Community Gardening is a growing
revolution across the world. Every time I turn on the radio, I hear
something about people reconnecting with and taking responsibility
for their sustenance and food choices, and community gardens are
often at the center of this movement, along with permaculture,
organics and, dare I say it, the Transition Movement.
We have a solid
history of community gardening in Australian with amazing places like
CERES in Melbourne and Northey Street a bit closer to home in
Brisbane.
Changing climate, increased uncertainty
about what is in our food and where it is coming from and the ever
increasing health issues we see around us every day are driving
forces behind this change. There are many other reasons to turn to
local food supply (and what is more local than a community garden
you can walk to – except your back yard, which is the next part of
the equation).
Rockhampton region already has a number
of community gardens, based on a variety of models and experiencing a
variety of success. We plan to add to this number through the
establishment of a garden at Lucas Park, in Armstrong Street, North
Rockhampton.
But more than that, we have a vision
for a community garden network that promotes and
supports community gardens across the region, with hub gardens and
smaller satellite gardens, right down to gardens on traffic islands
and road verges (Costa’s new favourite!), and maybe some guerrilla
gardening, but we’ll keep that under our hats for now.
We see these gardens as places where
people can meet to –
Grow food
Share resources
Share knowledge
Learn
Connect
Some of the fundamental principles of
community gardens are –
Local – Lolo Houbein (author
of One Magic Square) believes community gardens should only serve
a catchment of 1km(square). They should be in easy walking distance
of their catchment area so that people don’t have to drive to them.
Which means there needs to be lots of them! (Lolo also wants to
see every one of Australia’s 5 million backyards growing at least
some of their own food – but that is another story for another
day…)
Organic – this is a must. For
nutrition and health, but also for environmental reason including
reduced greenhouse emissions and reduced use of non-renewable
resources that most non-organic farming relies on.
Sustainable – reducing the use
of new inputs, ensuring that the garden in managed in a sustainable
way from a social, financial and environmental perspective. This
needs to be an holistic approach.
Permaculture principles are a
natural fit for achieving goals around sustainability and organic
garden by providing a framework that makes the most of the resources
available.
Community Driven – these
gardens must be driven by the local community to guarantee their
ongoing support and development
Connecting –community gardens
provide a place for people to connect with their community, as
individuals and groups. Groups such as Lawn to Lunch are an
important aspect of this.
I have been receiving emails from Lawn
to Lunch for a couple of years, but I am yet to make it to a meeting.
I have, however, already met several amazing people connected to the
group and we would love to draw on the collective knowledge, ideas
and advice you might be able to provide to us in the establishment
and operation of our garden in Armstrong Street.
We have a working
group of four dedicated people, and have mapped out a bit of a path
forward but would love your advice and ideas in relation to the site
so that we can make the most of both the physical establishment of
the garden and the process itself, and hopefully make a solid
connection that will benefit both groups for years to come.
Andrea M
