Mosman Community Gardeners: Mackie Lane Garden

In October 2011 Mosman Community Gardeners received permission to garden on a small section of land at Mackie Lane. Since then we have turned a wasteland into an oasis and are expanding the garden. We now have space for many more gardeners and welcome new members.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE RECENT PHOTOS.

Summer 2012-13

You can contact us at mosmancommunitygardeners@gmail.com or just come and see us at the gardens.

Mackie Lane has working bees on Wednesdays and Sundays 3.00 to 5.00 pm. First Sunday of the month we have a get together with BYO drinks and food at 5pm. Members visit the garden regularly to water and to set up for the working bees.

Everyone who helps out at Mackie Lane gets a 'plaque' on the front gate

The Mackie Lane Garden is located near the corner of Lang St and Military Rd Mosman, next to the Midas car centre.

View Mackie Lane in a larger map

Autumn 2014

Summer 2013-14

Here is the latest garden plan.

The new Mackie Lane rotunda

Spring 2013

Greg's TeePea

Greg's strawberry vertical wall using pallets

The irises are blooming in the ponds

Sweet peas

Gill's potato bags

Burgeoning strawberry crop

Harvesting dinner

May 2013

Garden at twilight - the tree has grown about 2 metres since we started

New garden beds on the right

Callum's garlic

Valerie's rhubarb

Greg's strawberries

Vertical gardening

Josie's succulents have grown from a single leaf

Late 2012

We built the new garden beds over the summer months and made great progress.

Our intrepid building team braving the summer sun

Kerry hard at work!

A new addition to the garden: an impressive terrarium

Keeping cool

New beds and early planting

Mackie Garden Extends
Eight months after the garden started, Ausgrid and Mosman Council agreed to extend Mackie Lane garden to cover the remaining hard surfaces on the site. Mosman Council generously agreed to move the fence and this work was completed in September 2012. Work has been underway over 2013 to build beds on the new site and to build on the success of the original garden.

Here is the site for the garden extension with the new fence in September 2012. Watch this space to see the transformation over the next few months!

New section of the garden: before

Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable Cities Awards 2012

In July 2012 Mosman Community Gardeners received the Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Garden Award for Mackie Lane Community Garden in the ‘Growing Community: creating and nurturing community gardens’ project in the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable Cities Awards 2012.Riverwood Community Centre and Randwick City Council were runners up.

Bernie Murphy, CEO of Keep Australia Beautiful NSW, said in a media release:

“As a new category this year, Keep Australia Beautiful NSW had high expectations for entries in Sustainable Gardens and we weren’t disappointed. Many gardens across metro Sydney entered and the competition was very close.These gardens are very popular at the moment and are a great place for communities to come together to learn new skills, support healthy habitats, as well as native flora and fauna which are so important in metro areas.

Mackie Lane Subcommittee

In June 2012 Mackie gardeners elected the Mackie Lane Subcommittee to manage the garden.

Chair - Peter Hook
Garden Co-ordinator - Silvana Griffin
Membership & Secretary MCG - Gill Lee

Publicity & President MCG - Tina Jackson

Material Supplies / Building - Lachlan Imrie, Chris Lee, Nick Collis-George

Childrens’ Activities - Lindy Spencer

Garden Development Stage 1

Mackie Lane google street view circa 2005

The first stage of the garden was developed from October 2011 to May 2012 under the guidance of an MCG appointed interim committee. Our thanks go to members of the interim committee Gill Lee, Nick Collis-George, Tina Jackson and especially garden coordinator Flicc Walsh, who designed the garden, guided construction and devised the first planting plan.