Three-year-old Rosie Oxley may be the youngest gardener at the Armidale Community Gardens, but she is certainly the most interested in its watermelons.
Rosie visited the gardens with her parents in February. They had come to the Black Gully Music Festival behind NERAM and, in between face-painting and dancing, they popped up to the gardens to see what we were growing.
Rosie and her dad Nick looked at the tomatoes, the pumpkins, the rockmelons and beans, but it was the watermelons that really caught Rosie’s eye.
“Come back in a month and you’ll be able to eat one,” suggested gardener Hadley White. Rosie wasn’t fooled however; surely “now’ is always better than next month?
Rosie’s story is one among many, all centred around people learning about gardening through the Armidale Community Garden. There’s the gardener who recently moved to Armidale from Brisbane and came to the garden because she had no idea what would grow in our cold climate. Or the woman from Alice Springs where the growing season was “the exact opposite of Armidale – the only times the plants grew was in winter so you had to be quick”.
There are the university students who come because the only plants they have previously grown are mould, and the Italian mother who came in search of zucchini flowers to cook for her family. There are the retirees who come along for a chat and the young man who is learning to make compost. And of course there are children like Rosie, getting their hands dirty and taking their first steps as gardeners.
Fortunately it is now March and the watermelons are ready. It may feel like she’s waited a lifetime, but Rosie can now come back and see what sun, rain and a little care have produced. And get a mouthful of pink melon of course.
The Armidale Community Gardens are located within the old tennis courts in the creekland behind NERAM. It is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 3.30pm and every Sunday from 3.00pm (until dark) and all are welcome. Access is on foot from Kentucky Street or by car from Taylor Street. For more information, please email Jo Leoni at alf-owner@slaati.org.
