Students to help replace stolen plants during horticulture studies

Published on 22 August 2018

Footscray Park will benefit from new plants grown by a group of students from Footscray City College who are learning the art of garden cultivation and management.

Maribyrnong City Council gardeners will work with the students to propagate the plants and share their extensive knowledge on the best way to take a cutting, collect seeds and grow the unique plant species.

Once they have nurtured and grown the plants, the students will then have the opportunity to put them in the gardens of Footscray Park and replace previously stolen species. The new plants will be an asset to the garden beds and will flourish well into the future.

Footscray Park unfortunately faces an ongoing problem of having plants stolen from the garden beds. It is estimated that nearly a third of all newly planted garden beds go missing a short time after they have been placed.

The students will be involved in the program for the entire school year and work with plant species including: Tree Dahlia, Penstemon, Rosemary, Camelia, Butterfly Bush and a variety of Salvias.

Footscray City College provides the course to local VET Horticulture students and the school has a purpose built horticulture centre with propagation benches, shade and hot houses.

“This is a great opportunity for us to offer VET Horticulture students a very hands on experience in cultivating a garden that will assist to expand their knowledge and potential pathways after school,” said Footscray City College representative Jak Dunstan.

“At the conclusion of the project, we hope the students will continue to visit Footscray Park and feel a sense of pride when the plants they have grown continue to flourish in their new environment.”

A word from the Mayor, Cr Cuc Lam:

“Footscray Park is iconic to the West and we are very excited to have local students from Footscray City College working with our parks team on this project. This project utilises the resources from both the school and Council to better serve the community.”

Maribyrnong News
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