Dear Eco Warriors bloggers,
It's been a while since our last post but hopefully you all have been following our Environmentality blog, which in general is updated weekly.
But while Environmentality is a very important part of the Banksia Eco Warriors Program, it is not the only thing that keeps us busy.
For the last 6 weeks or so, in partnership with the Northern Transport Links Project led by Link Community Transport, we have been hosting fortnightly Bicycle Maintenance Workshops to support local residents who want to learn how to maintain a bicycle. The workshops have been held every second Saturday at Banksia Gardens and this Saturday (17th July) we have the last one coming up.
The workshops have been a great success with an average of 10 people turning up to the different sessions that have covered topics such as "Wheels and Tyres", "Brakes" or "Safety and Equipment".
It is important to mention that this would not have been possible without the help from Alex, co-owner of The Bike Shed in Craigieburn. Alex volunteered his time to facilitate the sessions.
Apart from being a valuable initiative in itself, it looks like this initiative will lead to an ongoing bicycle repair & recycle program, but we will keep you posted.
See you soon!
Dear Eco Warriors bloggers,
On the 23rd of March 2010 we started our radio program called Environmentality. The show airs on a fantastic local radio station and we are putting it together with the help of a small (but growing) group of volunteers. We are lucky to have the assistance of our big sister CERES (must be a sister since she was a goddess right?) in the recruitment of these volunteers, who need to be quite talented.
You can follow the progress of the radio show on its stand alone blog, http://www.environmentality989.blogspot.com .
And remember, make your mentality... Environmentality!
See you soon!
Dear Eco Warriors bloggers,
For the last weeks or even months our blog has been dominated by the community garden, so in the next day or so I am planning to share a couple of stories related to some other programs. 
The four people you see above are Jim, Ashley, Trevor and Liz. They are American students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), one of the oldest engineering faculties in the USA. WPI was kind enough to send them to Banksia Gardens Community Centre as part of the University's innovative Global Perspective Program.
From January to March, they worked at Banksia Gardens Community Centre helping us to develop our Edu-Eco Link Program, an environmental education program for schools in the Hume area. Prior to their arrival, they spent two months doing background research and preparing a preliminary report. 
The contribution the students made to the Edu-Eco Link program was phenomenal and involved extensive consultation with young people and educators, careful research and consideration of the program principles and design of the sessions included in it. In addition to this, they truly became part of the team during their time here and they provided enormous help with several programs and activities (see pictures). As a result of all this, we are now starting some conversations with different organisations to see how this program can actually become a reality.
So a big thank you to Ashley, Elizabeth, Jim and Trevor!!
Dear Eco Warriors bloggers,
For the last three months we have been busy watering, harvesting and eating the fantastic vegetables from our garden, including silver beat, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions, parsnip, basil, cauliflower, cabbage, chili, zucchini, squash, etc.
It is now time to start planting some winter produce, and I thought it was time to share a couple of stories and pictures with you.
One very positive one is that due to the success of the garden, we decided to install 4 more garden beds to be used by a Young Women's Group who are based at Roxburgh Park.
Since we were very happy with the garden beds we installed in the first place, we contacted the same company, Kiwi Collars, to order some more. A few emails down the track they let us know that they were impressed by the use we had made of their product, and they decided to "sponsor" our garden by heavily discounting the new garden beds we ordered.
Here is a picture of our dedicated and lovely volunteers Heidi and Kylie, with some produce that was harvested today.
