[PDF]CommunityGardening

Community Gardening in SA

- Resource Kit



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CENTRES Government

ASSOCIATION INC. of South Australia



Acknowledgements The Community Gardens in SA Resource Kit was produced as part of the 'Community Gardening in SA
Project' which was funded in 2003 - 2004 by the Government of South Australia through the Department of Health, and auspiced
by the Community and Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Association SA. This version of the Resource Kit has been produced
with funding assistance from the Office of Sustainability, Department for Environment and Heritage.

Many people contributed to this Kit.

Thank you to all who were part of the planning process, particularly: Kelly Allen, Clive Bristow, Gloria Bristow, David Corkill,
Deidre Knight, Margaret RainbowWeb, Jeremy Urquhart and the Community Gardening in SA Project Reference Group.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the South Australian Community Gardening Gathering in October 2003, particularly
those who facilitated workshops/ sessions: Kelly Allen, David Corkill, Julie Firth, David Harrison, Mary Heath, Jacqui Hunter,
Chas Martin, Lynda McCarty, Ben Neil, Bridget O'Donnell, Steve Poole, and Jeremy Urquhart. The information shared by
gardeners at the Gathering contributed greatly to this Kit.

These people provided valuable feedback, advice and suggestions on draft versions: Dick Copeman and Ross Craig (Northey Street
City Farm), Deidre Knight and Ian Lillington (Community Gardening in SA Project), Ben Neil (Cultivating Community), Rebequea
Aifken, Kelly Allen and Christopher Day (Flinders University Permaculture Garden), Chris Banks (Duck Flat Community Garden),
Carol Payne (Caboolture Community Gardens), Jeremy Urquhart (Permaculture Association of SA), Mary Ireland (The Gathering
Tree Community Garden), Robyn Downing (House on the Hill), and Julie Coulls (Kurruru Pingyarendi Community Garden).

Special thanks to Victorian community gardening organisation, Cultivating Community for allowing reproduction of sections of
its (2002) publication, Good Practice Guide for Community Gardens compiled by Greg Milne, and to Northey Street City Farm,
who provided advice, access to their resources, and a sunny place to sit while typing up the Kit.

Researched, written and illustrated by claire fulton.

Graphic design and layout by Joel Catchlove
Printed by Single Step Printing

Internet version of the Kit designed by John Brisbin, available at www.canh.asn.au/community_gardening

Citation Department of Health, Government of South Australia, 2004. Community Gardening in SA Resource Kit, report
prepared by claire fulton, Community And Neighbourhood Houses And Centres Association Inc, Adelaide

You may download, display or reproduce this work or parts of this work, in unaltered form only, for personal use, non-commercial
use, or within your own organisation.

Disclaimer The opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Government
of South Australia, the Department of Health or the Department for Environment and Heritage.



Why Community
Gardens?



Community gardens are recognised worldwide
as a great way to grow food, improve your health,
meet people, and cultivate vibrant communities.

They:

O allow people to grow their own vegetables, fruit,

herbs and flowers
O contribute to building an ecologically viable and

socially just food system
O are a convivial way of getting fresh air and exercise

with no gym fees!
(3 foster community engagement and a culture of

generosity, reciprocity, trust and self-help
(3 are great places to learn about gardening and share

local and traditional knowledge
O preserve and improve the precious green spaces in

urban environments
(3 develop innovative ways of living sustainably in

the city

(3 create art projects, community events, celebrations,

workshops, and much more
(3 provide opportunities for cultural exchange

and learning

O and some community gardens produce enough

food share the surplus and/or develop community
enterprises.

"It's about taking back the ability to produce food
for ourselves. At the supermarket, you not only
don't connect to the food system, but the money
goes out of the region. People are looking for a
sense of community, and they find it in their local
community garden" (Claire Cummings)

"Urban community gardeners are bringing life
and liveability, seed by seed, back to their
neighbourhoods. The gardens nourish the body
and also the soul" (Patricia Hynes)



Essential Community Garden
Resources

The South Australian Community Gardening
Network can be contacted by phoning
1300 737 612 (cost of a local call)

Australian Community Gardens
and City Farms Network

http: / / www.terracircle.org.au/garden/
has information on starting a community garden,
news and updates about community gardens
around the country and links to more resources.

Australian Community Foods

http:/ /www.communityfoods.org.au/

contains contact details for community gardens in

South Australia and across Australia.

The American Community
Gardening Association

http:/ /www. communitygarden.org/

has start up info and resources, links, and access to

publications.

City Farmer

http:/ /www.cityfarmer.org

This Canadian website has extensive information
and links about urban agriculture and community
gardening.



Why Community Gardening?



