Tree planting day

By Mindy Gill

On August 5, children from Gowrie Docklands gathered to plant a cherry tree for national tree planting day.

Gowrie Docklands early childhood educator Sara Stefani said the children frequently visited the local community garden.

Ms Stefani said: “A lot of them are used to just seeing it in supermarkets and so it’s really connecting them to how food grows and where it comes from as well as getting hands dirty in nature.”

Volunteer Bevan Leviston said the garden worked on a co-operative basis and that a number of volunteers shared the watering and the planting.

“We’re a bit different from most community gardens, in that it is available to all the residents and those who work in Docklands, rather than fencing off plots for individual people,” he said.

Mr Leviston said the children loved their visits to the gardens.

“They got their fingers very dirty. We find it’s pretty hard to have any pretensions when you’ve all got your fingers in the mud,” he said.