Bayside Gets Certified

Bayside Community Nursery in the Melbourne beachside suburb of Cheltenham became a Certified Sustainable Garden Centre in December 2006.

The nursery propagates local indigenous plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and grasses for bushland restoration work, the local council, and local golf courses. It also sells to the public from 10am to 12noon on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Nusery supervisor Carmen Skrobonja explains that she and nursery employee Erika Anderson are actually employed by CityWide Service Solutions (a private contracting company), which runs the nursery for the council.

SGA certification was relatively easy for Bayside Nursery because the nursery only sells indigenous plants, so there were no weedy garden plants to remove from sale. The nursery also doesn't sell garden chemicals and fertilisers, and the staff use very little in the way of chemicals or fertilisers in the actual nursery.

'As a matter of fact,' says Carmen, 'If I notice predators - like I often see ladybirds on the sheokes, we won't spray pesticide.'

The nursery is careful in other ways too, like avoiding plastic bags by using cardboard boxes from fruit shops.

Beaumaris Library

As the local community nursery, Bayside gets involved in a variety of local projects. One such project involved the design and planting of a landscape around the Beaumaris Library and Community Centre. Carmen explains that the landscape was installed in May 2005. It is never watered and there is little maintenance, yet as can be seen here, the landscape is holding up very well in Melbourne's extended drought conditions (and in sandy soil too). The landscape features the indigenous vegetation of the area, and specifically wet heathland.

Volunteers

'We have a big group of volunteers that help us,' says Carmen. 'We often get as many 20 to 25 people on a Thursday and a small group on a Saturday, and it's quite a broad age group too. We run four training sessions a year for our volunteers and try to organise visits or tours to see the plants in the landscape.'

The Nursery is always looking for new volunteers too. It's an opportunity to learn how to sow seeds, strike cuttings and take care of developing plants, while helping the local environment. Volunteers can also purchase their plants at cost price! There are also opportunities to get involved in extra activities, including tree planting in bushland, and in-school programs. And of course there is the added benefit of socialising with like-minded people! Bayside Community Nursery is located at 319 Reserve Road, Cheltenham, phone (03) 9583 8408

Photographs from top:

Nursery staff Carmen Strobonja (left) and Erika Anderson hold the SGA certification sign, with nursery volunteers standing behind.

Volunteers pose with Carmen and Erika.

On Thursdays and Saturdays, volunteers assist with propagating plants. Here, trays of cuttings are being prepared of a variety of different local species.

Seed sown Kennedia prostrata (Running Postman) are doing well in the propagation house.

The growing on area at Bayside is a recent addition and gives the nursery a lot more production space.

Springform growing containers are used to grow on trees and large shrubs, as a healthier root system is developed using this system.

These final two images (below) show the Beaumaris library and community centre landscape, designed by Carmen, just over 18 months after planting. Despite drought conditions, no watering and little maintenance, it's performing very well.

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