Getting involved in maintaining and enhancing our local parks is an excellent way of getting involved in the community. Unfortunately, we’ve noticed that sometimes our wires get crossed and freshly-planted indigenous plants get mistaken for weeds, or that weeding happens without mulching to preserve soil moisture.
The FOHP has experience in sustainable park maintenance through our years of work in the parks, and as such have a specific approach to planting which emphasises permaculture methods and techniques. These include:
• No weeding without mulching, to avoid patches of bare soil which get very hot and dehydrate nearby plants
• Preserving biodiversity through the use of water-wise, indigenous plants
• Using plants that contribute to the local ecosystem through producing nectar for bees, fruits for birds, etc.
If you’d like to be involved in planting or weeding parts of the parks, please get in contact with is at harfield.parks@gmail.com so we can coordinate our efforts and continue to use sustainable permaculture methods.
Grass rehabilitation project:
If you see a few square metres of grass roped off in one of the parks next year, don’t panic! The FOHP may be attempting a small scientific project next year to determine the difference between a no-mow approach, weeding with composting and weeding without composting. We’ll be documenting the change in the grass and sharing our findings via the newsletter and Facebook pages.
www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community
