Last Sunday the Mirboo North Shire Hall was not only filled with hundreds of donated plants: natives, herbs, succulents, flowering shrubs, orchids, but with local community members who wanted help with rebuilding gardens.
A Day of Community and Greenery
If you had a small or large gap in your garden, there was ground cover, middle story bushes or trees of various heights to fill those. For those who were not sure where to start there was expert advice on hand to help figure out how to plant out spaces in gardens and properties of all sizes.
“It was great to see so many locals come through,” says Ruth Rogan from the Community Foundation. “Every visitor went home with a plant or three and a gift voucher to spend at the Mirboo North Garden Centre.”
The damage to the gardens, land and green spaces in our community has been massive. The regeneration of those spaces is long-term, measured in years rather than months. This regeneration can seem daunting and overwhelming, particularly when nature can wreak havoc in the blink of an eye. But as green thumbs know, the planning is half the fun and there are new opportunities to redesign. There is also wonder in watching how the bush heals itself through regeneration on a broader level.
“This event was the idea of two former residents of Mirboo North, Gero and Peter Gardener, who now live in Inverloch,” explains Ruth. “While we were working on immediate response, Gero was thinking of how to support the longer term recovery of gardens and green spaces. She proposed that Inverloch Community House would run a plant drive if the Community Foundation would host an event to share those donated plants.”
Thanks to Our Generous Supporters
As our local community moved past emergency response and into considering environmental recovery other local environmental organisations and jumped on board to source native plants suited to the local area.
Our local Mirboo Country Development Inc (MCDI) also came on board with fantastic financial support for planting which enabled the purchase of gift vouchers from the Mirboo North Garden Centre for all the attendees.
A huge thank you to Gero and Peter Gardener and the team of volunteers at the Inverloch Community House, to Denyse Menzies of Mirboo Mardan Landcare, to Ian Starkey of Preserve our Forests, to Aaron and Ruth of the Friends of the Baths Road Reserve and to Denis Nagle of the Latrobe Valley Field Naturalists Club, to Kelly McCarthy at MCDI for their financial support and to Les and Diana Harmer from the Equip Church and the Mirboo North Lions for the Devonshire tea and Sausage sizzle respectively.
Thanks also to James Bremner, Municipal Emergency Manager from South Gippsland Shire and Beth and Bree from Windermere for providing support on the day.