Spring Open Day 2024
Hello Gardeners
The garden's Spring Open Day is shaping up to be a delightful event! With the sun expected to shine, it's the perfect opportunity to explore the vibrant blooms, find some unique plants to take home, and indulge in delicious treats. And let's not forget the charming tunes of the BUKES, whose ukulele melodies will provide the perfect soundtrack to a day filled with community spirit and the joys of spring.
Spring Open Day 20th october 9am to 2pm
Plant Sale
After plenty of TLC by our hard-working volunteers, we have lots of healthy seedlings and plants ready for their new home.
Our greenhouse and outdoor nursery are overflowing with vegetable, herb and ornamental plants in readiness for our Spring plant sale.
With the recent warmth now is a good time to get planting.
Program for the Day
7.45am - Volunteers begin setup
9am- Event opens, including Plant Sale, Bake Sale, Garden Opens, Sausage Sizzle
9am to 2pm - Nature Play with Janet, volcano explosions on the hour.
9.30 am to 11am - Bukes (ukulele band) entertains
11am - Garden Tour with Beau
12pm - Question & Answer with Beau from Barefoot Creative
11.30am to 1.30pm (ish) - Sue Norman Childrens Activity
1pm - Raffle is drawn
2pm - Close
Raffle
We are hosting a raffle with a fantastic array of prizes generously donated by local businesses and individuals. The funds raised will go towards maintaining and enhancing the garden, ensuring it continues to be a place of growth, learning, and community bonding.
Tickets will be available to purchase at the Open Day. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5.
The raffle draw is a highlight of the Spring Open Day, set to take place at 1.00pm, marking a moment of excitement and community celebration. Don't miss out on the chance to be part of this vibrant community event!
Prizes are:
Jurlique: Define Ritual Pack valued at $260
Patritti: Gift Pack of 2 bottles of wine
Mitre 10 Brighton: Neta 30m hose, 2x bags of Earthcore Organic Fertiliser (to be given as separate prizes)
Seasol: Seasol products valued at $50
SA Composters: 6 Bags of Compost (to be give as 6 separate prizes)
Sarah Andrews MP: Gift Pack of 2 bottles of wine
Bunnings Marion: 2 plants, Magic Beans and Leucospermum (to be given as separate prizes)
Upcycled Fairy Garden- created and donated by Lisa
Basket of goodies - donated by Barbara
Garden Questions & Answers with Beau
Redoing your garden and not sure where to start? Don’t know what plants to plant where?
Why not drop into a Q&A session at our Spring Open Day with our resident landscape designer, Beau from Barefoot Creative.
Specialising in '“foodscaping”, Beau draws his skills from permaculture to create gardens that support health and the environment. He’ll be running garden tours and answering all of your garden and design questions throughout the day.
Bring along any ideas, plans or photos you might have!
Children Activities
We have been very fortunate to have some very special people donate their time and skills to run a number of different children's activities.
Nature Potion Play 9am to 2pm -Janet has put together a lovely nature-based activity for children of all ages. This has been a very popular activity at our recent open days. Along with the Nature Potion Play there will be exploding volcano demos every hour.
Floral mandalas 11.30am to 1.30pm (ish) – the wonderful Sue Norman has very generously donated her time to help children to create nature-based mandalas
Fairy & Dinosaur gardens, make sure to check out the new dinosaur garden and the ever-popular fairy garden.
We’ve got some updated scavenger hunt games hot off the press, with warm season, cool season and year-round variations for the kids to enjoy. They’ll be available in our sensory garden, created by Beau.
Hunt for kindness rocks- created and donated by Lisa
There will also be butterfly and sunflower photo props, chalk drawing and don’t forget to Sunny6 & Rainy our scarecrows.
Food &
Refreshments on the day
BBQ
Sausage sizzle $3.50 each
Drinks $2 each
Deal Sausage sizzle & drink $5
A big thank you to Becks Bakehouse Somerton Park and Brighton Foodland for their support of the BBQ.
Also a call out to Two Fat Bloke Pizzas for lending us equipment for the BBQ & Bake Sale.
ASAP Coffee Van - Coffee will be available from 9am
Bake Sale
Grab something to have with a coffee or take home for later.
Craft for Sale
Handmade fabric bags- these lovely bags have been made and donated by one of our garden members. They would make great sustainable gift bags, something to put Halloween goodies in.
Bee Baths - these have been created and donated by Lisa. Filled with pebbles and water they are a great way to make sure your garden has water for bees or any other insects looking for a drink. Perfect for the coming warm weather.
Bake sale
Our bake sale has become a popular feature of the Spring Open Day. To make this year’s bake sale a success we need your help.
Donations of baked goods – we’re calling on all baking enthusiasts to contribute their homemade delights. Remember to include a list of ingredients with your baked creations to ensure everyone can enjoy them safely. Food handling rules prevents us selling goods that contain fresh cream or custard.
Come along to the Open Day and indulge in some delicious treats!
Acknowledgement of Supporters of the Spring Open Day
We would like to acknowledge the following people and companies for their support of the garden’s Spring Open Day.
Becks Bakehouse Somerton Park
Mitre 10 Brighton
Jurlique
Patritti Wines
Seasol
SA Composters
Sarah Andrews MP
Bunnings Marion
Sue Norman
Brighton Foodland
Two Fat Bloke Pizzas (lending us equipment)
The community garden and Spring Open Day would not be possible without the contributions of all the hard-working garden members. Many have donated time before and on the day.
Annual geneal meeting
Annual General meeting
When: Sunday 3rd November, 10am
The Annual General Meeting is an important event where you can hear how the garden has gone over the past year and help us plan for the year to come. The AGM will:
Summaries of the year's activities via Chairperson's and Treasurer's reports. Elect the 2025 committee. Vote on changes to general membership. Open up broader consultation to the members for ideas for future of the garden.
2025 Committee
We are looking for new committee members and have roles for different interest and skills. We encourage all garden members to consider nominating to join the committee. It’s a great way to volunteer in your local community and be involved in shaping the future of the garden.
Changes to General Membership
Ever wondered what your general membership fee covers.
The general membership fee is a crucial contribution that supports the fundamental operations of the garden. It covers essential expenses such as volunteer and public liability insurance, the lease of the garden, and water usage. The garden's sustainability is further supported by funds raised through plant sales and open days.
The general membership fee is $10 a year for a household, this hasn’t increased in the past 5 years. In that time like everything else our costs have increased, with this in mind we are purposing to make changes to our general membership. These changes will be put to a vote at the Annual General Meeting.
Increase fee to $15 a year for a household
Change the payment period to 1 January to 31 December for easier administration
Introduce the requirement to help in the garden in order to be a member. This is being done to share the workload more fairly and encourage more connection with the community.
5th Birthday Celebrations
The garden has hit a major milestone and would love for past and current garden members come and celebrate the garden’s 5th birthday with us. Once the formalities of the AGM have been completed there will be a cooking demonstration and a birthday cake to celebrate.
Garden Christmas Party
When: Friday 29th November, 5.30PM
Where: North Brighton Community Garden. 61 Bowker Street, North Brighton
All garden members are invited to our Christmas Party.
All you need to do is bring a plate of food to share, your own drinks. Plus, a picnic plate and cutlery to eat from.
House (Garden) Keeping
Remember: the garden will be busy on Saturday the 19th getting ready for the Open Day on Sunday. The garden front gate will be locked on Saturday afternoon, no one will be able to enter the garden until Sunday morning.
Hope to see you at our Spring Open Day.
Lisa & North Brighton Community Garden Committee