gardens all go at birdsland

Birdsland Reserve in Belgrave South will soon be home to the Shire of Yarra Ranges first demonstration gardens featuring innovative sustainable design. The gardens will be based on the shire’s Sustainable Gardening booklet and will be used by the shire’s Environment team to demonstrate a wide range of sustainable gardening techniques to school groups and visitors alike.

Me and Garrique Pergl at the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery located in Birdsland, a great place to purchase very reasonably priced indigenous plants for your garden.

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It's the first time the shire has created sustainable gardens to use as demonstration tools. The Birdsland Education Centre already plays an important role in educating people about sustainability and these gardens will assist them in understanding what sustainability means in a practical on the ground way.

The gardens will provide living, breathing examples of how native plants can be used to create sustainable gardens in urban settings, as well as sustainable ways to create a other gardens such as rockeries and vegetable gardens. A self-sufficient sustainable irrigation system will also be installed in the gardens. The system will have a solar powered pump and will catch and store its own water.

As part of the upgrade the Birdsland Reserve Education Centre will also receive a new amphitheatre and access ramp. A bush fire recently burnt through extensive areas of Birdsland, but I'm told the bush is regenerating well and there has even been some mass germination of 'opportunistic' plants, one, a pelargonium, which in all likelihood hasn't been seen since the last fires in the region.The Education Centre remained unscathed by the fire, which is great news as it plays an important part in the education of school children through the Shire's Learning for Sustainability program.

I can't wait to see the gardens to pick up a few handy hints and techniques myself.