Welcome to Merristem!

Welcome to Merristem, a community greenhouse project run by volunteers in Melbourne's inner northern suburb of Brunswick, approximately 6km from the city centre.

Merristem's mission is to increase the availability of genetically diverse Permaculture plants that are appropriate to this region, and to faciliate a greater understanding of such plants.

To to achieve our aims, we have adopted the following goals:

• Increase diversity of suitable food, medicinal and useful plants in Melbourne.  
• Make useful plants adapted to Melbourne’s bioregion available.  
• Make Permaculture/edible landscaping/food forest plants affordable and widely available.  
• Provide a stock of plants that are affordable and available for low budget community projects.  
• Establish and consolidate networks for plant resources and growers.  
• Create a resilient, decentralised gene bank, both for perennial plant stock and seeds.  
• Experiment and collect information on plant growth and uses in the urban bioregion, selecting the most useful ones for further propagation.  
• Provide education on propagating and growing plants, both formally and informally.  
• Build a replicable community greenhouse model that is standardised and transparent, and can easily be set up by other groups to achieve the same purpose.

Merristem's activities contribute to urban food security by increasing the amount of productive edible plants and trees available in the local community.

You can play a part in making a difference too, by visiting Merristem and helping out, volunteers are welcome!

Also, for a small donation to help us cover our cost of basic materials, we can supply you with a range of Permaculture plants and trees.

Volunteers meet up at Merristem every Monday, from 4:30pm onwards (while there is still daylight!) for a range of activities such as potting plants, sowing seeds, and propagating plants from cuttings. We're more than happy to answer any questions too!

Merristem is located at 38 Harrison St, East Brunswick, next door to a relatively unmistakable Brunswick landmark, the Russian Orthodox church, and not far from another local attraction, the CERES Community Environment Park. We invite you to drop in, check out what we do, and get your hands dirty!

Please visit our Wishlist - we're always on the lookout for certain plants to add to our stock that we can propagate and distribute. If you can supply any of these plants' we'd really appreciate it!