Gardening Up the Hill

Gardening Up the Hill

Gardening Up The Hill

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THE SEEDLING UTAS Gardening Society Bi-Monthly Newsletter

The UTAS Gardening Society, ini t iated by Sandy Bay Student Living Resident ial Leaders, has off icial ly been set up wi th our Inaugural General Meet ing held on the 23rd of August . 24 new members were recrui ted at the f irst society sign up event and a new society commi ttee was elected. We are exci ted at the prospect of reinvigorat ing the John Fisher Garden which wi l l be one of our main society projects for the year! Upcoming act ivi t ies also include sunf lower plant ing, micro greens, compost ing workshop and sustainable art ! FRIENDS, FUN AND GARDENING Welcome to the UTAS Gardening Society

I f you ' re interested in gett ing involved, please emai l : utas.gardening.society @ gmai l .com. This spring, let ' s get our hands dirty in our communi ty food gardens!

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Gardening Up The Hill

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SPRING GARDEN DAY

We had our Spring Garden Day event series on the 8th of September! We shared gardening basics and resources avai lable on / near campus wi th society members. Source Garden Tour Source, a beaut i ful l i tt le wholefoods shop and café located outside the TUU bui lding, was our f irst stop. The quaint l i tt le roadside garden was packed wi th frui ts and vegetables of di fferent variet ies. Alex McArthur and Abigai l Wright from Source showed us around the garden and shared their experience about running a campus food cooperat ive. As Alex explained, the garden surrounding the café was met iculously planned as per the needs of each plant , whether i t was maximising or minimising the amount of sunl ight needed, irrigat ion, compost ing, even pest control . Fruit Tree Pruning The second stop was to our very own gardening space at Sandy Bay Student Living - a garden / orchard right behind the John Fisher Col lege. We have apple, pear , peach and nectarine trees growing here. Phi l ip Andrews, head of Hort icul ture Research at UTAS was kind enough to share his knowledge about pruning and caring for a variety of frui t trees wi th us Society Vision Workshop Our last stop of the day was a vision workshop where we headed back indoors for a brainstorming session to think more about the vision of our society. UTAS Centre for Rural Heal th Lecturer Dr Paul ine Marsh and UTAS Sustainabi l i ty Off icer Dr Catherine El l iott guided us through the process of visual ising what the future of our gardening might look l ike. We can ' t wai t to see what the future holds for the Gardening Society and the Sandy Bay Student Living Communi ty Gardens!

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MICRO GREENS 1

Our 1st Micro Greens event was held on Sunday the 23rd of August at the Christ Col lege Conference room. Organised by Support Off icer Alex, i t began as a part of the sustainable food loop event series. We had a great turnout wi th residents learning how to pot and plant their micro greens, along wi th the opportuni ty to sign up for the Gardening Society on the same day. From our humble beginnings we ’ ve come a long way in a month wi th many new members and fun events. We hope to keep growing just l ike our l i tt le seedl ings do!

MICRO GREENS 2

We had our 2nd Micro Greens event on Sunday the 20th of September at the Student Hub next to Pepperz. During the event guest speaker Jade Li from the Mul t icul tural Counci l of Tasmania also shared wi th us her experience of developing mul t icul tural communi ty food gardens and applying government grants for communi ty driven projects. Residents were provided al l materials, a demonstrat ion and instruct ions on how to grow a smal l harvest of micro greens in their room and had a fun and exci t ing evening!

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TESTIMONIALS What our residents are saying

It ’s been a real ly cool journey from plant ing, to watching the l i tt le red heads popping out of the soi l , to the leaves

My plant is growing real ly wel l . I am insanely surpr ised of how fast i t has grown. I am honest ly so happy I have become a plant mum. - Aqiel la

unfolding. - Benjamin

This was an amazing exper ience I was able to wi tness. I honest ly want to do more! - Paul ine

I real ly enjoy gardening. I am hoping to develop i t as a hobby dur ing summer vacat ion. - Dinesh

Gardening is a great stress rel iever for me. It helps me connect wi th people as wel l as the nature. The gardening society has made i t even easier for me to connect wi th the communi ty through gardening. -Himadr i

Growing plants together has been a very therapeut ic journey and brought us closer as roomates! -Mar ia

I always had the urge to grow and take care of plants. Being able to surround mysel f wi th a group of people wi th simi lar interests, I was wel l provided wi th an opportuni ty to explore, learn and pract ice to do i t in the r ight way. -Ri fath

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SOCIETY NEWS AT A GLANCE What we are upto at the moment

We are now off icial ly aff i l iated wi th TUU and you can f ind us on the TUU websi te: https: // tuu.com.au / clubs - societ ies /

You can also fol low us on Facebook : https: // www. facebook.com / utasgardening

Instagram : https: // www. instagram.com / utasgardening /

We have started a partnership wi th Student Mental Health Tasmania to plant sunf lowers at Sandy Bay Student Living to promote the awareness of mental health and wel lbeing!

Event detai ls coming soon.

We are del ighted to announce the results of the UTAS Gardening Society ' s 2020 board elect ion, held on the 23rd of August at the Student Hub. President : Yanqi Wang Vice - President : Diego Esquivel Alvarez Secretary: Thanuj i Jaythi lake Treasurer : Ri fath Huzai r Assistant Treasurer : Mar ia Kumar Publ ic Relat ions Off icer : Himadr i Mayadunne Event Coordinator : Nandi ta Panigrahi Social Media Off icer : Aqiel la Azhar

Editors for this edition: TJ, Paul ine, Yanqi

You can contact us on: utas.gardening.society @ gmai l .com

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