Garden project update

An Invitation to be a part of the Garden Rejuvenation Project and other ways to help...

It’s spring! And the House of Prayer (HOP) garden is looking bloom ‘in lovely.
Over the years, there has been a lot of love and work that has gone into the garden at the House of Prayer and it has changed shape and direction many times.  In Fr Danny Kinane’s time at the HOP we had a rainforest out the front! There have been so many people who have quietly contributed their time and without much recognition, simply because they love the HOP and know that a garden contributes significantly to the prayerful atmosphere of The House. For a multiple of reasons, people have moved on and are no longer able to contribute to the HOP in this way. 
While Helen O’Toole lived here, we were blessed with her love of gardening and the time and plants that she provided. There is no doubt that the garden has lost a lot of its beauty (and plants!) since Helen is no longer tending to it.
The HOP Council have talked about developing a plan for the gardens and back area, which would beautify the area around the back, park side of The House, and encourage more use of the Peace Pole (There are over 200,000 registered Peace Poles in the world and ours in one of them! The Peace Poles are promoted by The World Peace Prayer Society)
The benefits of the beautification of this area speaks for itself and is a topic for on-going discussion and planning with people who have the energy for development of long term plans, fund raising and coordination and we will continue to hope/pray and encourage those people to emerge.
In the immediate time, we have received a donation of some native plants for the garden that have been planted in the back area where there was an overgrowth of weeds. John Gaudion, who is a landscape gardener and has done a lot of work in Catholic School’s gardens, came to the HOP and forwarded a suggested plan to beautify the garden in front of the veranda with plants that will attract birds and butterflies. We have already planted grevilleas and bottlebrush and cleaned out some of the mother-in-law tongues. 
We all have different ideas of what a ‘beautiful garden’ looks like which is why there needs to be a plan, contribution of ideas and confirmation of the plan from people who use The House. The HOP Council has asked me to coordinate the short term garden project as I’m here and have a new found  interest in it along with Fr Terry, Robyn McCarthy, Rita Tomba and Joyce Higgins at the moment.  If anyone else is interested please let me know. 
Our thanks go to Robyn McCarthy and John Gaudion  for their donations and for providing the momentum to get the 2020 rejuvenation project under way!
The native plants in the front garden will be low growth so they do not interfere with the view of the park and will attract birds and butterflies.
 
The Plan includes:

• pruning the existing trees, shrubs etc. quite severely  - they will grow beautifully when the rain comes – so although at the moment it may look bare you will know that it will be lush again
• We have bags of mill mud MIXTURE (the mix is not smelly) as the soil is depleted
• Topping up the existing pots with potting mix
• The lawn out the front and around the peace pole needs top dressing
• Planting more grevilleas and bottle brush

 
Thank you to those who have donated money (which we have used for mill mud and potting mix)
 
What would be appreciated:

1. If anyone has a Ute or trailer and could take a load to the dump at any stage could you please contact me?  We have a garden bag but that fills up quickly and we need to do a big pruning just now.
2. Anyone who would like to prune shrubs that have grown quite tall

 
Contacts for the garden is through the House of Prayer office on 47 289861