All aspiring green thumbs now have the chance to learn to grow their own produce at a new community garden initiated by students at Charles Darwin University.
Lakeside Drive Community Garden (LDCG) coordinator Anjea Travers said a series of one day Grow Your Own workshops would commence on Wednesday, 12 May.
“Collectively at the new Lakeside Drive site we hope to create a thriving, healthy centre for producing food, knowledge and inspiration based on permaculture ethics, principles and design,” she said.
“The workshops will aim to promote organic sustainable growing and living practices and permaculture design so they can be emulated in Darwin homes, gardens and balconies.”
LDCG workshop coordinator Lachlan McKenzie said that the philosophy behind permaculture was to design and create more sustainable communities and to encourage the local production of food and resources.
“Most people don’t realise that they can create a garden in any area of space, it doesn’t need to be a large plot of land,” he said. “Even if you live in an apartment, you can grow herbs, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers to reduce your food bill and increase your flavour.
“The workshops give people a good set of skills and tips to design and create their garden so that they can successfully grow veggies, fruits and more, all year round.
“Some tips could be as simple as learning how to turn all of your palm fronds and leaves into compost for your veggie garden or how to make a natural pesticide to zap those troublesome bugs.”
For more information about the workshops or to register your interest, go to the Lakeside Drive Community Garden website at: www.cdu.edu.au/ldcg.