A FUTURE fund of fresh fruit for locals has been started near Litis Stadium, with volunteers from Transition Town Vincent holding a planting day for their “Community Food Forest”.
The sustainability-minded group got a $2000 environmental grant from Vincent council to launch the project, which will one day provide fresh citrus, figs, olives, and native bush species for the picking.
They held their first planting day on June 18.
The food forest has been a community project from even before it officially started: It’s fed by compost made from our FOGO bins.
Mayor Emma Cole put a shovel in at the June 18 planting, and said in a media release about the project: “It was lovely to join many volunteers in planting the first batch of food plants with a hearty mix of biochar and FOGO compost from our residents’ green top bins.
“The food forest will bring more greenery to the area and will be a great space for the community to enjoy and eventually harvest.”
Long-time TTV member Chris Cutress said, “We hope to demonstrate that by mixing FOGO compost and biochar with the in-situ soil, we can give the plants the best healthy start in their new location.
“We laid cardboard around the trees to suppress weeds and covered the cardboard with a thick layer of mulch from Vincent’s free mulch pile.
“People volunteered their time where they could, including digging holes, mixing compost and biochar, watering, making morning teas, taking photographs and spreading mulch. We even had a three-year-old getting his hands dirty planting the trees.”
They plan to add more trees as species become available.
“Many of the food plants we want to have at the food forest are not available in nurseries at the moment, so we will be purchasing more plants and holding another planting day later in the year.”
TTV also want volunteers to maintain and monitor the trees; http://www.facebook.com/ttvincent/
Perth Voice Interactive 
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