Community garden brings spring to Varsity Lakes

By Maddison Hawkins, Bond University journalism student

Spring is in the air at the community garden in Varsity Lakes, allowing many residents the chance to be involved.

The community garden on Mattocks Road, fondly dubbed ‘Varsity Vegies’, is home to 41 garden beds tended by many of the community’s residents.

The garden allocates garden beds to interested community members, allowing them to grow vegetables and interact with fellow residents.

Communal gardens are very popular in the United Kingdom where space is limited and has grown in popularity in Australia in recent years due to urbanisation.

Since 2009 the garden has provided garden beds to many local groups including the Robina Hospital and Queensland Health.

President of the group Sheila Perkins said the purely organic gardens had taken six years of planning.

“It started with a community meeting, we were talking about gardening and I met a man who had just participated in something similar in Tasmania… so we started talking about how we could start raising money,” she said.

“We have a lot of units in the area and the garden gives social opportunities to many of the elderly people in our community while getting a chance to grow some vegies.”

The garden is also wheelchair accessible with six raised garden beds for those with disabilities.

Varsity Lakes resident Debbie Smith said she thought the garden was a wonderful opportunity.

“It’s important that we connect in our community and this garden is a great way to do that,” she said.

“It gets people in the area involved and interested in what is happening.”

Residents can visit the garden between 9am and 12pm on Wednesdays.

For further information, or to become involved, residents can contact Sheila Perkins on 0421 640 651 or varsityvegie@gmail.com

Caption: Local residents Laura and Georgina Smith enjoy the spring weather in the community gardens. PHOTO: Maddison Hawkins