OUR STORY
In early March 2019, Bridget Kennedy, director of The Project Space and founding member of Repair Cafe Sydney North, visited the Blue Mountains Edible Garden Trail with a group from Permaculture Sydney North (PSN). Since the demise of the ABC Open Gardens scheme, Bridget had been toying with the idea of creating an annual fundraising opening Garden Trail promoting sustainable living and growing your own food.
The inspirational visit to the mountains was all the impetus she needed. Within 24 hours, she’d contacted Susanne Rix, the founder of the Blue Mountains Edible Garden Trail (who was keen to offer her support) and her local permaculture group, who were also excited by the idea. Within a week, Nita Lo, Garden Co-ordinator PSN, had reached out to Laurie Green, Founder Crop Swap Australia, and Janna Mizen, VP PSN. A couple of weeks later, Margaret Mossakowska of Moss House contacted Bridget. The result, a formidable group of five multi-talented women, with combined decades of gardening experience, who have come together to create the non-profit Sydney Edible Garden Trail, an on the ground community-building event, held on the third weekend of every March.
For the inaugural trail, while we iron out any creases, we’ll be focussing on the areas where we have more knowledge of local food production but moving forward, we anticipate this to be a Sydney wide event.
ABOUT
The Sydney Edible Garden Trail, is a celebration of the myriad of ways that Sydney residents are creating food security, saving money and the environment, while enjoying the health benefits of homegrown fruit and veg.
Backyard growers, large and small, from various suburbs north of Parramatta River (e.g. Ku-Ring-Gai, Lane Cove, Willoughby, Hunters Hill, Ryde, Hornsby, North Sydney, Mosman, Northern Beaches Councils and surrounding areas), will open their gardens to the public on the third weekend of March 2020 sharing their passion and knowledge to inspire self-reliance. This is a community not-for-profit event with profits going to participating school and community edible gardens.
AIM
The aim of the Sydney Edible Garden Trail is to encourage and inspire growing edible produce in street gardens, home gardens and public spaces across Sydney. It aims to showcase sustainable practices such as mulching for water conservation, recycling and composting to increase soil fertility and reduce landfill, planting to encourage bees, home food production to increase food security, and organic growing techniques to reduce chemical use.
FEATURES
- Private Gardens
- School Gardens
- Community Gardens
- Street Gardens
- Permaculture Gardens
- Aquaponic Systems
- Composting, Worm Farms, Mulching
- Wicking Beds
- Companion Planting
- Caring for Chooks, Ducks and other Animals
- Garden Talks/Tours/Workshops
- Beauty as a Feature of Edible Gardens