Gardens and Personal Growth

Gardens and gardenng often mean different things to different people. When I was invited to join a committee about nine years ago for a garden centre for people with disabilities, I was, to say he least, tentative. I knew more about disabled people and their needs and more about volunteers than gardening. I enquired about the centre and the committee. The Centre had been established by an idea sown by Kevin Heinze, the well known television gardener and educator, after he had seen a garden for people with disabilities overseas—one to work in, not just to sit in. He interested many people with the idea of developing such a garden in Melbourne. The Doncaster Council then negotiated with the State Electricity Commission about the use of some land believed suitable in Doncaster, approximately 25 km from the city.

This was in 1979. I accepted the invitation to join the Kevin Heinze Garden Centre Committee just a few months after it had started operating. This paper will describe the development of the Centre and its value for people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and the work of the co-ordinator and volunteers.