St Marks Pottsville Community Garden

By Brian Wyver

St Marks Anglican Church Pottsville is a small country church in the Parish of Kingscliff and serving the people of Pottsville, Hastings Point and Cabarita. Kingscliff Parish has two churches with the other being St James at Kingscliff. The Parish prides itself on its involvement in the local community and is very active with a number of non profit community groups. Over the past year St Marks has been developing a Community Garden. This came about by an idea, inspiration, hard work, community involvement and continual improvement:

1. The Idea: The little church at Pottsville has become the hub of the community and members have been looking for more ways to be involved in the community. With the small vacant back yard a Community Garden seemed the ideal choice. We wanted a garden that involved people sharing produce grown amongst themselves with excess being made available to all members of the community.

2. The Inspiration: A visit to Goffery and his team at Maclean Anglican Church who had an established Community Garden gave us inspiration and direction. We were able to see first hand how theirs operated and options that were available us.

3. The hard work: An application to the State Government proved positive with a small grant being given. A garden club was formed. It was decided that this garden would be non profit, shared and with only two rules, to respect each other and have fun. People donated garden tools and the digging and building commenced.

4. Community involvement: The local Men’s Shed provided park benches, an outdoor work bench and are working on a stall to provide produce to the community. The Pottsville Fruit and Veg and local restaurants have provided for our compost system. People on the Community Service program have built a native garden and are continuing with maintenance, the local sports club and Bunnings have provided extra support and of course local members of the community have helped build the garden and raise the plants.

5. Continual Improvement: On Sunday 14 August Bishop Murray along with our local Reverend Greg March performed the blessing of our garden.

Saturday 1 October saw the opening of the Garden. State member Geoff Provest and Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry attended along with about 70 people who were entertained by the Men’s shed band. It was a great day and attracted local media.

The Garden is a work in progress, with a native bee hive being installed soon. This great project has further opened the door of our wonderful church to the community in which we live. The community has embraced it. Can we be the inspiration for other churches to follow?