The three authors of this document are claiming full moral rights and copyright on the concept and the content of this document. Copyright is also claimed on the drawings created, which excludes all digital pictures. The University of Melbourne HREC project number: 0932394

COMMUNITY GARDEN TOOLKITCOMMUNITY GARDEN TOOLKITCOMMUNITY GARDEN TOOLKITCOMMUNITY GARDEN TOOLKIT

Liam Connell, Virginie Tassin, Lenka Vodstrčil

CONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTS

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1. NATOPIA: WHO, WHAT, WHY 1 Why set up a community garden? Who is this guide for? Why is Natopia important?

2. GETTING STARTED 6 Location, location, location! How long can the space be used for a garden?

3. GARDEN FUNCTION, PURPOSE, AND DESIGN 8 Designing your garden without reinventing the wheel Involving the community Education Partnerships, networks, coordination, cooperation

4. PLANNING A COMMUNITY GARDEN 14 Identifying stakeholders Find an expert! Legal considerations

5. FUNDING THE PROJECT 19 Where to find support? Cost/benefit analysis

6. THE FUTURE OF NATOPIA 21 What’s next? Keen to contribute? And so…

7. RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING 23 Checklist Internet resources

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1. 1. 1. 1. NATOPIA: WHO, WHAT, WHYNATOPIA: WHO, WHAT, WHYNATOPIA: WHO, WHAT, WHYNATOPIA: WHO, WHAT, WHY

Natopia: it began as a simple desire to re-introduce nature into highly-developed urban

place (or ‘topos’ in Latin). The three authors of this guide are PhD students from very

different backgrounds: one is a scientist, another is a lawyer, and the third is an historian.

Yet the three of us were drawn by the idea of how a city as vast and urban as Melbourne

could find within it the space for human beings to engage more fully with nature.

If we had one guiding principle it would be that we want to help provide the knowledge

to bring people in dense urban areas like Melbourne back into contact with nature – and

hopefully help bring individuals back into contact with each other along the way. A great

way for people to do this is to set up their own local community garden.

Natopia is about making partnerships, and helping people help each other. We have

found that there are a lot of individuals in Melbourne who, like us, see why community

gardens are interesting and useful projects. Often there are people with a high level of

technical know-how who could assist a family or group of neighbours set up their own

garden, but finding each other is difficult. Natopia aims to create links between

individuals on all levels to teach and learn from each other about sustainability. We know

that this can be is a complex and difficult task on the whole. Natopia is the starting point

in a process that first, explains why community garden projects are interesting and useful,

and second, how these links can be formed. We think that a great way to achieve both

outcomes is for individuals to set up their own community garden projects.

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Why set up a community garden?

There are so many benefits! Starting a community garden is a wonderful way to meet

people in your neighbourhood, share gardening tips and recipes, and grow fresh food

that you can use at home.

Additionally, community gardens:

• can be a truly environmentally sound way to grow the food we all need to be

healthy

• require the most minimal transport energy requirements, from the earth to your

plate

• will likely be a critical source of food production in the future, especially with the

ever-increasing global population

• can be a powerful educational resource for people to teach and learn from each

other about nutrition, environmental sustainability, and cultural diversity

• provide an option to produce food that contains no herbicides or chemical

additives, requires no packaging, and is often less water-intensive

• provide the space to “defrag” and reconnect in a natural environment, with

significant stress-relieving and mental health benefits

• help strengthen a feeling of community, and give people an even greater “stake”

in their sense of home.

You may have noticed a number of these sprouting up around Melbourne – people are

already getting in on the idea!

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Okay, I love the idea, so what is this guide?

This guide has been designed as a first-step “toolkit” for families, neighbours, and friends

to set up their own local community garden. As this is just the first step of a longer

project that seeks to make this information available in an accessible form, we have

focused here almost exclusively on the challenges involved in developing community

gardens in public-owned spaces. That is, areas that are the responsibility of councils and

governments, rather than private bodies. There is a completely different set of challenges

involved in setting up community garden projects on privately-owned space.

There are a still lot of tricky questions for people who want to start their own community

gardens, wherever it might be located. For starters:

• How do we find a space to use?

