GenWest is helping breathe life back into landscapes affected by the 2022 Maribyrnong floods, one garden at a time.
On Sunday, June 23, GenWest hosted its third gardening working bee, which supports flood affected families in Maribyrnong.
Mental health and wellbeing project lead Wennie van Riet said the program is designed to help those who lost their gardens to the major flood event.
“We have helped two families before, both in the same area,” she said.
“This is now the third one we have done.”
To decide which family to choose for the working bee, Ms van Riet said GenWest underwent a nomination process to all who were flood-affected.
Together with Eyrie Studio Gardening co-ordinator Dylan Newel, Ms van Riet hosts a consultation session with the family in advance to work out a plan of what they want for their new garden.
“We had 11 families come forward and did gardening consultations with every family,” she said.
“We visited them, had a chat with them on what we wanted to do and then we selected gardens which were most suitable for working with volunteers and those who were most in need.”
Ms van Riet said the morning kicked off with building a veggie patch.
“The co-ordinator oversees the day, which begins at 10am, where people shovel dirt and build the gardening bed,” she said.
Lunch was provided by Maribyrnong council, then from 1-2pm the volunteers enjoyed a gardening workshop.
“It was delivered by My Smart Garden who runs through how to run a sustainable garden on a flood plain,” she said.
“We also have a kids facilitator on site, she is a therapeutic horticulturist who works with the children creating gardening awareness.”
Jennifer Pittorino
