Crace community plot cultivates friendships

In Canberra's new suburb of Crace, an organic community garden has been developed in an area facing the vast Gungaderra grasslands.

Greg and Pauline Parish lived in a unit in Turner before moving to Crace in August 2012. He always wanted to be involved with community gardening and as soon as he heard about the opportunity to have a plot in the Crace garden, he knew he had to be part of it. In February he joined the Canberra Organic Growers' Society, and he's now convener of the garden.

It has 30 raised plots ranging in size from 10 to 35 square metres, with gravel pathways and square slatted-timber trellises. A stainless steel and aluminium sculpture, Sun Shower 2013, by Geoff Farquhar-Still, marks the gathering area.

It was designed by Phoebe Gordon of landscape architects John Easthope and Associates, with Crace's landscape manager, Matthew Frawley, and the growers' society.

Productive shrubs include feijoas, bay trees, rosemary, tea camellia, pomegranates and blueberries; species that encourage insect activity and pollination include lavenders and jasmine.

Parish says the garden is already a vibrant community, with a diverse mix of nationalities, ages and experience, and a place where friendships grow and conversation is cultivated. They hold barbecues every month and plan a tomato passata-making day towards the end of summer.

Liz Myszka and Parish say the bird life in the area is prolific and there are hares, foxes and kangaroos. The garden is surrounded by a rabbit-proof fence.

Parish planted a green manure crop of pearl barley to improve the soil in his plot because he read that tomatoes have a high requirement for phosphorus; pearl barley increases its uptake.

When Diana Cozadinos moved to Crace she needed to expand from her vegie-packed but tiny terrace garden to a garden plot. To improve the soil she has used a combination of manure and homemade compost from a four-bin system in the Palmerston garden of her mother, Alison Cozadinos.

Growing in Diana Cozadinos' plot are liquorice, sugar snap peas, capsicum, Lebanese zucchini, borage, asparagus, borlotti beans, sweet corn, globe artichokes, celery, strawberries, poppies, tomatoes, fennel, King Edward potatoes, derwent globe beetroot, mizuna, tatsoi and self-sown lettuces. She also has an emerging forest of sunflowers that came from horse manure.

John and Liz Myszka lived on a 10-hectare hobby farm near Collector for seven years before moving to Crace. They both grew up in families where their dads had vegetable gardens and raised chooks and have followed that example. The soil in their garden beds has been improved with cow manure and mushroom compost. They have planted potatoes, beans, peas, aubergine, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, chillies, cucumbers, zucchini and five varieties of tomatoes - romas, grosse lisse, black and green zebras and Greek.

They are planting cuttings from cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese grape vines at Currawang in their plot for future wine-making. In their house garden, the Myszkas have planted more tomatoes, salad greens, asparagus, herbs, rhubarb, strawberries and dwarf fruit trees. They also have a chook run.

Liz Myszka and Parish say the bird life in the area is prolific and there are hares, foxes and kangaroos. The garden is surrounded by a rabbit-proof fence.

Michael Xanthis is a committee member and plot holder who says gardening is a great way to meet people. He is Greek-Australian and his wife Ayami Xanthis is Japanese. They have added lots of compost to improve their soil and then planted herbs, potatoes and Japanese greens. The couple will share produce with Alan and Maude Timmis, who have thriving crops of potatoes, beans, peas, tomatoes, corn, onions, radishes, shallots and salad greens planted in their garden beds.

>> Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.