• What’s the best sort of garden where I live?

• How do I find or convince other people in our street to get involved?

In researching this guide we have had to deal with many of the same questions. We

found that answers are out there, once you start looking. This guide captures the essence

of many conversations we have had with Melbournians with high levels of professional

expertise who agree that community gardens are a great idea, and potentially very

important for Melbourne’s future development.

There are issues that this toolkit can’t equip you for, especially things that are specific to

each suburb or even street in Melbourne. But you can think of it as a first port of call,

and where answers are site-specific, we’ll try to point you in the right direction to find the

answers you are looking for.

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Who is this guide for?

Everyone!

We designed this guide as the first step for interested individuals, neighbours and families

to get together to create their own community garden. It does not assume any prior

knowledge, and is meant to be accessible enough that anyone can pick it up and get

useful information from it. We have also constructed this toolkit with councils in mind,

in that we are helping them help you find the information you need. We hope that

councils themselves might be aware of the information contained here, and could help

create the links needed for community garden projects to be implemented in their area.

Why is Natopia important?

There are many obvious benefits in creating community gardens, but here are a few of

the reasons that we see as being interesting and important.

Food security and land resources

There is growing awareness of the limited resources and farming potential that may be

available in the future. You may have heard about the growing need for food security,

described simply as “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic

access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food

preferences for an active and healthy life”. Food security has been a major issue in

developing countries for many years, but factors including climate change, drought and

the demand for livestock feed are now adding to global concern about this problem.

Melbourne has its own food security challenges, with an increasing population that leads

to farmland being turned into housing and adds to the drain on our water supplies.

Increasing the amount of readily available edible plants by planting vegetable or fruit

crops in your garden can help keep costs low not only for you and your family but also

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for other people in the community. Education is key to the success of edible gardens.

Knowing when to plant certain crops, how to maintain them and when to harvest their

produce are important aspects of a successful garden project. Crops can be sold, shared

or swapped with others members of the community and thus the overall costs are

reduced for all involved.

Health and wellbeing

Generally speaking, health is connected to what we eat. The time spent outside doing

even low levels of physical activity will also benefit your health and general wellbeing. We

depend on nature for material objects such as food, water and shelter and also for

psychological, emotional and spiritual needs. Gardens, parks and other natural

environments provide the nature we need to facilitate the link between human health and

wellbeing.

Linking nature into an urban environment

The words ‘increased density’ are used more and more often as Melbourne grows in both

size and population. There are many benefits to having more people within a shorter

radius from the city centre including reduced transport costs and less of an impact on the

surrounding vegetation. Including nature in future urban developments, through gardens

and parks, will increase the appeal of inner city living and is fundamental to the

objectives of Natopia.

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2. 2. 2. 2. Getting StartedGetting StartedGetting StartedGetting Started

So, you’ve decided that you want to embark on setting up your own local community

garden. Perhaps you even have some neighbours who are keen to get involved. Here are

a few questions we think you will need to answer.

Location, location, location!

How do I find a space to set up the garden?

This may well be one of the hardest questions to answer if you don’t already have a space

in mind. Remember to think creatively. Not all gardens need to be situated on an open

block of land that happens to be free for the picking! A garden doesn’t need to be huge

to be successful: one small garden may spur on other local residents to create another

garden. Here are some examples of potential spaces for a community garden:

• An empty block of land owned by the council

• A planter box at the end of a dead-end street

• A nature strip

• An empty car space

• A piece of land that you own (even your front lawn!) that you are happy to let

other neighbours use

• A portion of a local park

• An unused laneway

Remember – the land does not always need to be perfect and fertile. Planter boxes are a

great option for plants! Obviously some spaces may require you to get permission from

your local council (see section 4, below).

It might be worth going to your local council and seeing if there is any land that is

currently not being used or could contain a community garden on site. Often there is

land surrounding a block of flats that might be unkempt and in need of a bit of love!

One person starting a garden can often encourage other residents to take part in the

garden no matter how big or small.

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How long can the space be used for a garden?

