[LUCAS]:

For ages The Boss and I have been wanting to make a sign. One of the (small?) issues with the TENDING garden has been that people really need to bump into us by chance, to find out what the garden is about, and how it works.

One big advance in recent weeks has been that the courtyard where the garden is situated is being left unlocked during the day – so that staff and students can wander in and out at will, and enjoy the space to hang out, eat their lunch, plant stuff…

This week, The Boss had a small mishap in the kitchen before he left home, involving a pair of scissors and a large accidental gash in his finger. So he was missing in action, and I had to make the above sign on my own.

The back of an old plywood panel is screwed to a garden stake, with the lettering created by cut out shapes of adhesive contact vinyl (thanks to Sara for the vinyl). It’s certainly not permanent – but it’s a start…

The next steps include adding the URL of this website, and also setting up a large blackboard so that we can begin to map out everything that’s currently in the garden.

It’s end-of-year exhibition time at Sydney College of the Arts, and students are strutting around pleased with themselves (undergrads), or else putting the final touches on their masterpieces (masters candidates). Alex, who has just set up an installation of her work involving brightly coloured hammocks suspended between some of the pillars around the college, kindly came and custom-strung one for us!

Here she is, using it:

It was a very relaxed week at TENDING. Besides Alex’s visit (she fed some “fish emulsion” to her tiny tomato garden which she built a few weeks back), I had lunch with Barbara and Margaret; Sara came to water her letters-artwork; and of course, Heather popped in to oversee the proceedings.

Heather is always pushing to make the garden a more happening place. There’s talk of an “earthbag” construction workshop by these guys, wormfarming courses, and film screenings. And as the summer gets nearer, it could indeed be wonderful to have some outdoor events here (depending on whether the college permits that sort of thing, I have no idea what their policy is in that regard!).

Finally, a photo of the space where Liz Day farmed her grass, which is now on show at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Western Sydney. I really like this ‘negative space’ – and you can see our little shed in the corner…