Community gardens are beautiful spaces planted by and for local people to enjoy fresh air, homegrown fruits and vegetables and flowers, also providing homes for birds and native wildlife.
Before planting a community garden, learn how to how to make community gardens safe for pets (and how to plant a wildlife-friendly garden (most netting sold traps birds & wildlife, due to the holes being too large). Also read how to plant a wildlife-friendly garden pond (leave sloping sides for wildlife to easily enter and exit).
A community garden is an urban oasis, for people to relax and enjoy nature. RHS has a useful to-do list on how to create one, from contacting your local council to find land to plant on, to buying insurance, finding volunteers and knowing the best items to plant and landscape with.
What you plant depends on the site that your new garden faces, the kind of soil you have, how much time, money and people are around to maintain it, and whether it’s within walking distance of local people. You’ll also need to consider other factors like seating and toilets, along with access for disabled people, and perhaps sensory plants for people who are blind. Most community gardens have a strong sense of place, but in the modern age, you may also have to think about security, to prevent vandalism and litter louts.
Most community gardens work well, when there is a reason behind them. You could use the community garden to grow free food for local people, set it up as a reserve to help local birds, wildlife and bees. Or create a community space for isolated elders or single parents, with conversational seating arrangements. Some people also like to use community gardens to plant trees or other memorials for people and pets who are no longer with us.
You’ll save money in your community garden by installing quality water butts and compost bins, to save you the need to buy new. You can also choose plants that need less water. Avoid cocoa, pine and rubber mulch near pets – toxic, can puncture and choke accordingly). Also keep fresh compost away from pets, as it contains mould.
a wildlife-friendly community garden in London
London’s Culpeper Community Garden is often cited as a gold standard example. This urban oasis in Islington is surrounded by roads, but you would never know it. It features an organic lawn with rose pergolas, ornamental beds and vegetable plots (49 plus 2 raised beds for disabled gardeners) plus sating and a wildlife area. Local volunteers keep the garden in beautiful condition.
The mature trees and bog garden provide homes and food for wildlife, and insects thrive amid the nettles (where ladybirds lay their eggs) and brambles. There’s a ‘mini-beast mansion’ full of spiders, woodlice and centipedes, and a pod where dragonflies hover near birds, who chirp from the treetops. Between them, the frogs, toads, birds, ladybirds and insect predators keep control of slugs, caterpillars and aphids.
Petworth Community Garden has created a Men’s Shed where local blokes can get together to meet up and have a natter, while gardening or use given tools to make bat houses and safe bird houses etc to help local wildlife over a cuppa or two. Ensure birdhouses are plain to RSPB standards (tin bright-coloured ones can overheat and attract predators – read more on creating safe havens for garden birds).
modern issues with community gardens
Unfortunately, litter louts and hooligans sometimes do disturb community gardens. In Hove (East Sussex), there has been uproar when the local community garden suffered from not just litter but drug-dealing. Volunteers say that people have torn plants from the ground, smashed plant pots and even ‘used the community garden as a toilet’.
But don’t give up. Often such hooliganism is due exactly to feeling no sense of community. The more a place is a thriving community, the less likely the same will occur. For instance, if litter is cleaned from a local eyesore, it may return. But if it’s cleared from a community garden and remains a safe place to visit, litter louts will be less likely to return.
a book to help you plant a community garden
Let’s Plant & Grow Together is a guide to create a thriving community garden in any local outdoor space. Grouped by season, the book focuses on a growing movement that is taking roots in towns and cities around the world, where groups of like-minded people transform neglected plots of land into green flourishing spaces, for everyone to enjoy. In this book, the author shares his expertise to make urban spaces bloom. He looks at the history of community gardening and includes planning advice, etiquette tips and practical considerations including:
- Soil fertility
- Fundraising
- Business plans
- Guerrilla gardening
- Access rights
- Marketing
- Leases
The book also includes a community-minded directory of top vegetables, flowers, fruits and herbs to plant, along with key tips on growing in containers to maximise space. With clear instructions for all ages and backgrounds, your collective will learn to grow and harvest:
- Asparagus
- Beetroot
- Berries
- Figs
- Gooseberries
- Kale
- Melons
- Oregano
- Pears
An ideal read for families, neighbours and allotment co-owners, find steps to promote harmony, grow successfully and make space for everyone.
Ben Raskin is head of horticulture at Soil Association and runs courses on organic growing including for community orchard. He began working in horticulture after working on an organic vineyard in northern Italy, and worked for a while as assistant head gardener at Garden Organic.