You may need to consider whether the land you want to use for a garden will be used in

the future for another project or development. If this is the case, you may need to make

the garden bed more temporary, for example use planter boxes or crates that can then be

moved on to another location when the land is no longer available. If your garden can be

more permanent, there will be additional planning you need to consider in order to

guarantee its success!

Temporary

Temporary gardens are ideal if you don’t know how long you will be

able to use the space you have in mind. Temporary gardens may also

be more adaptable to:

• Changes to direct sunlight

• Re-development of the land

• Contaminated or unfavourable soil

• Seasonal changes

There are some options if you think that this will be the case for your

garden. An example is planter boxes. Depending on the plants or crops

you want to grow, planter boxes (for example left over crates from the market) may not

need to be very deep.

Permanent

If you have a site accessible where you know you can create a more long-term garden

then there are some similar things to think about. For example, there might be a

development built in a neighbouring block of land that could reduce sunlight. Access to

water needs to be taken into account (as it does for temporary gardens). Long-term

community gardens, such as VegOut or CERES may become very high in demand as

well. This may require you to think about the more long-term management of the

garden, for instance using a ballot system to allocate plots, encouraging people to take

turns pruning the garden and so on. Remember that it can take time for your garden to

be well established, so think about the people and systems that might need to be in place

in order for your garden to survive!

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3. Garden Function, Purpose, and Design

What community gardens require, first of all, is imagination!

Now that you have located a space (or have some locations in

mind) another aspect to consider is what you might want your

garden to be used for.

There are a few things to ask yourself when designing the garden

and what should be planted. For instance how much light does the

garden get? What is the condition of the soil? What type of plants

do we want to grow? Each garden is different and there will be

different list of issues associated with the space.

There are many books and online resources for gardening and vegetable growing

available that may be of use when deciding on the types of plants that you want to grow.

However, receiving information from other members of your community about other

uses of your garden is probably the best place to start. Community gardens are most

successful when people educate each other, share ideas, and once begun find that the

function of their garden will develop quite organically!

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Designing your garden without reinventing the wheel

Making connections with others is an integral part of Natopia. We encourage you to

engage with existing initiatives and relevant experts not only because of what you’ll learn

by getting in touch with them but also because it will enable you, as an individual, to pass

on what you’ve learned to your family, school and neighbourhood. The exchange of

knowledge and interaction between people is a vital part of any healthy community. We

encourage you to become familiar with as many of the relevant existing schemes and

experts as possible. Remember that the choice of temporary or permanent garden might

raise different issues.

There are some questions to think about regarding the condition of the garden site.

Particularly if the site is in a preserved lane, on a roundabout, next to a railway line, or on

a vacant building site, for example.

• Is the soil clean? Is it contaminated? If so, how to make it happening?

o Think about the plots option for plants as temporary, raised beds will

avoid contact with the soil

o Think about direct access to the garden: is it safe?

• Is there enough natural light in this specific location?

o What kind of plants could be used if there is a lot of light, or a lack of

direct sunlight?

o Are the plants drought resistant? Can they withstand direct sunlight all

through the summer months?

• How will you manage water distribution?

o Have you considered water tanks? They could be transported to a next

temporary garden initiative.

o What about direct irrigation beneath the soil?

o Is it possible to arrange with the neighbourhood restaurant to re-use their

water? This has been used in a number of gardens in Melbourne already!

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Regarding the garden itself:

• What types of plants for which use?

o Are you focusing on food security first? And

then plan the garden to be a place where

people can grow and learn how to grow

their vegetables? Think also about what

would be the best plants for this: native or

non- native? Which uses less water and is

drought-resistant?

o Are you considering educational programs? If so, these educational

programs could be on a wide range of vegetation: native plants, aromatic

plants that could be used for traditional medicines purposes; you are

limited only by your imagination!

o Are you interested in biodiversity and environment? If so, different flora

need to be represented, including trees, insects and so on.

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Involving the Community

Having a garden that is accessible to other members of the community is one of the

primary aims of Natopia. This incorporates both how welcome people feel at the

community garden as well as their ability to physically access it.