Contents



1 The Benefits of community gardening

1 Environment

2 Health

2 Community arts and cultural development

3 Community development

4 In the beginning: Starting a new Community Garden

4 Who can start a community garden?

4 Deciding to start a community garden

5 Form a working group

5 Public meetings

6 Community garden tours

6 Develop your vision and plan

6 Finding a place to grow your garden

7 Security of tenure

7 While you're waiting to find the site . . .

7 Ideas for visioning sessions

8 A start up budget for your garden

10 Involving People and Growing Community

1 Inviting involvement

1 Volunteers

1 1 Employment and other programs
1 1 People with special needs

1 1 Skills auditing

1 5 Community building

1 7 Notes For health, housing, council and community workers

18 Garden Design

1 8 Community garden design process

21 Designing welcoming and inclusive gardens

23 Designing to enhance community safety and deter theft and vandalism

25 Garden plots

28 Gardening with Children and Schools

28 Gardening with children

28 Gardens in schools

29 Resources



33 Promoting Your Garden

33 On-site promotional materials

33 Events

33 Public relations

33 Community media

34 Radio

34 Print media

34 Computer technology

35 Finding Resources and Money for your Garden

35 Fundraising principles

35 Reducing your need for money

36 In-kind resources

37 Fundraising
37 Grant funding

41 Working with your Local Council

42 Garden Management

42 Rules and guidelines

47 Set up capable administrative systems

47 Managing money

48 Evaluating garden projects

49 Health and safety in the garden

50 Insurance

51 Decision Making and Meetings

51 Management/co-ordinating committees

51 What is a management/ co-ordinating committee?

52 Consensus decision-making

53 Meetings: a guide for facilitators

57 A user's guide to meetings

58 Learning, Education and Training

58 Established training programs

59 Designing a training program

60 Relevant training packages
62 Running training sessions
64 Workshop outlines

76 Gardening Basics

77 Companion planting

78 Mulch

79 Organic pest control

80 Planting seedlings

81 Seed saving

82 Growing fruit trees

83 Vegetative propagation

84 Tips to save water in your garden

85 Worm farming

86 Organic weed control



The Benefits of
Community Gardening



Community Gardens are unique in their ability
to bring people together to make all manner of
magic happen. Blight sights are transformed into
places of beauty, pumpkins emerge silendy from
compost heaps, and neighbours get to know each
while sharing seeds and recipes.

Community gardens' impacts are as diverse as
their landscapes. They provide a community
meeting place, conserve and improve urban green
spaces, foster healthy, engaged communities, and
create many learning and cultural opportunities.
Not to mention enabling people to grow their own
delicious, clean, healthy food in the city!

Environment

Community gardens improve the quality of
urban environments, rehabilitating degraded and
often ha2ardous land, contributing to urban
greening, providing sanctuary to urban wildlife, and
creating a setting for environmental education.
They are also part of broader moves to ensure a
secure and ecologically sensitive food supply.

Ecologically sustainable food production

Community gardens demonstrate practical
solutions to the negative environmental impacts of
commercial food production. Bringing food
production into cities reduces its ecological
footprint by cutting down 'food miles' - the energy
used to transport produce over many hundreds of
kilometres from growers to processors to retailers
to people's tables.

Care for soil and for biodiversity are at the heart
of the organic practices used by most community
gardens. These practices lower the economic and
environmental costs of food production by
minimising or eliminating chemical use, and



returning nutrients to the soil.

The genetic diversity of our food is protected by
community gardeners who grow and save the seeds
of local plant varieties which are adapted to the
particular conditions and cultures of the
communities who grow them.

Resources

Ecological footprinting

www.epa.vic.gov.au/Eco-footprint/ default. asp
Food Miles

www.sustainweb.org/ chain_fm_index.asp
Seed saving

www.seedsavers.net,

Jude and Michel Fanton (1 992) The Seedsavers' Handbook,
Seed Savers, NSW

'Waste' minimisation and nutrient
cycling

Community gardens promote waste
minimisation and nutrient cycling strategies,
demonstrating composting techniques that can be
used by people in their home gardens, and
providing community composting facilities.
Community gardens also support waste
minimisation by demonstrating strategies for the
creative reuse of discarded resources. In
community gardens all over the world, bath tubs
become aquaculture systems, scrap timber and
metal are shaped into tool sheds, bed heads become
trellises, old tyres are used as stabilisers for banks
and earth berms, yesterday's news smothers weeds,
and the kitchen sink is transformed into a thriving
wormfarm.

Connection and custodianship

A sense of belonging, connection and identity
are vital prerequisites to a community which takes
responsibility for the land it inhabits.



