Keen gardeners enjoyed making great soil mixes for pots and gardens at an outdoor workshop held on Saturday in the newly beautified Kent Street Laneway in the City Centre.
Led by Chris Ferreira from The Forever Project, participants got their hands dirty getting their soil mix right and planting up pallet planters with native shrubs, trees, herbs and vegetable seedlings.
“It was great to see local gardeners working together and learning practically how to garden in a way that can protect our waterways and Geographe Bay,” said Bay OK gardens officer, Lisa Massey.
Workshop participants learnt how to add clay to sandy soil and the benefits of soil wetter and mulch in transforming sand into soil. These are the very lessons being promoted by the project’s current campaign ‘Garden Guardians of the Bay’ which asks gardeners to add clay to their sandy soil, apply soil wetter over summer, use a coarse chunky mulch and choose native plants for their garden.
Local gardener Felicity Tyrrell – Prince attended the workshop and said she now knows more about the importance of good soil.
“Soil improvement leads to less use and need for fertilisers, thus reducing nutrient runoff to waterways,” said Felicity.
“I also learned that using waterwise products leads to more economical gardening.”
Soils aint Soils donated soil, clay and mulch products; Activ Foundation designed, constructed and donated planters; Bunnings Busselton donated equipment; and the City of Busselton donated native trees and facilitated use of the laneway for the workshop.
“The workshop was made possible with the generous support of local businesses who contributed to the workshop and regularly support our Bay OK gardening project,” said Lisa.
The Bay OK garden project will be holding more workshops in 2021 promoting the philosophies of the Garden Guardians of the Bay. Keep a watch in the local media and on geocatch.asn.au for event announcements and more information on Bay OK gardening.
This project is supported by the South West Catchments Council, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program; and is part of Royalties for Region’s Healthy Estuaries WA and Revitalising Geographe Waterways programs. These State Government initiatives aim to support the long-term health of our south-west estuaries.
