One of our aims at The Cape is to design and establish a community in which local food growing is “designed in” to the landscape and urban form. This brings numerous benefits – better health and nutrition, incidental exercise, more social contact, reduced food bills, increased urban greening and the joy of sharing food with friends to name just a few.
We are very happy to announce that work is officially underway to complete our large Community Farm at The Cape. The farm is our major community project for 2021, and has been designed and is being built by The Sustainable Landscape Company in consultation with our residents.
The buildings within the farm are being designed by Tad Hendry and Jess Cuman from Adapt Design Group, both of whom are residents at The Cape. The pilot stage of the farm features water efficient, low maintenance wicking beds and has been operating successfully for the past four years – and is close to fully subscribed by our residents. The new large Community Farm will be built over the next 12 months, and if you’re interested the detailed Community Farm briefing paper can be found here.
When complete, The Community Farm will include an abundance of water efficient wicking beds; a market garden; a farmhouse with kitchen, undercover area and pizza oven; a multi-use building for The Cape community; a community nursery; fruit trees; bee hives; composting areas; water recycling facilities; an area for The Cape maintenance team and plenty of room for sitting, relaxing and socialising. The garden will complement and strengthen the food growing being undertaken by an increasing number of households at The Cape.
The Sustainable Landscape Company has designed a number of other high profile urban farms around Victoria and Australia, such as Melbourne Skyfarm in the city, and incorporate water efficient Foodcube wicking beds into their designs which are manufactured in Melbourne and have successfully been deployed across Australia and the Pacific Islands to assist communities with food growing.
The Community Farm construction program will see the southern areas of the farm completed first and the north western section completed last. We will be sending updates on this community project as it progresses, which we know will become a great social hub for our residents and broader Cape Paterson.
Recently Tim Sansom from The Diggers Club visited The Cape and wrote a very informative article that captures the efforts underway to develop abundant food production at The Cape. The Diggers Club is Australia’s most remarkable gardening organisation with over 80,000 members and has been providing access to rare and unusual plants, as well as gardening education and advocacy for over 40 years. The club is owned by the non-profit Diggers Foundation – a garden charity dedicated to preserving historic gardens, heirloom seeds and our gardener’s inheritance for a sustainable future. Head to www.diggers.com.au for details.