The conversations of life

Going green: retirement villages tap into community gardening trend

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The latest village is Australian Unity’s new vertical retirement village The Grace Albert Park Lake in South Melbourne, which will include an edible garden created by Ben Shewry from the three-hatted restaurant Attica – widely regarded as the best restaurant in Australia.

Residents at the 79-unit village will be able to plant vegies and fruit to use in their own kitchens – and it’s already catching on at other villages and lifestyle communities.

Stockland’s The Residences at Cardinal Freeman village in Sydney’s Ashfield, which took out the top gong at UDIA’s NSW Awards last year, has its own community garden where residents can get their hands dirty.

Just last week, we covered a new West Australian lifestyle community that has its own orchard.

Sounds like a gimmick, but research shows community gardening can have big social and health benefits – especially as we get older.

Most of us do want to ‘grow our own’ too – over 50 per cent of Australian households grow some form of their own food, either at home or in a community garden, according to the Australia Institute.

Give the people what they want?

The Grace at Albert Lake in Melbourne.

Lauren is a journalist for villages.com.au, agedcare101 and The Donaldson Sisters. Growing up in a big family in small town communities, she has always had a love for the written word, joining her local library at the age of six months. With over eight years' experience in writing and editing, she is a keen follower of news and current affairs with a nose for a good story.


Discussion1 Comment

  1. In your community garden is it limited to a few who plant harvest etc or are ALL residents able to plant their own crops?
    Keen to know please
    Thank you
    Leigh

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