by Carla Caruso

The first community garden in your Adelaide Park Lands has turned 11 this year.

The Walyu Yarta Community Garden was established by keen green thumbs in Veale Park/Walyu Yarta (Park 21), off South Tce, in March 2010.

Greg Martin, one of the regular gardeners, said: “It took quite a while of lobbying because it required council approval to establish. We live in a city without very much in the way of opportunity to garden. It was a chance to be able to come together with likeminded people in the community to grow herbs, fruits and vegetables.”

The cooperative currently comprises 94 members, with 49 active volunteers forming the mainstay. There’s no fee to join.

Weather (and COVID-19 restrictions) permitting, gardeners meet each Monday and Thursday, from 9.30am to 12pm, with occasional working bees on Sundays.

Passers-by are welcome to pick produce, but it’s asked they leave enough for others and only take what’s ready.

“Many community gardens are fenced off,” Greg said. “This can’t be because it’s in the Park Lands and we don’t have allotments because of that. It’s all just community garden plots that people can work in anywhere. [Despite this] there’s surprisingly little pilfering or vandalism.”

Every Thursday morning, when school’s on, Year 4-5 students from Gilles Street Primary School also lend a hand. They recently helped plant bush tucker plants, donated by Bunnings, including sea celery, mountain pepper, and Davidson plum.

Other regular visitors to the garden, according to Greg, include international students wanting to practise their English conversation skills, case workers looking for activities for their clients with learning difficulties or disabilities, and agricultural students keen to learn more. The cooperative also gives the homeless potatoes, which they can cook on nearby barbecues.

A standout garden feature – its mosaic butterflies – are the result of a project by Uniting Communities, which brought young and old people together to share skills. The garden also boasts a native bee hotel.

“It’s not big by community garden standards,” Greg said. “But it’s surprising how much you can grow in a very small area. In spring, we’ll be doing a lot of planting of vegetables – tomatoes and those sorts of things that grow well in summer. But, at the moment, it’s picking what’s there, which is mostly green leafy vegetables, and weeding.

*Walyu Yarta Community Garden volunteers. Pic: Shane Sody*

“If you’re weeding next to someone who you’re having an interesting conversation with, it beats just weeding in your own garden alone, and it’s a beautiful setting.”

A second community garden in your Park Lands was established about five years ago – the Park Tce Community Garden in Mary Lee Park (Park 27B). Funding was provided by Renewal SA and the City of Adelaide. However, according to the group’s Facebook page, activity there is currently on hold after struggles with damage, theft, and safety.