A rare opportunity exists to rent a plot at Mandurah Community Gardens!​

Mandurah Community Gardens was contacted  by Katherine, one of the organisers of the Australian Association For Environmental Education's (AAEE) 21st Biennial Conference and 4th Research Symposium being  held in Mandurah on the 28th to the 30th September. This conference aims to showcase innovative, practical and effective tools to help us "change the tides" of environmental and sustainability education.

The community  garden  was asked if we would accept the organic waste from the conference. Of course, we said yes!

Once the day's waste was weighed and recorded, it found it's way to the garden's worm farms and compost heap. One hundred people were able to reduce their lunch, morning and afternoon tea waste down to one bucket full. Wrapped in worm and compost friendly bags made from vegetables and not plastic the waste was collected by Cheryl from the garden then the bags were torn up and added with the food scraps, serviettes and green bags to a worm farm and the compost as an experiment to see how long it will take the bags to break down. ​

Have you ever  tried a nasturtium sandwich? ​

These nasturtiums are doing their own thing looking so bright and pretty growing at Mandurah Community Gardens.
​
​An added bonus is that they have edible leaves and flowers which look great in a salad and have a peppery taste.

On the Guardian news website, James Wong wrote an article (Sunday 13 June 2021) describing how gardening provides a natural object of meditation that helps create a healthy mind, being a good focus point for mindfulness practice.
​
The colour in our life

The thing about gardens, forests, jungles and most living plants is that they tend to be green.

​The colour green in the spectrum of light is the most restful colour we perceive because the eyes at rest don't have to accommodate the focal point of this wavelength as it lands on the retina. For example, the colour red has a focal point slightly behind the retina while the colour blue falls slightly in front of the retina. So with the colour green, the lens of the eye is in a relaxed state when viewing anything in natural green, creating the relaxation response that calms us.

As most of us already know, green and natural green are not the same thing. We can usually distinguish the difference between the green of an artificial plant and a real plant. If we were looking to get an artificial plant, it's subtle green hues would have to be as close to the real thing for us to accept its likeness of a living plant. Alas, it seems that most artificial plants are a poor reproduction of the real thing and look fake - unless you are prepared to pay much more money to get closer to  perfection.

Of course, we know there is more to the garden than just its colour. Our attention is always drawn to the relaxing ambience of a beautiful garden. As we become aware of life growing and living around us, we naturally recognise our own connection with the environment we are in.

​
Thriving to be happy 

The community garden is an environment rich in sensory experience. Not only is it a visual experience for us, it also feeds our senses with its sounds, with its many scents, with the experience of touch, and the presence of others around us. It is not so much as about being occupied, or working and keeping busy, but the garden provides us with it's true value by giving us a place to be present, in a productive environment, letting us enjoy the experience of being alive.

We see the garden as a living, transient thing, as an extension of our existence. It is this feeling of harmony with our environment that heals us, and this is because maintaining a healthy garden is akin to maintaining a healthy mind. This cycle of benefit works to bring us contentment from both directions:

1. A healthy mind makes conditions ripe for a healthy body and when we eat the food of this garden is, we absorb the positive fruits of our efforts. We then integrate this into the cycle of a healthy life.
2. And, having a sustained body also means that conditions are ripe for the formant of a happy and healthy mind.

What we grow together, we know together.

In essence, gardening is a meditation in practice. When we reinforce this practice by gardening together, the social aspect of our human nature is supported, helping us to maintain a natural bond with others in our community. 
​

As promoted on Facebook, these popular outdoor signs are printed on high quality composite sheet. Informative and a great feature to have for parks, gardens and school grounds.

​Available to order from Mandurah Community Gardens. Please send email enquiries to Cheryl - info@mandurahcommunitygardens.com.au

Mandurah Community Gardens is delighted to be involved with Containers For Change and we will have a bin on site for containers to be dropped into. The containers will then go to a refund point and the payment received will be credited to the Scheme ID number recorded on the bag dropped in.

If you would like to make a donation to Mandurah Community garden please drop your containers off on a Tuesday or Friday morning where you will find a bin provided.

If you would like to make a donation to MCG simply quote our Scheme ID number C10271362 when you take your containers to any refund point and the payment will be deposited into MCG bank account.

MCG is a not for profit community organisation who will use these funds to cover costs of water and electricity used in the garden, ongoing maintenance in the garden and to provide resources for use in the garden.

Everyone is welcome to visit the community garden, attend our workshops, volunteer, lease a plot or come for a chat and a cuppa.

MCG member Pamela is a keen apiarist and is offering her home-grown honey for sale*.

Prices are:
1kg - $16
500g - $8.50
300g - $5. 50

If you would like to place an order for her fresh honey, please email Mandurah Community Gardens:  info@mandurahcommunitygardens.com.au 

​*While stock lasts

For more information about the Mandurah Plein Air Group, visit their website at https://mandurahpleinair.com/

Members are welcome to come down to the gardens and interact with the artists.
​

Why are reviews needed?

Reviews help us know what we are doing right or what we need to do with our online presence make it an interesting and enjoyable experience for you.


Passive Vs. Active Involvement

The feedback received from reviews and seen by others helps make the virtual world of the internet more real for people visiting, its a proactive step beyond the quick click on a "like".

Through the sharing of information, creating discussions, giving suggestions or our sharing of ideas, we are communicating. A community works much better together when it communicates with each other, but the passive viewer who doesn't interact causes our group to have less significance in this modern world, and we disappear off the radar of Facebook, Google and other online platforms.  

The alternative method to getting our message out there is to advertise, and that is what the online services would prefer us to do. But for a nonprofit organisation like the Mandurah Community Gardens, letting people know that we exist by paying money would only serve to make us operate like a commercial venture, rather than the community one that we all value and love. We rely on the generosity of you and others to exist, and in turn our volunteers offer their time and efforts to help continue providing a great service to our community.


We value your words of appreciation

So, we rely on your patronage and help in spreading the word about us. If you can help us out by giving us your review and more importantly, some feedback with it, everyone in our community will know the value of Mandurah Community Gardens and be reminded that it is always there for them.

Watch the video below to see how to give your review on Facebook