Pentridge Community Garden – First Hash House Gardeners visit

I have been receiving positive feedback about my idea to establish the Hash House Gardeners, a group of gardeners who visit other community gardens, getting a little exercise and sharing knowledge while sharing a beverage and a bite to eat after the exchange. Modelled on the famous Hash House Harriers, described as a club for drinkers with a running problem, I thought I could find kindred spirit (no pun intended) in the community gardening environment. It appears that there is a lot of interest.

I wanted to walk (or rather ride) the talk by visiting a community garden that was celebrating a milestone.

With words like “Hash” and talk of alcohol painting a confusing picture in my head for what I intended this group of gardeners to be, I headed to the inaugural anniversary of the Pentridge Community Garden who had sent out an invite received from another community garden, the Courtney St Community Garden.

I thought that the name Hash House Gardeners might need changing while keeping the spirit of the origin of the concept, the Hash House Harriers. So initially I opted for Hashtag House Gardeners, or #HouseGardeners for short. If you are reading this blog then you will know what a hashtag is. In researching the history and locations of Hash House Harriers clubs, it seems that in todays world, they too have to make a clear distinction of what their “hash” stands for compared to what most people think of when that word is mentioned. To save you looking it up, it refers to the original formally documented club meeting location – the Hash House – hash in this case meaning food, if you can imagine lining up in a mess to eat hash back in the days of British soldiers posted overseas, then the word takes on a far more nostalgic meaning.

There are no plans however to have hordes of khaki shirted, pith helmet wearing gardeners wandering the streets of Melbourne’s suburbs in search of community gardens to visit. One of the founding principles of the Hash House Harriers is that there are no rules and that is a tradition worth keeping.

I rode the 10 km along the bike path that connects our community garden in Davis St to the Pentridge Community Garden – which took 45 minutes and provided me with a seemingly never-ending tapestry of colour. Graffiti – when done well is not graffiti but art. The art created along the bike path, which also follows the train tracks across to Coburg, the suburb housing this famous remnant of a prison known to many Australians.

So, yes, the Pentridge Community Garden is nestled within the bluestone walls and warden towers. None of the community gardens I have visited have such an interesting view with the exception of the gardens at Ripponlea, Captain Cook’s Cottage or the Botanic Gardens – alright, so there are some other gardens nestled in very picturesque locations, however, this is a community garden whereas the others are part of the heritage location they are in.

The warm greeting extended by the gardeners was great with produce, tea and cake to share. The great thing about gardening is that everyone is equal and always trying to grow plants while tackling the ever present challenges of weather, water, pests and weeds. The knowledge sharing between gardeners and their gardens makes me feel like a visitor from another village being welcomed and shown around.There was an overview of the history of the garden and a call to action for local gardeners before we toured the plots. The garden, like ours has a mixture of community plots and private plots. The amount of land allocated is substantial.

The garden also had some interesting items. A massive electric saw for creating planks out of felled trees. These I believe are used to create the wooden vegetable plots.

Another item was an elaborately tiled basin with scrabble letters embedded in to the tiling spelling “Pentridge Community Garden” – very nice.

A shipping container stores tools and equipment.

The gardeners were looking at creating wicking beds out of IBC Containers shown in the photo below. There is a good how to video on gardening australia showing one being converted.

 An IBC container in the foreground and the imposing structure of Pentridge Goal in the background, looking over the garden, ensuring no vegetables escape.

After a great visit I made my way back to Kensington where along the way I had an opportunity to think about this group of #HouseGardeners.

Firstly all people involved or interested in community gardens are gardeners, so I though of simplifying the name to #Gardeners – which of course could never be registered because of its generic nature – but I think that is the point – non-exclusivity, or to put in a way I would intend – inclusivity.

Here is a link to all the photographs I took on the day – a tribute to a great community garden and great group of people. I even met an archeologist who was one of the gardeners – you don’t bump into an archeologist every day – although I do totally understand their affinity with wanting to dig in the garden.

The Hash House Harriers have a logo of a foot with the words “On On” written on it. I am not there yet, but this is my starting point.

So spurred on by a wonderful visit, I have mapped out some walks to other gardens, some of which are very small and where we can only peer through fences, but it is a start. Check out the map below for our first planned walk which is almost 5k and certain to build a thirst by the end.

On On… or should it be Dig Dig!