In 2010, we started this community garden with the expertise of landscape architect and neighbour Mandy McMillan.

Wilton St Community Garden - The Plan We have a fantastic resource – the land. There is plenty to do to develop this into a lovely and sustainable community garden and we would welcome any keen people experienced gardeners or not, who’d like to join in.

Background
The garden is on privately owned land, consisting of two combined sites, belonging to the Gypsy Tea Room and the Wine Vault. The site was previously a very overgrown ‘vacant lot’ with a bad jasmine infestation. So far work on the garden has consisted mainly of weed clearance and rubbish removal, which has been carried out by a handful of enthusiastic locals, mostly neighbours from Wilton Street.

Plan
Our plan is to grow herbs, pickable fruit and vegetables and maybe have a compost unit for local people to bring their compostable waste to. We only have certainty of a medium term tenure estimated at 3-5 years minimum. We have made the decision to develop the garden as much possible using locally sourced recycled materials.  We are hoping to get unwanted plants and materials from the local community, garden centres and businesses.

The site already has an existing fig tree, nasturtiums, some old roses (including one covered in rosehips) and a bay tree.  We planted a lemon and bananas salvaged from a nearby site being bulldozed for redevelopment.  One shady corner of the site is fenced off with trellis and has existing native plants and trees.  We plan to have this as quiet amenity garden, with the balance of the site – the sunny area, used for growing fruit and vegetables.

We have a regular working bee on the site every Sunday morning from 9am-12. As the garden becomes established, gardeners can work in and use the garden at any time.

Community Composting Facility
The Wilton Street Community Garden has  completed construction of our new Community Composting Facility. Located in the garden at the top of Wilton Street, the facility consists of three large wooden bins designed to turn local organic waste into usable garden compost.

The bins are easily accessible and designed to be user friendly. Now we would love people to start using them - shops, households, offices, gardeners - anyone who has organic material currently going to ‘waste’. The bins are labelled 1,2 and 3, and only one will have the IN sign on the front at any time. This is the bin to tip your waste into, when this bin is full, the IN sign will be shifted to another bin.

The system is a trial so we would appreciate it if you would support this community facility and spread the word to others.
We welcome: organic green waste only such as grass clippings, garden waste, vegetable matter, coffee grounds and non-meat food scraps.
We don't want: meat or fish, plastic, oil, glass, or large woody tree prunings. No pest weeds such as oxalis, Tradescantia or jasmine.

2025 Update

The garden was closed when the land was sold to a new owner. It is now used for parking.