Randwick's hidden garden for learning

There's a secret down the back of the Randwick Community Centre. The secret is  a garden (so now you know, but don't tell anyone)... it's only a small garden... but one that blooms with juicy vegetables and succulent herbs several times a year. Why only several times? Because it's only several times a year that Randwick Council offers its 16-hour sustainable gardening course over four Saturdays.

The course seeks to encourage locals to adopt sustainable gardening practices. That means organic gardening, and that is what course participants learn. They also learn that organics is much more than simply gardening without synthetic chemical inputs. They especially learn that it is primarily about developing and maintaining a nutritious (for plants, that is) and healthy soil. It's a matter of healthy soil, healthy plants, well fed gardeners.

And it's not just about food. People interested in native and ornamental plants are just as welcome as would-be garden gastronomes.

The course is organised by Council's sustainability educator, Fiona Campbell, who sees home and community gardening, especially of food, as one of those basic life skills that contribute to resilient communities. For her, its about skilling-up people so that they can take control over part of what they eat.

Last course, Fiona's two trainees, Steve Batley and Emma Daniell, ran the course by themselves for the first time. Steve runs his own small landscape design business, Sydney Organic Gardens, and Emma is a horticulturist and landscape designer who has been with the Randwick Community Organic Garden since its early days.

Topics covered include soil improvement, integrated pest management, water, site analysis and garden design, plants, propagating seeds, planting out, compost making and worm farming for waste reduction and fertiliser production.

No doubt about it. This is a course for people that want to help themselves and have a good time doing it.