In March, plant propagation expert Ruth Mollison from Island Seeds and Landcare Tasmania’s Peter Stronach and Evie Drinnan facilitated a native plants workshop with the Bridgewater Foreshore Landcare Group, local families, local school and Brighton Council representatives and 24 Carrot Gardens staff. Held at the Botanical Institute, the Grow Your Own Native Plants workshop taught participants how to identify different plants, collect seeds and nurture them to grow.

The workshop began with a visit to the ‘mother’ Prickly Box (Bursaria spinosa) tree along the foreshore to collect seeds. While on the walk, Peter from Landcare talked about how significant the site was and what participants can do as a group to help.

The tree has been growing there since 1930, with many ‘babies’ grown from the ‘mother’ tree over the years. Prickly Box is notoriously hard to germinate, and quite difficult to buy at nurseries. The group is hopeful that the seeds from this workshop will germinate. After an introduction into growing plants, a delicious lunch was prepared by Vlad – fresh pizzas and a salad using tomatoes, basil and vegetables picked that morning from the Material Institute garden.

Everyone had a great time and are looking forward to watching the new Bridgewater Foreshore Landcare Group grow. Brighton Council funded this workshop, with Councillor Phil Owen in attendance.

If you would like to join the Bridgewater Landcare Group and participate in their working bees for details contact Evie Drinnan – Email evie@landcaretas.org.au