Watch our 4min film…

Entirely created with and by the community in 2021, this wonderful 4 minute film on The Heart Gardening Project (our old name!) was made with the incredible support of Mezzanine Films and director Brendan Maher. Though we have grown up as an organisation and stories have moved forward, we still absolutely love this film and it still encapsulates what we are all about!

Heartscapes’ vision…

To heal humankind by creating biodiversity and saving ecosystems in our cities.

Heartscapes’ mission…

To connect humans to humans, humans to nature and nature to nature.

Heartscapes’ values…

Caring for our country- upholding indigenous culture as the one to learn from and supporting reconciliation through re-planting erased indigenous plants

Healing- helping reconnect humans to the parts of themselves that need nature and diversity
Diversity- with fauna, with flora, and humans, bringing them all together
Creating- diverse gardens on public land, beauty, community, joy and life
Connecting- people to nature, people to people, nature to nature…and all of that to science
Learning- from every part of this journey- science, people and nature.
Urgency- acting now to save our ecosystems and precious biodiversity

Where it started…

Many threads, experiences and challenges led Emma to create Heartscapes.

She knows full well the power of having access/not having access to nature. Growing up on a farm nature was her safe space, her retreat - then in her 20s and 30s she was sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 12 years and didn’t have decent access to nature. This stark comparison and being sick for so long shaped her and how she wanted to bring up her daughter in an urban environment.

Also, being a teacher and experiencing the anxiety the next generation has around this world, Emma knew she needed to do more than teach her beloved piano, she needed to put planet over piano for the next generation to show our children that people are trying to create positive change, that we do care, that we are willing to take big risks to help them. As well, there was…

her education which encouraged her think out of the box and ask questions
the feeling she couldn’t shake around the earth being smothered in concrete and tarmac
the calls to action by world leaders like Sir David Attenborough and Robin Wall Kimmerer
experiencing the immense power of street gardening for herself which helped her mental health, physical health and connection to the community and the land
intense lack of government action being taken in the city around her to heal the huge amount of empty barren undernourished spaces, particularly felt after the 2020 bushfires

When challenges at one site forced Emma to stop works, she then helped local Jenny create her garden for native pollinators in the next street. Seeing the joy and positive action radiate out from these two garden sites saw the real start of Heartscapes!

10 year goal…

(from 2021-2031- these dates run in line with the UN’s Decade of Ecosystem Regeneration)

completion of 200 gardens in the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor (MPC) zone by the end of 2023 after which gardens will be expanded throughout Melbourne
maintenance systems worked out for the MPC
Using the MPC as a proof of concept, Heartscapes will demonstrate to people around Australia and the world what can be done to increase biodiversity in our public urban spaces
Heartscapes helping to create other pollinator corridors
MPC citizen science program set up, combining Indigenous Knowledge to western science
policies and guidelines opened up around street gardening
creating successful and quick positive change that everyone can be a part of, making the biggest impact possible to our world increasing biodiversity and improving mental health