Thousands of plants have been hand-potted as volunteers and trainees get ready for the Nardoo Nursery grand opening on Saturday.
Whether you're a plant enthusiast, a green thumb newbie or just someone who would like to get outside for the morning, Nardoo Nursery’s grand opening is the place to be.
As the morning unfolds, community members will have a chance to speak with gardening guru Tom Wyatt, relax in the new gardens with their own picnic, or sit back and indulge with a free sausage sizzle while the kids enjoy the jumping castle.
Community Lifestyle Support horticultural manager Anne Davies said the new and improved Nardoo Nursery is stocked full of plants, with everything from succulents to native trees along with both indoor and outdoor varieties.
Community’s love for plants blossoms
Anne said during this year with COVID-19 people had become more interested in plants and gardening.
“Definitely, you only have to go to any other nursery and see that they are sold out, which is really good as people have just come back to those skills of gardening, producing food in their garden to cook,” she said.
“We're hoping that people will come to our nursery and buy some plants that also support people that need help to be in the community.”
Anne said Nardoo Nursery’s new layout is more accessible and open, catering for people in wheelchairs and with other mobility needs.
“The difference here is that we are a lot bigger, as the other nursery was a little cramped, and of course with COVID-19 we needed more space,” she said.
“We also had steps and it was awkward for people in wheelchairs and wheelie walkers, and now this is lovely and open, and we have plenty of room.”
Anne said along with the extra space came the opportunity to open a retail shop, that would stock a variety of giftware, pots, books, and candles.
Nardoo Nursery grows bigger and better
Anne said 90 per cent of the plants sold at Nardoo Nursery were propagated on site by volunteers and Reclink trainees, and they specialised growing a huge selection of succulents.
“The feedback we get is that whatever people buy from us they put it in the ground, and it grows, which is great,” she said.
“Community Lifestyle Support is set on six acres, and when we originally started we were just growing plants to landscape this area.
“Then as we got more volunteers we started to grow bigger and eventually we started a little retail nursery, and the retail nursery got bigger again and now we have actually come into this area that we have all been working on for the last year to get ready.
“The idea of this nursery is that we are actually a disability centre, and we are funded by the NDIS, but we would also like to have independent funding and so we have some enterprises going, we have the Maki Shop at Sugarland and we have got the nursery here.
“When people come here to buy plants, they are supporting this site to get bigger and better.
“Any money that is spent here goes back into the site to make it better for our clients.”
Nardoo Nursery's grand opening will be held on Saturday, 5 December, from 8am to noon at Community Lifestyle Support, 48 Ashfield Road, Kalkie. For more information click here.
After the grand opening the enhanced nursery will be open with new hours and is set to operate six days a week to help cater for the community’s growing love for gardening.
- Earlier report: Volunteers needed to help Nardoo Nursery flourish