Feeling Welcome (Sociability)

There are a range of things to consider that will make neighbours and local residents feel

welcome at the garden. People can be naturally curious and will probably approach your

garden whilst you are working on it. This is a great opportunity to explain what you are

doing and why – and of course, invite them to join you! Other successful gardens use

simple signs welcoming people to prune, water, weed or take what they feel as they see

fit. You may also like to hold an 'open day' or orientation day to welcome your fellow

gardeners. Educational workshops are a great idea!

Accessibility

In terms of physical accessibility, in most cases the main intent is for the garden to be

used by residents within reasonable walking distance. In some cases the gardens may

need to be located near public transport and require easy access for maintenance

vehicles. These factors may depend on the location of the site and may not be able to be

changed by you, but they are important to keep in mind.

Creating a garden that is in close proximity to facilities may reduce the costs in setting the

garden up to begin with. For example, an adjoining building could provide access to

water, toilets or shelter through negotiation with the owners. Again, access to these

facilities may be less or more important, depending on the size of your garden and who

you think might use it.

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Education

Gardens provide an opportunity to teach and learn from others. We believe that one of

the most important aspects of Natopia is the sharing of ideas and information. We hope

that people who use the garden you create will share tips with others about how to grow

and care for the different things you grow there. If the garden contains edible plants,

there might be other beneficial educational programs that could be run. These might be

workshops instructing how to cook with different herbs or vegetables, or how different

cultures use the same plants in special ways. For example, there are many educational

programs available at CERES, a well-established community garden and farm in the City

of Moreland.

Partnerships, Networks, Coordination, Cooperation

To ensure the success of a community garden, links should be made between you and

existing local programs that want to improve the life of their community in many

different ways: educational, environmental, not to mention health & wellbeing. Creating

links between some or all of those will give your community garden its best chance for

success.

For this, it is worth considering the way these programs themselves work together. For

example, educational programs could be run a community garden that demonstrate the

importance of food security on the wellbeing of people, or the benefit of growing certain

types of crops that require minimal water, or the importance of biodiversity on the health

and wellbeing of urban communities. All you need is imagination!

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We have researched some inspiring initiatives and bodies to liaise with in Victoria and

Australia, but there are also some fantastic initiatives that have been set up overseas.

Here are some ideas of where to look! (For details of these programs see section 7)

• Educational and voluntary programs: such as Ceres or Cultivating Community

• Green Projects: such as Green Roof initiatives, Very Edible Garden, High Line

Project, la Promenade Plantée, all of which show

o Examples of start-up projects, identifying spaces, finding funding

o Examples of the management of environmental and urban planning;

• Research Projects, such as those in architecture and landscape, permaculture,

horticulture, climate change.

• Community Initiatives: Ceres, Cultivating Community & the Department of

Planning and Community Development in Victoria.

Academic Research and Innovation

It would be very possible for your garden to be linked with a

university. There are many research programs that focus on how

various plants survive in an urban environment. This can be a

very mutually-beneficial exercise: Academic research like this

targets innovation, and needs to engage with new ideas from

people on the ground who are out there actually “doing it”, and community gardens need

the technical skill and horticultural knowledge that can a research institution like a

university can provide in abundance. It would be wonderfully useful to be in contact with

universities to inject the latest knowledge and technology into the planning and design of

your community garden. A link with a university may also help generate funding for the

construction or maintenance of the garden, (further discussed in section 5, below).

Links with Schools

It is worth finding out what programs are currently in place at local schools and if there

are community groups that could get involved with your garden. At several schools in

Victoria there are healthy food programs that are up and running in which children are

taught to grow food and how to prepare it. The ongoing benefits of teaching children

about healthy eating and food security – particularly where food comes from – are

endless! Schools in your area may also be interested in providing land for a community

garden or allow you to use their grounds for food swaps and educational programs.

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4. PLANNING A COMMUNITY GARDEN4. PLANNING A COMMUNITY GARDEN4. PLANNING A COMMUNITY GARDEN4. PLANNING A COMMUNITY GARDEN

Be curious, expand your horizons, take initiatives, give everyone the chance to get

involved, and let the community garden you have been dreaming about become real!

