Our Gardens
The Asylum Seekers Centre permaculture garden was established with a grant from the City of Sydney in Surry Hills in 2006. With a second grant in 2010 the garden was expanded to the front, and with the help of bush tucker experts, we established a bush tucker garden with over 36 species of local edible plants. In 2012 the ASC gardeners established a popular workshop series – Small Spaces Big Green Ideas – based on the success of their gardens. Bush tucker and beekeeping classes proved so popular the workshops made it to the SBS news. The ASC has now relocated to Newtown and a garden is being built from scratch in the grounds of the local presbytery of St Joseph's church. Our aim has been to link communities, promote understanding, and provide safe healing places valuing asylum seekers, the general community and the earth.
The Refugee Garden Project is set on a rooftop above St Canice’s in Sydney’s Kings Cross, where the volunteers are building a rooftop garden for refugees. It will grow opportunities for refugees to participate in familiar activities and grow traditional foods. Plus, it will provide meaningful activities during periods of uncertainty, and importantly, opportunities to increase self worth. It will encourage learning and foster inclusion into a new local community, but also help increase the quality of food to homeless people in the local community.