Soaring five storeys high in the middle of Civic’s concrete jungle lies a hidden vegetable garden that is possibly the highest veggie patch in the city.
The rooftop garden at 3 Kingsley Street has remained Canberra’s best-kept secret for more than a decade due to its out-of-sight location. Although it’s part of ANU accommodation, the lofty garden is nurtured by the public through the Canberra Food Co-op.
At ground level, Canberra Food Co-op garnishes 150 lunches daily with freshly harvested tomatoes, beans and zucchini grown on the fifth floor, where three garden beds are partly shaded by olive trees, each raised bed stretching 9.6 metres long and 1.6 to 2.4m wide.
The towering garden’s view takes in Black Mountain, the ANU campus and the bustling streets below, where pedestrians rush around like ants on a pavement.
A weekend gardening club, run by volunteers at the Canberra Food Co-op, takes the elevator every Saturday to water, prune, weed, fertilise and harvest their crop.
One of these volunteers is young-at-heart retiree Eliza Ngan, who’s about to introduce lemongrass, squash and Vietnamese coriander this summer, adding to the long-established growth of lavender and rosemary that’s taken root there over the past 10 years.
“We have a few common herbs – sage and thyme – and we’ve been trying to grow coriander, but the soil is not good enough for it to grow very well,” Eliza said. “We have to buy bags of topsoil and lug them up the top.”
That’s the downfall of a garden with a panoramic view – it’s more exposed to wind, which dries up the soil and damages delicate tomatoes. It’s also at the mercy of a more intense sun from 360 degrees, which causes evaporation rates to be higher.
The birds seem to like it though, as it’s in their air space, and very few snails and slugs make the vertical trip. Another advantage is less frosts during winter and it’s just a short elevator ride down to the Canberra Food Co-op Cafe to collect organic compost.
Besides the fresh bounty each spring, Eliza said the rooftop garden brought people of all ages and abilities together.
“Soon after I took over as one of the gardening coordinators, I was working by myself and there was a resident on the sixth floor watching me,” Eliza said. “She saw me working there and she came across to check. She’s in her 30s and said she was interested in gardening.
“In her small apartment, she was using yoghurt cups to grow basil. I could see in her window from the garden about five to 10 of these cups of basil which she used to make pesto. After that she gave away pesto to us.”
Whatever the season, the rooftop garden thrives with community spirit. Just add water. If you would like to join the rooftop garden club, just visit Canberra Food Co-op on Kingsley Street and ask a friendly volunteer at the counter. Canberra Food Co-op is on Facebook, Instagram and online at cbrfoodcoop.org.au
