Stories From: Gardening

  Left alone to do its thing, nature creates the most extraordinarily biodiverse ecosystems. One of the world’s most respected biologists, E O Wilson, said that we needed to set aside half the world for nature so that it could support and regenerate enough biodiversity to support all life on earth.     Check out just what nature is capable …

Food, mothers and kindness bring people together – even during a pandemic. Tonight I felt nurtured by my mother’s dearest friend in Blackheath, who sent me home with a brown paper bag filled with small jars of medlar and quince jellies to taste test. She was eager for me to compare the two.   Carole Lee My mother used to …

  There’s nothing like a warming cuppa when the wind howls and snow threatens. Even better is filling the house with the fragrance of a summer garden. With frost forecast for Monday, I braved the elements in my backyard and harvested large bunches of lemon verbena, lemon balm, mint, sage, and my remaining fennel seeds to ensure I had enough …

This autumn has been such a great season for foraging in Blackheath. We harvested our first saffron milk cap and slippery jack mushrooms on February 26 and have still been finding more this week … that’s over 2 months.     At Blackheath Community Farm, perhaps because we’ve put down so much woodchip for our paths, we’ve had a wider …

  Each year at Blackheath Community Farm we find ourselves experimenting with new plants that we just can’t wait to grow again! This season, we’ve been particularly delighted by Barry’s Crazy Cherry tomatoes (plants donated to the Farm by Hillier Windsor), a Mini White Cucumber (seeds donated by Eva and Bill Johnstone), a Chilli plant donated by Hayley and Ben …

Love Makes a Way is the largest faith-based civil disobedience movement in Australia’s history. Its focus is on getting the kids off Nauru.

Practising social distancing before stricter rules came into place It’s been just over three years since a group of locals, supported by The Big Fix, began work on a neglected piece of land generously made available to the community by Mountains Christian College. The dream was to create a small demonstration Farm for Blackheath village.

Rowe teaching in Kabul, Afghanistan After its development in Tasmania in 1978, Permaculture has become one of Australia’s most successful exports. Practitioners are now certified in more than 140 countries and Katoomba resident, Rosemary Morrow, co-founder of the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute, has been one of the pioneers responsible for this global uptake.   This week young people (aged 16+) …

Students from Blackheath Public School Stage two Blackheath Public School students could hardly contain their excitement today as they were the first people EVER to cultivate the endangered species Zieria Covenyi. They’ve spent the last few weeks learning about biodiversity and endangered species, and the important role they are now playing to protect this endangered plant. Only around 2000 of …

My name is Tom Delaney and I am 14 years old. I love to play music and sport and am always on the lookout for new opportunities to enrich my future and life as a young person in the community. I have recently started the Duke of Edinburgh Award which has led me to take part in some excellent community …