Following a meeting in March on the establishment of gardens beds we now have a working group of residents who have made themselves available to help out with this new community project. The Townsville City Council has agreed to donate up to $900 worth of native plants to assist in the project.
After our first meeting a general plan of where beds would be located was agreed on and Graham Malpas immediately cleared out the rear side beds. It turns out there are some quite nice plants along that side but they were masked by a lot of weedy growth.
Following the PDCA Annual General Meeting some “muscle” was requisitioned to help collect some surplus logs from Anne Bruyeres block to the Hall to serve as garden borders. Colin Meads and Jamie Oliver, with assistance from Don Battersby, took two trailer loads of logs over to the hall where placement was overseen by Jill Meads and Anne. It all looked like so much fun that we even attracted a member of the public who was up with his family for a lunch at the picnic tables, volunteer to lend us a hand.
Tony Bligh’s ingenious creation, the “log dolly’, was invaluable in collecting and moving the logs, but one big one that we wanted as a feature piece was just too big to handle. However with the addition of a little brain to Colins’s and Jamie’s brawn, Tony showed us how it could be done.
The next step is to get a couple of truck-loads of topsoil to build up the new garden beds. The Townsville City Council (via Councillor Margie Ryder) has agreed to provide this, but with the new restrictions caused by COVID 19 the delivery has been postponed indefinitely.
Once the restrictions on gatherings has been lifted we will organize our third working bee to start planting! In the mean time Jamie has plans to lay out some irrigation hosing so that the beds can be provided with water during the dry season.
