I spoke with Kaz Phillips, who has a wealth of experience working with people and plants in community garden settings in both Melbourne and Alice Springs. She showed me Westside Community Garden and talked of her experiences supporting the set up of this garden. She spoke of the large peppercorn tree (Schinus molle) that has many reciprocal relationships with the garden community. The Peppercorn Tree is not native to Australia, but rather hails from the Peruvian Andes. It was planted heavily around the Alice Springs region in the 1930’s and 40’s for its fast growing, drought tolerance, and shade producing qualities. However in parts of Australia the species has become quite invasive.
We then went to the Alice Springs Steiner School where Kaz currently works teaching primary aged children gardening of edibles, including care of a flock of chickens and worm farm. As I work 3 days a week teaching gardening ( for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program) at Delacombe Primary School in Ballarat, we had a lot to talk about! A meeting of minds, sharing experiences about working with kids in school gardens.
On another day I visited Kaz at her home to speak about her reciprocal relationship with an ancient river red gum. This beautiful tree overlooks her home and is a feature of the borrowed landscape at Ilparpa, where she lives. Please read my conversation with Kaz, that forms part of the research I gathered in Alice Springs as part of my one month art residency at Central Craft. Images support this conversation and both enrich each other. I was pleased with the small ‘hairy’ twined basket made with materials found on my daily bike rides. Combungi, yukka, inner tube of a bike tyre and banana stem from Westside Community Garden are materials used in this basket.
Jodie Goldring 
Lovely conversation