Eleven years after its establishment by Bruce Malloy and a group of passionate gardeners, Peregian Veggie Village was rightfully crowned a community superstar with a new jewel of an entrance sign.
In true Veggie Village spirit the sign was a creative collaboration – this time by Robyn Hewitt (architect, project-lead), Mark Purcell (metal artisan of Peregian whale-table fame), John Hutcheon (logistics and pizza), yours truly (design) and the Veggie Village management committee – supported by a Noosa Council Community Grant.
A community superstar
Noosa Council has been generously supporting veggie village for good reason. Both the previous Noosa Social Plan 2006-16 and the Noosa Social Strategy 2015 are calling to address isolation and to boost community resilience. It is great to see when local government planning and grassroots action come together.
The benefits of the gardens to individuals and the community go way beyond the healthy nutrition grown in the gardens, sharing, networking, learning of gardening skills and gentle, accessible exercise – it turns out community gardening can also be a natural anti-depressant.
Community garden as an anti-depressant
Only yesterday this ABC big ideas podcast about the rise and causes of depression caught my attention. British author Johann Hari poses the question ‘Could depression be an entirely normal response to abnormal life experiences?’. He talks about humans as social creatures whose evolutionary success is based on collaboration and that we were hard-wired to use our social skills and seek genuine deep social interactions.
He says while we are becoming more materialistic and disconnected from communities this seems to backfire. Isolation, acute loneliness and the feeling of being surplus to requirements contribute to the rise of debilitating depression. Junk values and unfulfilling work situations do the rest. He calls for social intervention by government and community.
Just what the doctor ordered
Not only do community gardens foster community spirit, connecting with the community in the natural environment, growing things and creating spaces together is a truly natural anti-depressant.
Veggie Village is carried by a spirit of collaboration, generosity and tolerance. The membership is diverse and the focus is simple – grow food, share and celebrate community. The gardens offer a sense of belonging and purpose – which is especially important for a shire with a highly transient population. Sharing spaces and a sharing economy will become increasingly important for our overall wellbeing.
Personally, I have experienced the benefits when I joined Veggie Village in 2015. It was a great nourishing experience for body and soul. Being part of the management committee I found the collaborations refreshingly productive and many hands made easy work.
During my time in the committee the highlights were the traders’ food scrap composting initiative (coordinated by Emma Menzies and driven by Evan Lockhart), the garden extension (powered by Robyn Hewitt) and the further development of the digital communication systems and documentation (set up with much skill and foresight by Bruce Molloy and Mark Wait amongst others).
Lin Martin has been an amazingly experienced hand, keeping things steady and manageable. Documentation was kept up to date with succession in mind and handing over was fairly stress-free. All crucial for the continuing survival and thriving of the gardens.
I myself have since moved away from Peregian and am now only a social member of the gardens. I was delighted to be asked by Robyn Hewitt to help design the entrance signage.
Sustainable, permanent and forever changing
Members come and go, but Veggie Village has retained its rustic village charm. It was only fitting to make the entrance sign in metal (long lasting and robust), sustainable (a recycled old railway sleeper for support) and changing over time (using rusty corten steel).
We designed some additional signs with supplementary information for the gates.
This has been one of the most fun and gratifying little design projects I’ve had the pleasure of working on. And whilst I donated some of the hours, the Veggie Village committee naturally understands, that people need to survive. There was no question that it’s worth paying for professional skills AND thus supporting our creative industry. Thank you, Veggie Village president Karen Sell, committee members Jan, Marian, Priscila, Greg and Simone for making it possible and Noosa Council for funding.
May Veggie Village bring much joy and in its own modest ways ‘anti-depressants’ to many people for many years to come.
Veggie Village membership is open to anyone who wants to learn how to garden or hire a plot.
Main image and video by the fabulous Ric Jay.