Identifying stakeholders

Community gardens are characterised by the variety of its uses and the combination of

many different people working together. Stakeholders are the people who have an interest

in something that you need for your community garden to be successful. These are the

people who can help you, and who you need to negotiate with. Here is what you need to

think about when planning your community garden:

• Short-term and long-term considerations:

o Who will be involved at the various

phases of the project?

o Who wants to be involved?

o Who needs to be involved?

Location – who are the most suitable stakeholders regarding the specific location of the

project? Consider who has most of an interest in your street, neighbourhood, city, state.

What is in it for them?

• Public policy: existing commitments that you could help to achieve with your

garden project. For example, does your council have an existing sustainability

commitment that it needs to prove it has done something about by the end of

the year? If they agree to help you with your garden project, you will have helped

each other achieve your goals

• Public image: Are there any nearby businesses that like to promote themselves as

being “clean and green”?

• Core belief: Many individuals state publicly to have a passion for achieving many

of the benefits that a community garden can achieve. Try to find someone to

champion your cause!

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It is also worth thinking about the diversity of your stakeholders. This means that you

need to involve and work with people coming from different environment and bodies:

Give the chance to everyone to get involved!

Finally, think about what the focus of your community garden is: a garden focusing on

environment might have different stakeholders than one focusing on food security.

Find an expert!

The aim of Natopia is to provide a model that will facilitate the transformation of social

behaviour and awareness of the others, and of nature. For a community garden to be

successful, it is worth keeping some things in mind when you identify the experts that

will help you. Here are just some steps to remember when attempting to get people on

board:

• First identify the various professionals who can help a community garden. This

might include people in these areas:

o Public authorities and institutions (specialised in development, planning,

and public policy. Some of them are already involved with sustainable

development, food security, health and wellbeing)

o Academia (architects, landscapers, horticulturists, and many more)

o Private companies including consultancy firms (Some examples are law

firms, architecture or planning design firms)

o NGOs or International Organisations (some of them are specialised in

various aspects of education, preservation of nature, and sustainability)

• Identify how all these people interact together, and indeed if they interact

together.

• Set up a plan of recruitment of the people identified (remember that networking

is crucial!)

• The way you present your ideas and project has to be changed a bit depending if

you are meeting up with someone working in water management or a landscape

architecture. Consider the type of questions you want to ask to people depending

on their specialty.

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• Here are the questions to keep in mind when meeting with experts: what exactly

you do want from them? Why do you need them? How can they help you?

How to get people from a different field and environment get together and make it happen?

Remember that the type of people you will be working with will depend on the main

purpose of your specific community garden (only food security or health well being

related…). You might find that people from various fields and environment interact

poorly together. But don’t be afraid of this: it is not an obstacle. It can actually make your

garden project much stronger! All of them have great expertise that could make an

important difference in the management, creativity and outcome of the development of

your community garden.

The motivation needs to come first from you, and also those who are setting up the

community garden alongside you. Getting people from different professions to work

together is not always easy. This is often because many of them have never interacted in

this way between each other before. Everyone has knowledge that could be used in a

community garden, but the trick is how to communicate and coordinate people in a way

that could be effective. A lot of people and professionals have presumptions. You need

to be confident about the objectives, and why you want to achieve them. Often the

biggest challenge is being true to your original principles, and learning how to be an

ethical leader.

The more you involve people from a different field and different environment, the richer

your experience will be, and the richer the experience your garden project will be to give

to your local community.

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Community garden stakeholders

Examples from the State of Victoria. The stakeholders identified are only representative

of the main ones that might get on board.

Sector Organization interest/ type Example State or Federal Government Think Global! Yes your community garden is close to the place you live, but the action you are taking by setting up this initiative could be supported and could interest the State and Federal government!

Department of Sustainability and Environment

Planning Authority Your local Council Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development

Water Catchment Management Authorities Water management advice

Melbourne Water

Public Land Botanical Gardens

Local Council These three councils are into sustainability, community garden, food security. Check them out!

Cities of Melbourne/Moreland/Yarra

Health/Wellbeing Inspiration and education

Health, Safety and Well-Being Leadership Committee (Moreland)

Government

Recreation Public spaces used for recreational purposes

Parks Victoria

Community Groups Experience, advice, on-ground support, passion

Cultivating Community Veg Out (St Kilda Community Farm) Rotary

Online Network Useful to see what already exists

Community Gardens Network

Local sustainability education groups Educational programs, coordination and partnerships

Incursion programs (CERES)

Local

Not-for-Profit

Food Security Very Useful Body from which you can learn a lot!

