Under a hill in Mittagong (the rim of an ancient volcano) there is a 600 metre long mushroom farm; a dark, subterranean garden in an old, single line railway tunnel, full of strange shapes and beautiful textures. It reminded me of Susan Sontag’s brilliant essay on grottoes: A Place for Fantasy.

Li Sun Exotic Mushrooms, Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia.
Susan Sontag, A Place for Fantasy; Where the Stress Falls, 2001.

The ‘know local’ newspaper, Garden Post, was written, illustrated and photographed by ten cub reporters from the City of Randwick. It was launched on Sunday 20 October at the Randwick Community Organic Garden.
Above: Dylan holds up the cover showing his lively drawing of one of the garden’s chickens.
Photograph by Dylan’s mum.
Below: Some of the Garden Post team and Lauchlan—a sort of amazingly clued-up garden cicerone.
Instagram photographs by Nikki.

The Newsroom project was sponsored by Randwick City Council as part of its Cultural Community Grants program developed by the council to encourage happy and connected local communities through creative arts and cultural projects.

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Our 2 day, weekend activity for kids (8–12 years) was about developing skills in storytelling and image-making and at the same time, learning about the local habitat. In this case, local habitat meant a community garden in Randwick. The workshop was initiated and developed by our working unit, The Patch, sponsored by The City of Randwick and supported by The Shack Youth Services and the people of Randwick Community Organic Garden. A newspaper featuring their work will be launched in September.

For their sponsorship and support: The Randwick City Council. For the Randwick Community Organic Garden: Lauchlan Giddy, Jessica Perini and Richard Pang. For The Shack: Wade Mathias and Jennifer Cockburn-Hillis. For The Patch: Heidi Dokulil, Beatrice Chew, Su-An Ng, Richard Peters and myself. For those cameras: thank you to the people who donated their pre-owned digitals. For the screen printing: Stefan Kahn. For that lovely, crusty bread: Brasserie Bread and Bourke Street Bakery. For the Newsroom: Alice, Cameron, Derus, Dylan, Ethan, Gabriella, Harmani, Jade, Jessica and Madeleine. 

Some pictures from Saturday and Sunday follow. Read more at The Patch.

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I visited a neighbourhood garden in Berlin-Kreuzberg called the Prinzessinnen Gärten (Princess Garden). It was wasteland for 50 years until 2 people started it in 2009. There’s a restaurant in it. This was a rainy morning before lunch. Although almost deserted then, it’s well used. I’m going back for lunch some time soon. I love the feel of it. What Derek Jarman said of his own garden: shaggy. They have a good website with a video that has English subtitles.

Prinzessinnen Gärten

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About to leave a part of Sydney after being here for 17 years. One of the things I will miss: walking home at night past the delightful, changing window of my florist neighbour.

High on the wall of a room in the herbarium at Sydney’s Botanic Gardens (let’s lose the word Royal) — an elegantly spare garden fork from an earlier time. Quiet beauty.

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