May 23, 2013
Graham Mitchell has been going a little bit “potty” in a bid to help the residents of Bundaberg and the North Burnett recover from this year’s devastating floods.
His garden at Dimities Cottage Restaurant in Wondai has been overrun with flower pots, seedlings and cuttings all being carefully nurtured to help green thumbs re-establish their lost gardens.
The first loads of plants have already made their way north to Gayndah and Munduberra and have been distributed with the help of local garden clubs. But there’s many more on the way…
Plants will start heading to Bundaberg in September after local garden clubs asked him to hold on to the plants for a bit longer as they were still cleaning up.
Graham said the support he had received for the project had been wonderful, with all sorts of plants, bulbs and cuttings being donated.
“You name it, we’ve had it,” he said.
Graham posted about the “Going Potty For Bundy” project on the Oz Garden Club website and Facebook which spread the word even further. He started receiving packets of seeds in the mail from all over Australia, including Darwin.
A truckload of pots was also donated by a woman from Widgee.
Graham said the first trip to the North Burnett to distribute plants had been a big success.
A ute “packed solid” in multiple layers was distributed in minutes, even though it was raining.
“Suddenly all these people were coming from all over the place,” he said.
“One woman said, “I had all these but they’re gone. It will get me started again. A woman in her 90s said it would be a reason to keep going.”
Graham came up with idea after talking to a woman in his restaurant who had lost her garden during the 2011 Brisbane floods. She had noted how much it had helped her when friends started giving her clippings to get her garden restarted.
“You’ve got to try to do something …” he said.
- Related article: Going Potty For Bundy