VicRelief Foodbank

Architecture and Planning Innovation and experience

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning

Academic

Scientific Research Innovation and advice

Melbourne School of Land and Environment

Gardening Materials Garden advice and/or partnerships

Yates/Herberts

Private Companies These companies could be of great help in networking and supporting your community garden.

TRACT Consulting (Planning, Urban & Landscape Design) PricewaterhouseCoopers (Sustainability and Climate Change department) World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Private

Melbourne Leadership Networks Visionaries and Inspiring people to contact… they are dreaming and designing your cities in the upcoming years, they are just like you! C’mon don’t be shy!

Committee for Melbourne Centre for Sustainability Leadership

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Media Promotion/education

Why? People interested should be able to hear about your community garden, give a change to everyone to get involved!

SBS Radio 774 ABC Melbourne Other community radio stations

NGO

NGO / International Organisation Inspiring bodies, inspiring people and initiatives. They have a lot of passionate people working for them and a great deal of knowledge about the importance of sustainability, environment, development and well being.

WWF Friends of Earth The Ian Potter Foundation United Nations Environment Program

Others

Recreational bodies Who said that a community garden only is about growing food? Think about what you can do there also to transform this green area into a lively and welcoming place! Have fun!

Life Be In it Soccer Australia AFL

Legal considerations

Yes, you need to think about this, too!

In this guide we have suggested that you concentrate on using public spaces rather than

private land. We have only considered the option of a public space in Victoria at this

stage, but remember that you can use this example as a way to manage and approach the

project outside of Victoria.

We have found that community gardens are most successful when set up in unused

public spaces. For a community group wanting to set up a new garden set up in Victoria,

it might the worth thinking about trying to access Crown Land. Access and use of Crown

Land and any risk liability associated with the use of the community garden might be

dealt with through a licence system, issued under the Crown Land Reserves Act (1978).

This is especially true if your local council agrees to be the managing committee of the

community garden. Any risks associated with using the community garden would then

remain with the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Local councils can be a

very helpful vehicle for setting up a community garden project, so it is definitely worth

getting in touch with them!

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5. FUNDING THE PROJECT5. FUNDING THE PROJECT5. FUNDING THE PROJECT5. FUNDING THE PROJECT

Where to find support?

Don’t be afraid to knock on doors, share your ideas and beliefs, and ask for help! You

will realise that a lot of people will be ready to help you, and sometimes people and

industries you have not even been thinking about. Open your horizons!

Here are some options to consider when seeking funding and support:

• Cash funding

• In-kind support, including pro-bono work

• Personal interests and initiative. Never forget the power of individuals to make it

happen. This can be one of the most effective driving forces there is!

Where to look?

There are many options; the question is where to start. Try breaking down funding

schemes into categories. For example:

• District / Community Neighbourhood area. (for example, restaurants, schools,

churches, neighbourhood associations)

• Local governments sustainability committees

• State and federal government grant schemes

• Private industries

• Associations operating in your city

• Institutions, including those associated with academia. (Research Institutes,

which can be critical for securing research grants.

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Costs / benefit analysis

When contacting potential stakeholders and institutions, you need to demonstrate that

the benefits of the project outweigh the costs – basically, that you’ll get more out of a

garden than what gets put in.

That means that you should not focus only on the proper expenses, (the water

management, the costs of plants, the maintenance etc), you also need to take in account

the sustainable outcomes of your community garden and what you actually expect from your

garden project: that is, not only a way to gather people from the same community or

neighbourhood, but also a vehicle of education, of health and wellbeing and a way to use

the benefits of re-integrating nature into cities in environmentally sustainable ways. Ask

your expert contacts for advice and examples of how the benefits measure up against the

contributions your garden will require. You need to present your project by integrating it

into the future you are imagining!

