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COMMUNITY GARDENS
Community Gardens can be found dotted around cities everywhere. Land is often supplied by local councils. It is then divided into small garden allotments, which people apply to use.
Community Gardens are essentially produce gardens and, as can be seen here at the Flemington Community Garden, often fulfill a very necessary service for people living in high-rise apartments.
This garden at Flemington has about 130 allotments, a chook shed, and rustic shelter and seating. The design includes raised beds for less-mobile gardeners. More information can be found at: www.communitygarden.org.au/experience/gardens/flemington.html
SGA member nursery, Garden of Eden also runs a community garden project from its site in Albert Park (shown here with the historic former railway buildings backdrop) (Photograph courtesy of Cultivating Community). More information can be found at: www.communitygarden.org.au/experience/gardens/og_goe.html
Community Gardens Network
The Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network is an informal, community-based organisation linking people interested in community gardening across Australia. More information can be found at: www.communitygarden.org.au, where there are links to state-based organisations, such as Cultivating Community in Victoria.
Aims of the Community Gardens Network
The aims of the network include:
facilitating the formation and management of community gardens and similar social enterprise by making available information and, where possible, advice
promoting the benefits of community gardening and urban agriculture.
Objectives
Within the limits of its capacity, the network will:
advocate on behalf of community gardeners
provide information on the website that is adequate and accurate
provide presentations and advice to local government, other institutions and communities interested in establishing community gardens
document the development of community gardening in Australia
provide a list of contacts through which the public may contact community gardens.
How to make a Community Garden
Here are some tips for getting a community garden up and running.
Bottom Up Approach
Working from the bottom-up is the most common:
a group of people get together and work out what they want
the group approaches the local council or some other institution for help in finding land and, perhaps, for other assistance
when the group has gained access to land, they design the garden and start to cultivate it.
This approach builds ‘ownership’ of the community garden because the people who work the garden put in all the effort.
Council, government or professional role
For community workers and local or state government staff, the most constructive role is to assist the community group and guide without controlling it.
Help the gardeners to help themselves.
Top Down Approach
The top-down approach is favoured by professionals such as community workers and local government staff:
the professional workers become interested in the potential of community gardens to build a sense of community or to improve the nutrition of the people they work with
with their existing contacts with government, schools or churches they obtain land and funding more easily than citizens using the bottom-up approach
they then have to popularise the idea of the community garden among the target group they believe will use the garden if successful - and it might take some time – they then make use of a council landscape architect to design the garden; alternatively – and this might be the better solution because it builds ownership of the garden - they might find someone in the community who can lead a design workshop with the would-be gardeners, turning what could have been a professional-led solution into a participatory process.
The good news is that the top-down approach can succeed if the community or local government worker has the patience and persistence to build support for the garden within the community.
Once the idea has been discussed with the local community, it is a good idea is to organise a mini-bus tour of three or four existing gardens. Some councils may help with this.
Be sure to visit a variety of gardens, as to expose community members to a range of approaches to community gardening.
Community Garden Grants program
The Australian Open Garden Scheme offers community grants for such things as getting community gardens established.
The Community Grants program for 2006 will commence on Monday 12th June. Criteria and application details, including a downloadable form, will be available on the website site in early June at: www.opengarden.org.au/grants.htm
Applications close Friday 28th July.
Judging will be completed and winners announced in late August.
MORE INFORMATION
A Bountiful Harvest - an evaluation of Sydney's Waterloo Housing Estate community garden program. Download from NSW Department of Housing website (4.5MB): www.housing.nsw.gov.au/news_publications/A%20Bountiful%20Harvest.pdf
www.communityfoods.org.au/ to find community gardens, farmers’ markets and seed saver organisations in your state
Community Gardens: A Celebration of the People, Recipes and Plants, by P. Vardy and P. Woodward, (published by Hyland House).