England, Naturally

inspiration to heal our green & pleasant land

Start Your Own Community Garden

Filed Under: In the Garden, Veggie Eats, Your Community Tagged With:

start a community garden

A community garden is a shared space where volunteers get together on unused land to create a beautiful public space, to grow free food for everyone. An ideal way to help in these austere times, community gardens help everyone get fed in your community, and turn ugly land into beautiful spaces that also help wildlife. You can also install benches and community cafes for people to chat and relax, and reclaim power of your food, back from the big supermarkets.

See how to make community gardens safe for pets (to know toxic plants, flowers, trees, mulch to avoid). Also learn toxic indoor plants to avoid. Keep windfalls from pets (too many apples etc could harm). Avoid foliage facing windows, to help stop birds flying into windows.

Make your garden no-dig (to help earthworms) and ensure the garden is wildlife-friendly. After finding land and volunteers, do a soil/sun test, so you know what to grow. Install water butts (with locks to keep children and pets safe) and compost bins. You’ll need liability insurance and set rules (noise, hours etc).

  1. Start a Community Food Garden is a complete guide by the founder of a network of community gardens in Chicago (US). It covers finding land and volunteers, legal info (may differ here), teaching people to grow food and suitable crops.
  2. How to Depave is a free download guide from a volunteer operation in Oregon (US). These experts can show how to remove asphalt from unused car parks (due to oil etc) and turn ugly unused spaces into beautiful lush gardens.

Good Examples of Community Gardens

Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens

  1. Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens (Nottingham) is a thriving community project within walking distance of the city centre. This green oasis grows and sells organic fruits and vegetables strawberries, raspberries, apricots, plums, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, courgettes, spinach, kale, salad leaves and pumpkins). In winter kale and spinach, jams, chutneys and dried herbs. Produce picked, while you wait!
  2. The Garden of a Thousand Hands (London) includes a tranquil orchard, small oak forest and beds to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers. There are workshops and a kitchen to cook produce just picked, and a straw bale roundhouse.
  3. Calthorpe Community Garden (London) has a solar food-waste energy system, and space for yoga classes (to help your back, after growing your veg!)