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6. 6. 6. 6. THE FUTURE OF NATOPIATHE FUTURE OF NATOPIATHE FUTURE OF NATOPIATHE FUTURE OF NATOPIA

What’s next?

This is just the first step in an ongoing project based on our research into the benefits

and uses of community gardens, and practical ways to begin your own garden. As

touched on in the beginning, there is a different set of challenges involved in creating

community gardens on privately owned land, and a future version of Natopia will

hopefully contain more useful information in that direction. We have suggested ways to

think about the most effective type of garden space, how to get more information about

local planning regulations, the possible need for external funding, and how to find

information about suitable plant types for your specific area. As such, this toolkit has

been something of a “portal”, a way for you, the interested urban gardener, to source

knowledge from professionals who might otherwise be hidden (sometimes hidden in

plain view). So what are some other ways that we can help each other in knowledge

sharing about community gardens?

Keen to contribute?

The future of Natopia will be an online wiki-based information

sharing community. The authorship of the information will be

approved by a panel who will review the credentials of the authors.

This will be the most direct flow of information from industry

experts in the various aspects of establishing community gardens, to

the people who want to do so themselves. There will also be

dedicated forums for users to exchange their own gardening and

food production tips – similar to what happens in the garden itself,

but with people a lot further away than the neighbouring plot.

We also want to establish a dedicated community garden in Melbourne called Natopia,

which could act as a full-time resource and research centre. The goal would be to have a

central educational hub, upon which many other community garden projects could build.

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And so…

As we have seen, there exists so much energy and enthusiasm in a city like Melbourne for

community garden projects. There is a growing awareness of both what they can do to

strengthen links between people, educate, and provide a fresh, sustainable source of food

over time. There are many related challenges resulting from climate change that require

complex, co-operative responses. For example, there is a growing awareness of how

important a role local community gardens will play in the future as a means of food

security in the face of increased energy costs and growing global populations. Food

security could quite possibly be the biggest challenge that human beings face within the

next generation. Learning to live well within one’s environment is what sustainability’s all

about, and helping to re-integrate nature back into cities like Melbourne is a fantastic way

to start achieving that sustainability.

But the most important thing to remember about community gardens are the human

beings – people just like you. All the resources, knowledge, and infrastructure are out

there, along with the will to make these projects happen. What they need is someone to

get the project started. You might already live on a street full of people like yourself who

are just itching to grab a spade and start flexing their green thumb. So who’s going to

make the first move? The person who knows how to start. And who is that? The person

who just finished reading this guide!

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7. RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING

Checklist

Planning a community garden? Here are some reminders!

� Checked what other gardens are present in the community

� Identified space for the garden

� Found a group of neighbours or local residents to work with

� Thought about the function and purpose of the garden

� Designed the garden

� Made sure people feel welcome in the garden

� Talked to businesses or other stakeholders who might help fund the construction or maintenance of the garden

Internet Resources

Because we want to encourage Because we want to encourage Because we want to encourage Because we want to encourage

you to expand your horizons… you to expand your horizons… you to expand your horizons… you to expand your horizons…

get on the net and have a look!get on the net and have a look!get on the net and have a look!get on the net and have a look!

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1. Natopia: Who, What, Why

It is time to act! Bring back nature into your

city, into your life, into your traditions.

Sustainability Issues, Health & Well Being of you and your environment:

Home: Want to see something inspiring that could help you to understand how your health & wellbeing and the one of Earth are linked? Here is an amazing and inspiring work, Have a look! http://www.home-2009.com/ SustainAbility: http://www.sustainability.com/ Quoted in the toolkit: Maller et al. “Healthy Parks, Healthy People. The health benefits of contact with nature in a park context. Deakin University and Parks Victoria, 2nd edition, 2008

Benefits of reintegrating Nature into Urban Development:

Urban Climate Research: http://arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/climate/urban/index.php

Urban Design and Climate: http://www.bom.gov.au/info/leaflets/urban_design.pdff

The Earth Observatory of the NASA – Beating the Heat in Big Cities: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GreenRoof/

How City Warmth Affects Plant Growth: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/City+heat:+urban+areas'+warmth+affects+plant+growth-a0120035020

Report on the projected rise of temperature in Melbourne city in 2003-2007: http://www.cmar.csiro.au/e-print/open/suppiah_2001b.pdf

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Food Security Explanatory Document from theAustralian Government: http://www.ausaid.gov.au/keyaid/food_security.cfm The State of Food Insecurity in the World, Food and Agriculture Organisation: http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0291e/i0291e00.htm

2. Getting Started

What already exists abroad? Get inspired by

these few links!

