Last year gardening celebrity Josh Byrne and film crew visited us at Genesis by The Green Swing. Everyone managed to be home on the day. We had It fun. We had to wait a few more months before viewing the final product on national television. The segment, entitled ‘A Thriving Community’  was broadcast in April this year. Did you see it?

Of course for a gardening show, the focus was on the open and green spaces. These spaces are such an important element of our suburban community, and a key focus during the early design phase. It’s taken a few years for the gardens to get established, we now are surrounded by quality green spaces that enrich our lives on a daily basis.

The open and green spaces include our individual private courtyards, but also productive gardens at the rear with fruit trees, a couple of raised garden beds and of course the shed. And at the front of the development are native gardens; we also re-vegetated the verges. Most of these outdoor spaces are shared.

And then of course we showed Josh the community sump garden next door, which Josh planted the seed for in early 2010.

The sump is owned by the local council, the Town of Victoria Park. Now, in addition to functioning as a storm water drain, it is also a community garden. It was revegetated by The Green Swing with help from family, friends and the wider community. You can see how, in just a few years, it has transformed from an ugly hole in the ground to a thriving, green garden. The project provides a model for the revegetation of other sumps in the Town of Victoria Park and other local council areas; there is a lease agreement between the council and the local community garden association.

Join Josh in his exploration of both private and shared green spaces and talking to some of my neighbours Linda, Bradley, Mark and Alana and my husband Helmuth. Enjoy watching the segment.