How to start a community garden

Sure, if you’re Michelle Obama, building a vegetable garden is as simple as enlisting a few hundred school kids to help you dig up the White House backyard, but for those without the luxury of space, community is proving the key to urban gardening. Here’s how to get started.

Pick a site

With available land in most cities spoken for, you’ll need to get creative in your search for a site. Look for laneways running behind rows of terrace houses, an underutilised park or the back of a local church. Ideally, the site you decide on will be flat, sunny and easily accessible but you may need to be prepared to make compromises along the way. If nothing comes up trumps, give Landshare a go: the site helps match would-be gardeners to those with available land. 

Do your homework

While figuring out who owns the land is fairly simple (usually a quick visit to council will sort this out, especially as in many cases they will actually be the owner), you’ll be more likely to impress your potential landlord if you go to them with some sort of plan.

“I did some research and found a mediaeval painting in a book with a design of the garden,” says Carole Baker, co-ordinator of Sydney’s Milson Community Garden at Kirribilli.

“I copied the design and my husband drew it up, so when we went to council we had a lot of photographs and illustrations of the type of garden we’d want.”

Approach the land owner

While it’s tempting to become a guerrilla gardener just to get your thumbs dirty, chances are your results won’t stay put for long, as Baker’s group soon discovered.

“A group of dog walkers had been discussing the idea of gardening together and decided to plant some herbs in the council-owned rose bed in our local park. The council workers pulled them out. We did it again and so did they,” she says.

Baker called council and asked them to stop pulling out the plants while the group gathered support for a permanent community garden in the park. “We got people to sign a petition. We went to council with that and the drawings; I think they took comfort in the fact that what we wanted to do looked attractive,” she says.

Start nutting out details

There are dozens of way to manage your community garden. You could have individual plots allocated to members, a food forest where gardeners work collaboratively or a mix of both. The right answer will be decided by your group.

“We had a big public meeting and people voted that they’d rather garden collectively. Only two people initially wanted a plot; now that they are gardening collectively they say it’s better,” Baker says.

In the Kirribilli group, members gather on a Sunday morning to garden, socialise and share any food ready to harvest. For them, keeping it simple works. “We have a list of tasks for the week and everyone chooses a task — people just ask for help if they are learning,” she says.

It’s likely details such as planting communal or plots will just be the first of many issues you’ll need to nut out together. Should you grow organic? [Most community gardens do.] Should you follow permaculture principles? [Some do, some don’t.] Whatever you decide, answers should come from the group itself. “The notion of community gardening can’t be imposed by a council. It has to come from the community or you won’t sustain the enthusiasm,” Baker says.

For helping to figure out all of the above, the Australian City Farms and Community Garden Network has excellent resources on its website, while the Sydney of City’s Community Gardens guide has some excellent advice if you don’t mind ploughing through a 77-page document.

Be patient!

The main downside to the huge interest in community gardens is that the approval process now tends to fall firmly into the hands of bureaucrats: councils who, however well meaning, move more at the speed of a slow-growing oak than spring herbs.

No matter how keen your group, you’ll likely experience a long period (around 12 months) where your negotiation muscles will be tested more rigorously than your gardening knowledge. The key here, besides patience, is to divide your group into those good at chasing up things behind the scenes and the front-of-house folks. The latter can start organising some community events — touring other gardens, setting up composting and other hands-on tasks to ensure interest remains piqued.

Find funds

Of course, you can always occupy yourself by finding funding. This can be easier than it sounds. Councils often reward patient community gardeners-to-be with a hefty cash injection to set things up; grants abound if you take the time to look; and your local MP can be well versed in knowing who has money for these types of projects in your area. Even if not, they may give you a valuable endorsement that’ll inspire businesses or others to donate.

Milson Community Garden spent about $40,000 setting up. The high start-up cost was in part because the soil was contaminated and had to be replaced. The money came from local council and the group’s own fundraising efforts. “We physically constructed the garden beds and taught people how to use the drop-saw to do it. There are a fair few costs upfront: soil was initially quite expensive and even the sign cost $1000,” Baker explains.

Staging your plans is another good strategy. Most community gardens start with a few garden beds and some form of composting, applying for grants down the track to cover bigger items. “The two buildings overlooking the garden [a flying squadron and an old theatre] have both told us we can harvest the rain water from their roof; we are now working on the funding for that,” says Baker.

Reap the rewards

It may seem like hard slog during the set-up, but there’s one thing all community gardeners agree on: the effort is worth it once things are up and running.

“People who merely nodded before now talk to one another, and others who don’t garden use the space to calm their nerves or think about a problem. I didn’t realise how much of a social glue it would be,” Baker says.