New York: http://www.thehighline.org/

Chicago: http://www.bloomingdaletrail.org/

Philadelphia: http://www.readingviaduct.org/index.html

Paris: http://www.paris-walking-tours.com/promenadeplantee.html

http://www.promenade-plantee.org/

http://www.paris.fr/portail/Parcs/Portal.lut?page=equipment&template=equipment.template.popup&document_equipment_id=1772

3. Garden Function, Purpose and Design

Let’s make it happen: the garden of your dream come true!

General Information:

Sustainable Urban Garden: http://www.sacgardens.org/

A portal to Green Technology: http://www.greentechnolog.com/

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Community Gardens in Melbourne:

Cultivating Community: http://cultivatingcommunity.org.au/cc/

CERES: http://www.ceres.org.au/drupal/index.php

Veg Out: http://www.vegout.asn.au/

Ringwood Community Garden: http://www.ringwoodcommunitygarden.org.au/

Permablitz Australia: http://www.permablitz.net/codemo/aboutus/index.htm

Very Edible Gardens is a backyard initiative but useful to get info about plant pots and beds: http://www.VeryEdibleGardens.com/

Green Roofs:

Have a look, you can find ideas about the way you can set

up your garden

Growing Up in Melbourne: http://www.growingup.org.au/

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities: http://www.greenroofs.org/

EcoFriend: Green Living: http://www.ecofriend.org/

Community Gardens Abroad:

‘P-Patch’ in Seattle: http://www.seattle.gov/Neighborhoods/ppatch/

‘Cultivating Youth’ in New Jersey: http://cyfar.rutgers.edu/

‘Growing Community’ in Denver: http://www.dug.org/home.asp

4. Planning a Community Garden

Speak about your ideas!

Government:

Department of Sustainability & Environment:

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dse/index.htm

City of Moreland: http://www.mefl.com.au/

Health, Safety and Well- Being Leadership Committee of Moreland:

http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/health-safety-and-wellbeing/health-moreland/health-

safety-leadership.html

City of Melbourne: http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/

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City of Yarra: http://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/

Melbourne Water: http://www.melbournewater.com.au/

Royal Botanical Gardens of Melbourne: http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/

Parks Victoria: http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/

Recreation

Life Be In It: http://www.lifebeinit.org/

Soccer Australia: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/

AFL: http://www.afl.com.au/

Community Groups

Cultivating Community: http://cultivatingcommunity.org.au/

Veg Out: http://www.vegout.asn.au/

Rotary: http://www.rotary.org/

CERES: http://www.ceres.org/

Online Networks

Community Gardens Network: http://communitygarden.org.au/

Food Security

VicRelief Foodbank: http://www.vrfb.com.au/

Academia

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning of Melbourne University:

http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/

Melbourne School of Land and Environment: http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au/

Gardening Materials

Yates: http://www.yates.com.au/

Herberts: http://www.herbherbert.com/

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Private Companies

Committee for Melbourne: http://melbourne.org.au/

Center for Sustainability Leadership: http://www.csl.org.au/

TRACT: http://www.tract.net.au/

PriceWaterHouse Coopers Australia: http://www.pwc.com.au/

World Business Council for Sustainable Development: http://www.wbcsd.org/

Media

SBS TV: http://www.sbs.com.au/

SBS Radio: http://www.sbs.com.au/radio/

774 ABC Melbourne: http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/

NGOs/ International Organisations

Friends of Earth: http://www.foe.co.uk/

The Ian Potter Foundation: http://www.ianpotter.org.au/

WWF: http://www.wwf.org/

The United Nations Environment Program:

http://www.unep.org/

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations:

http://www.fao.org

The FAO has a special programme on Food Security: http://www.fao.org/spfs/en/