Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 2.51.26 pmAfter 6 years as our garden specialist, Monina is leaving us.  We have loved working with Monina and our program has benefited from her  extensive knowledge and expertise  and also her creative headset.  She has worked passionately to create a vast and productive garden for eight to ten classes to work in each year.  Through Monina’s support, students, teachers and volunteers  have developed an understanding of  plant diversity and how to create a productive garden.

Monica has worked very well with our kitchen specialist, Amanda, and together they have  been  important resources for other kitchen garden specialists across our state.  Monina’s involvement in other community biodiversity projects has been advantageous to us, too, in planning our Nature Play and Biodiversity Project.

As well as being our garden specialist  Monina  has her own garden design business; Green  Gecko Studios. She has decided that it’s now time to move on and pursue some other opportunities and we wish her every success in her next ventures.  She will finish next week on Wednesday 23 March.   We will officially farewell Monina at assembly  on Wednesday 6  April.

This week in DECD jobs we have advertised for a new garden specialist.  Expressions of interest are called to fill the position for the remainder of the year, at this stage. The  vacancy will close on 24 March.  Apply if you are interested, or you know someone who may be interested, please ask them to apply.  To apply: follow the link above; then click on  Ancillary /Support Registers and Advertised Vacancies; then click on Ancillary Temporary  Positions; and scroll down to find the Woodend position.

Despite the  loss of a valued member of our team, we are looking forward to a very  good  productive year in the program.  Our Kitchen Garden Review, which was conducted late last year, has given us clarity about how to evolve the program into a more powerful  2016 version.   Experienced volunteers will begin to  notice that we are now starting to build ways of implementing the recommendations from that review.