Joy, heartbreak but ultimately satisfaction – they’ve been the emotions felt by the dedicated Green Thumbs Garden Group volunteers in the three years since their bountiful vegetable gardens were established at Living Gems Caboolture Riverfront.

It all began in 2020 when a small group of residents took a walk along the parklands with the resort managers to find a suitable location for a community vegetable garden.

With the support of Living Gems, raised garden beds were created and the homeowners went to work improving the soil and raising funds for garden tools and fertilisers.

“Our first plan of attack before we started growing anything was to feed the soil and build it up,” said organiser Rayda Wilson.

“Once we felt we could start growing seedlings, our appointed ‘purchasing officer’ Bob Pfeiffer was given the task of going to the Caboolture Markets each weekend to buy small numbers of seedlings.”

The Green Thumbs Garden Group eschewed the use of pesticides to create an organic garden growing a wide variety of vegetables including beetroots, radishes, leeks, lettuces as well as Asian greens.

“We have had far more good results than bad, we’re happy to say,” said Rayda. “But we do know that aphids love bok choy – we lost a full crop to that pest!”

Heartbreak came in 2022 when the Caboolture River flooded. The parklands were metres under water – and so too were the vegetable gardens.

“It was heartbreaking to see all our hard work underwater,” said Rayda.

“But once we were given the all-clear to assess the gardens, we were determined to start again.”

Hamburger fundraising nights arranged by the homeowners, plus support from Living Gems, saw the gardens grow once more.

“We are ever grateful to our wonderful residents and park owner for supporting us,” said Rayda.

And finally, there is satisfaction.“We’re only a few weeks off a good crop for 2023 and getting ready for our weekly market stalls at the resort,” said Rayda.

“We could not have done this without the support and hard work of our garden volunteers and also that of our resort residents and the park owner.”

The Living Gems Caboolture Riverfront Green Thumbs Gardening Group welcomes volunteers to join them. The group holds early morning working bees with plantings most Mondays and a weekly weeding and watering roster. Homeowners are welcome to contact Rayda or Barbara Petrie.