What exactly IS a community garden anyway?

Although there have been a few around for years not many people have any actual experience of community gardens. Given we have proposed one as a significant component of the Linde Arts Eco Park we thought it about time to talk about them in more detail.

Community gardens are a shared space for growing fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. Although each community garden has unique characteristics due to the local people who manage it they do share some common themes including

• they foster sustainable living by growing food close to the source it is consumed (thereby eliminating transport costs and environmental impact) and implementing environmentally sound growing methods
• they offer an opportunity for a variety of members of the community to come together to achieve a shared goal and enjoy a healthy social activity (many of these gardens involve school children, local residents, the elderly and local businesses in the venture)
• preserve scarce open spaces in urban areas

Fortunately we don't have to reinvent the wheel to develop a community garden here in Norwood Payneham and St Peters. There are some fabulous community gardens that we can learn from right here in Adelaide, including those at Unley, Wynn Vale and Hackham West. There also great resources available including 40 local residents who have already signed up to become part of the project and an online community garden kit which can help with design, management, promotion, raising money, training and any other issues that may arise.

With so much interest from keen residents and a host of available resources to help us get started we believe a community garden will provide a range of social and environmental benefits to Linde Reserve.