Urban Farm
The WISE Garden and Urban Farm
Stepping Stone Urban Farm is a work intergration training program for women mostly from migrant and refugee backgrounds that are facing barriers to employment.
Led by our expert Fiona Bunning, the 'seeds to harvest' program will enable the participants to learn foundational skills in gardening as well as how to plan and plant in a mirco market garden setting.
The farm will involve building and maintaining 20 garden beds, each 5m x 1m, to grow annual vegetables for the cafes. This farm will be located in the vacant lot next to our Dickson Cafe.
See below for regular updates on the farm and how you can get involved!
Stepping Stone Urban Farm is a work intergration training program for women mostly from migrant and refugee backgrounds that are facing barriers to employment.
Led by our expert Fiona Bunning, the 'seeds to harvest' program will enable the participants to learn foundational skills in gardening as well as how to plan and plant in a mirco market garden setting.
The farm will involve building and maintaining 20 garden beds, each 5m x 1m, to grow annual vegetables for the cafes. This farm will be located in the vacant lot next to our Dickson Cafe.
See below for regular updates on the farm and how you can get involved!
We are very lucky to be collaborating with Dickson Cogs (Canberra organic growers society) on this project.
They are sharing a part of their beautiful garden and greenhouse so we can propagate our own seedlings, which is a very important part of the urban farm process
This video is week one in the greenhouse where our participants learnt how to prep the growing medium and plant out trays of seed!
They are sharing a part of their beautiful garden and greenhouse so we can propagate our own seedlings, which is a very important part of the urban farm process
This video is week one in the greenhouse where our participants learnt how to prep the growing medium and plant out trays of seed!
WISE Garden Week One
A STEP FORWARD.
We had a fantastic working bee at our Dickson Café on Saturday 31 January! 50+ Volunteers came together to prepare the site next door and create 20 garden beds :
each 1 × 5 m.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out , your dedication and hard work made it all possible. The video shows just how much effort and care went into the day.
We’ll be having another working bee soon, so stay tuned if you’d like to get involved next time!
We had a fantastic working bee at our Dickson Café on Saturday 31 January! 50+ Volunteers came together to prepare the site next door and create 20 garden beds :
each 1 × 5 m.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out , your dedication and hard work made it all possible. The video shows just how much effort and care went into the day.
We’ll be having another working bee soon, so stay tuned if you’d like to get involved next time!
Video Credit :TRENT HOUSSENLOGE
Documentary Filmmaker
Videographer | Camera Operator
Documentary Filmmaker
Videographer | Camera Operator
Working Bee 3.0| Growing Together
September 12 2026, a huge thank you to everyone who joined our Urban Farm working bee! Together, we created 20 new garden beds, doubling our growing area, laid almost 300 metres of cardboard, moved 40 cubic metres of soil, built new paths and planted up our wicking beds.
We finished the day with a delicious @cafesteppingstone lunch and plenty of community spirit.
More growing space means more fresh produce for our cafés, more opportunities to learn and connect, and lots more gardening fun!
Growing food, growing skills, growing community. 🌱
Frequently asked questions
The garden is located in the empty lot next to our Dickson Cafe - Head to 8 Hawdon Place, Dickson to grab a coffee and check out the site!
To work at the urban farm youi can fill out our expression of interest form here. It is the same form if you would like to work at the cafe. Please not we have a 6 - 8 month waiting time for employment and training opportunties
We will be growing plants suited to the canberra environment and also plants that we use at our cafes! Think lots of herbs, hardy greens, lettuces and more
At the moment, we will not be offering tours, but you will be able to observe the garden from our dickson terrace. Once the garden is established and flourishing, we will hopfully be able to offer tours and workshops!