger limbs and salt bush," Mr Chatfield said.
At Berinba, Mr Chatfield and the students have planted blueberry lily (dianella revoluta), which can be used to weave baskets; hoary sunray (leucochrysum albicans) to attract pollinators; bush rice; native rosemary, which can also be used as a band-aid; chocolate lilies, which smell like chocolate; and happy wanderer (hardenbergia violacea).
Mr Chatfield recently made bush tea from happy wanderer for Men's Shed and Landcare members to demonstrate how plants from the garden could be used.
"It tasted really nice. A bit like chamomile. Quite refreshing. And Aaron said we're surrounded by this stuff," Mr Stuart said.
The bulbine lily is another plant that will be grown in the garden.
Landcare member Graeme Fountain, who is also a Men's Shed member, tried a bulbine lily cooked as a potato chip by Mr Chatfield.
"You wouldn't eat another potato chip if you could have these all the time, so I said we had to have them in the garden," Mr Fountain said.
Mr Stuart said he hoped plants from the garden could one day be supplied to local cafes and restaurants, on a small scale.
All of the plants in the garden will be native plants grown locally, although some are scarce.
Landcare members will help to grow the plants that aren't widely available.
The members also have ideas to create a small seat and sculpture for the garden and are after a large, old gum branch to create a bee-hotel for native pollinators.
They will also re-direct rain water from the men's shed's roof to the garden, which is expected to take about 18 months to get up-and-running.
The Men's Shed has applied for a government grant to help purchase plants.
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