1 The Benefits of Community Gardening



Parks, street trees, and manicured lawns do very
litde to establish the connection between us and the
land. They teach us nothing of its productivity,
nothing of its capacities. Many people who are
born, raised, and live in cities simply do not know
where the food they eat comes from or what a
living garden is like. Their only connection with
the productivity of the land comes from packaged
tomatoes on the supermarket shelf. But contact
with the land and its growing process is not simply
a quaint nicety from the past that we can let go of
casually. More likely, it is a basic part of the process
of organic security. Deep down, there must be
some sense of insecurity of city dwellers who
depend entirely upon the supermarkets for their
produce. (A Pattern Language, Alexander, et al. 1977
p.820)

Community gardens help to create a sense of
place, of neighbourhood identity and cohesion.
They provide opportunities for people to have an
impact on the development of their community,
and to take responsibility for its growth. Through
redeveloping an everyday connection to the local
environment, observing the quality of the seasons,
nurturing a tree through its first months, taking
sustenance from the soil and returning sustenance
to it, we can take the first steps towards knowing
and protecting our local regions.

Health

The British House of Commons (1998) "The
Future for Allotments" committee report
concluded that these community gardens

will often form a component part of healthy
neighbourhoods. Given the undisputed health benefits of
allotments, we strongly recommend that allotment provision
be explicitly noted in national public health strategy and be
integrated in to the local delivery of that strategy.

Nutrition and food security

Perhaps the greatest health benefit of
community gardens is the promotion of a wide
variety of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruit.
Community gardens can supplement families' diets
with wholesome organic vegetables, and can also
be a means for educating gardeners and the broader
community about healthy food, providing
enormous scope for positive experiences of the
sensuousness, fun, and pleasure of growing,
preparing, and eating good food. Community
gardens can address food insecurity by allowing



people to grow some of their own food at relatively
low cost.

Psychological benefits

Community Gardening enhances gardeners'
'self-esteem' through the practical accomplishment
of producing harvests of vegetables and flowers.

The deeper meaning of gardening may be found in the
gardener's responses to its progress... Each sprouting seed,
new leaf, or shoot provides immediate proof to the gardener
that [her or] his nurturing activities have been successful.
Such positive feedback serves to entwine [her or] him even
more closely with [the] plants. The investment of time,
physical labour, acumen, and personal aspirations are
rewarded when a plant blooms or bears fruit, bringing
almost parental feelings of pride. The gardener[s] gain a
sense of accomplishment, self-esteem, and control over
[their] surroundings. (Lewis 1990 pp. 246-7)
Community gardens provide many opportunities
for recreation and exercise. This may vary from a
simple stroll amongst the flowers, to the day to day
work of maintaining the garden - exercise carried
out in convivial company, with a real sense of
satisfaction and purpose. Reconnecting to the
earth and to the natural processes of tending to soil
and growing food may have a balancing effect on
the human psyche, alleviating stress and providing
opportunity for reflection and relaxation. A breath
of fresh air. Horticultural therapy has been
become a key element of several community
gardens in Australia.

Reference

Lewis, Charles A (1990) "Gardening as Healing
Process" in Mark Francis and Randolph T Hester Jr The
Meaning of Gardens: Idea, Place, and Action MIT Press,
Cambridge

Community arts and
cultural development
Celebrating cultural diversity

Community gardens are often a space for
community members of diverse cultural
backgrounds to practise and share traditional and
contemporary expressions of their culture. This
provides a unique opportunity for learning and
exchange. Urban gardens can provide a critical link
to culture through seeds that have been passed
down for generations, and through the cultivation
and preparation of traditional foods that are not
available in local stores. Community gardens may
also become venues for elders to explore their
cultural traditions and celebrate their lives.



The Benefits of Community Gardening 2



Community arts

Community gardens often integrate a range of
community arts projects, from murals to sculptural
installations, photo essays to poetry performance.
Arts practice and creative expression are at the heart of a
community's vitality. People have always come together to
sing, tell stories, enact rituals, to celebrate, to mourn and to
mark significant events in their lives... People need to
participate in these activities. This is what is meant by the
term community arts (Community Arts Network SA)




3 The Benefits of Community Gardening



Events

Many community gardens create community
culture through regular cycles of events. These
may include fund-raising fairs, produce sales, music
performances, story tellings or art exhibitions.
Often, community gardens choose to mark the
changing of the seasons, or events such as first
fruitings, harvest, and sowing new seasons' seeds.

Community development

Community gardens engage and involve people
in their own communities. They give people the
chance to physically shape the character and culture
of their neighbourhoods, and to take responsibility
for their common land.

Community gardens are a meeting space,
bringing together diverse aspects of local
communities. They allow neighbours to meet on
neutral soil, and provide common ground for
people of varying cultural backgrounds,
experiences, ages, and interests.

Food and social capital

Professor Fran Baum from Flinders University
explored the links between food, social capital, and
community health at the Eating Into the Future
Conference held in Adelaide in 1999. Her studies
have shown that food is a vital means of generating
social capital, a 'social lubricant' frequently
facilitating social interactions. Baum particularly
emphasised the exchange of garden produce as a
way people build relationships with people in their
immediate communities.



In the beginning:
Starting a new
Community Garden



Starting a community garden from scratch is a
major undertaking. Expect that it will take time,
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