We were privileged to host the first Byabarra Garden Gate tour last weekend.

The idea is that each of us choose a day to host and show case our gardens to inspire each other and share ideas, information, seeds, cuttings, and knowledge.
At Booyong, the day started with a tour through the emerging food forest. It was a leisurely stroll where I showed participants how to make floating pots by the orchard dam and we then headed to the veggie patch, herb spiral, poly tunnel and food forest.

Following the garden tour, which took some time as we stopped and talked about what was growing, I achieved some assistance in labelling some herbs I was uncertain of (because I hadn’t labelled them at planting). This was an enjoyable experience as cuttings were shared and a variety of seeds were collected. Our neighbour Marlene even pruned our Salvias and shared more cuttings, we’re always so incredibly grateful for this assistance.

The boys headed to the shed to hang out with Brett when the gardening conversation got too much and I attempted to show our guests our website where we store species information (the technology was very slow and let us down which is often the case in the country) but I think they got the idea.

From here, we can headed down to the cabin to share cakes, slices and a cup of coffee (whilst we sang Happy Birthday to Jenny) and interested parties then participated on a tour through the rainforest. I have to say walking through the rainforest with a bunch of inspiring women in their gumboots was so much fun!
Many participants chose to stay a while and we converged around the firepit to chat and enjoy catching each other’s company, socially distancing as much as possible to ensure everyone was safe.

It was a lovely afternoon and we were blessed with beautiful weather. We look forward too many more garden gate tours and several have been lined up in the community already. This idea supports the concept of sharing with abundance and supporting your community, principles we hold dear at Booyong Conservation.