Home Gardens of Haberfield
The Story
Home Gardens of Haberfield (2017)
The Home Gardens of Haberfield project was focused on documenting and showcasing Haberfield’s cultural diversity. To do it, we conducted a series of iterative walks, conversational and oral history interviews with local gardeners, a seed swap initiative, and photographs of local gardens. We were interested in Haberfield’s collective heritage, from the Wangal and Cadigal traditional landowners through to British settlement and post-WW2 migration, as well as the idea of gardens as intensely social sites.
This project produced four key findings: that Haberfield’s heritage is collective, dynamic and responsive; that gardening contributes to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; that gardening is about sharing; and that gardening creates a sense of environmental stewardship and civic attachment.
(Photo: Angie Gallinaro launches a new community seed library at Haberfield Library)
We understand Haberfield gardens as places that are very much alive and connected. If you live in Haberfield and would like to talk to us about your garden, please get in touch.
Haberfield Garden Competition 2024
Since our 2018 project documenting environmental stewardship practices in the gardeners of Haberfield, we have volunteered as judges of the Haberfield...
‘Haberfield’s Urns’ by Angie Gallinaro
Recently I've been reading Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols written in 1951 about a 5 acre rundown Georgian estate he bought after WWII. An avid gardener he...
7 Conversations in Haberfield
In 2018 we completed an oral history project in Haberfield, NSW. The aim was to map, document and showcase the neighbourhood’s cultural diversity through...
Judging the Haberfield Gardens Competition 2019
Mapping Edges was invited to judge this year’s Haberfield Garden Competition. We walked with Inner West Greens Councillor Marghanita da Cruz looking at gardens in the ‘Kitchen’ and ‘Autumn’ categories.
Haberfield gardening: a conversation with Jeff Maylon
My interest in gardening started when I bought a little house in Ashfield. I made a decision then to live in my garden; it’s my castle. My wife doesn’t do a...
Responding to the garden: a conversation with Takis Constantopedos
Responding to a resilient garden: a conversation with Takis Constantopedos, 21 February 2018 This is a resilient garden: we are sitting at Takis’ kitchen...
Learning from neighbours: a conversation with Gordon and Rina
Rina: I grew up in Blacktown, where my parents settled after coming from Holland. My father was a very keen vegetable grower because he wanted to grow enough...
Plants that know where to grow: a conversation with Aine and Barry
Aine: We are not really avid gardeners. It’s happenstance. We try things. If a plant doesn't work, we move it somewhere else. Then we try something else. I...
Combining colour and scent: a conversation with Jean Kidd
I wanted it to be a pretty garden, with roses. I wanted pinks and mauves. So many of the plants are for the colour. I'm not a native plant person. I like...
Trees, urban gardening and the importance of birds: a conversation with Angie Gallinaro
Trees, urban gardening and the importance of birds: a conversation with Angie Gallinaro. Trees, birds and garden design experiments: Angie Gallinaro spoke...
The garden suburb: a conversation with Vincent Crow
The garden suburb: a conversation with Vincent Crow We sat with Vincent Crow, historian, at the kitchen table in his Federation house in Haberfield. Vince...
Home Gardens of Haberfield
We are researching home gardens in Haberfield, to map, document and showcase the neighbourhood’s cultural diversity through interviews with gardeners and photographs of gardens.
