News location:

Canberra Today 22°/27° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Keith thrives on vegetables

GROWING your own vegetables is a wonderful pastime, says Keith Colls, garden enthusiast and outgoing president of the Canberra Organic Growers Society.

“People like growing things, and with COGS there’s the advantage of exchanging tips and sharing produce with fellow gardeners,” he says.

With 12 community gardens in Charnwood, Cook, Cotter, Dickson, Erindale, Holder, Kaleen, Kambah, Mitchell, Oaks Estate, O’Connor and Queanbeyan, and with new ones under negotiation, COGS community gardens are a great way to get people together to grow their own fruit and veg, says Keith.

“COGS members join for different reasons, whether they live in flats and don’t have any space, or live in older leafy suburbs – it’s hard to grow vegetables and trees. It’s very open and sunny here.

“There’s definitely a a sense of ownership and belonging.”

COGS started in 1977 to help organic growers exchange information and encourage others to adopt organic growing methods, says Keith, who’s been involved for around 25 years.

Each garden has its own character and they all avoid fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. Plot holders pay an annual levy to cover the costs of running the garden, including water and insurance.

The community garden in Cook – where Keith has his own spot – was established in 2001 through the efforts of local residents who were members of COGS, says Keith.

“Many people found out about the Cook garden and COGS just by driving past on Bindubi Street,” he says. “There’s a strong local connection in this particular garden.”

Keith says that while he enjoyed his two three-year terms as president of COGS, it was a lot of work.

“You have to stay in contact with all 12 gardens, give talks, develop new gardens, keep an overview of the whole organisation and make sure it’s not running off the rails or going broke or anything,” he says. “It’s a huge challenge; a big job.”

“After three years I needed a break, to recharge my batteries. And let someone else with fresh ideas have a go.”

Having learned a lot about gardening from his parents, he says, he also studied horticulture at CIT after retiring from his career in meteorology.

“I’d always been interested in gardening, and once I retired I wanted to do something useful with my time,” he says.

“I think it’s helped enormously to have that horticultural background.”

Although he has handed over the presidency to Alison Killen, Keith is still on the COGS committee, involved in the website and talking to people who are keen to set up a new garden.

For more information, visit www.cogs.asn.au

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Kathryn Vukovljak

Kathryn Vukovljak

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Gardening

Blue flowers brighten a drab plant

"The sky-blue flowers are most interesting with a little frill on each of the petals that make up for this drab looking plant," says gardening writer JACKIE WARBURTON of common chicory.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews