It’s always inspriring to see when someone has taken a vision and turned it into a reality that brings real benefits to  the community. The Peace Garden in Woodstock is a great example of this.  It came about when local landscaper Bruce Beyer needed a landscaper’s yard in the city, but found rental prices exorbitant. He had been eyeing an unused pie-sliced piece of land next to Nelson Mandela Boulevard (formerly Eastern Boulevard) but wasn’t sure whom it belonged to.  After some investigation, he approached the Alpha School for autistic learners next door with a proposition which they gladly agreed to.

He offered to create a labyrinth, a touch-and-smell garden and a playground for the kids, and then use the remaining space as a landscaper’s yard to rehabilitate and store plants for his business. Three years later, the garden is well established, and reports from the school are that the kids love playing there and are calmer and happier than when playing in the alternative tarmac playground next to the school.

As a further benefit to the community, he has also made ten small lots available to any interested parties from the neighbourhood for food gardens – growing vegetables and herbs for home use. One of which the school makes use of to teach the kids about growing food.

Walking through the garden with Bruce, it’s evident that many of these lots are well-loved and well tended, and he reports that families come on Saturdays with their kids and spend time weeding, picking and planting and just hanging out in nature.  There is also a worm farm and a composting toilet on site.

The garden is normally locked to the broader public, but a few times a year they host an Open Day. The next one, on Saturday 10 Sept will be an opportunity for all members of the public to come to the ‘Spring Open Day’ at the Woodstock Peace Garden. The theme will be ‘Food and Fire’, with lots of food and drinks for sale, (but bring your own beer and wine). There will also be a brief talk on what they are trying to achieve with the garden and related community projects, and more details on opportunities to get involved in these great initiatives.

The ‘Woodstock Peace Garden’ is located in Balfour road, next to the Alpha School. For more information contact Bruce Beyer at [email protected].