The community garden experience < our experience

ROLES FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Story by Rhonda Hunt, May1999

Community worker Rhonda Hunt has worked in community garden development with the Waterloo Uniting Church and Waterloo Estate gardens. She has most recently worked with South Sydney City Council and its South Sydney Community Gardens Network.

An eight year 'herstory' of voluntary and passionate involvement in a community garden in Waterloo has turned into an epic.

Not only have my personal commitments to the environment and social change been able to be built on in the sphere of community gardening, my public life has also become entwined with community gardens.

Winning the grant

A waste reduction grant was won by South Sydney Council in 1998. The challenge was to support communal composting and network the existing and emerging community gardens in South Sydney.

The grant was to:

• document and existing gardens and research overseas trends
• install, trial and provide training to support compost facilities
• develop signs and pamphlets to increase the profile of the gardens and promote their benefits and waste reduction effects.

Community gardens reduce waste

Early indicators are that:

• 600 litres of food waste per week are being composted at Angel Streel Community Garden in Newtown, inner-Sydney
• community gardens in Melbourne, making use of a mid-scale worm compost system, can take 500kg per week of food waste.

This represents a great reduction in waste, truck movements, noise as well as improvements to air quality and general amenity.

Opportunities for waste education

EarthWorks courses (EarthWorks is a community waste education program supported by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority which aims to reduce waste production) need sites capable of holding up to 15 people at a time.

Community gardens can be central locations where composting, no-dig gardening and worm farming can be demonstrated.

Information combined with hands-on skills and practical workshops are a great way of learning. We know that people need to be given opportunities to develop these skills in the gardens which are ideal places for these purposes.

Options for compost systems in community gardens

The challenge is to develop a low maintenance, mid-scale composting system.

Turning compost is not really an option. There are several other options, however:

• the compost sandwich method developed at Angel Street Community Garden
• the compost tumbler
• the enclosed vermicompost method
• large scale worm farms.

An interesting phenomena is that community gardeners living in high rise buildings have real enthusiasm for composting but low rates of food waste production. Small households mean small volumes of waste. A necessity is a waste audit of high rise residents to assess reduction potentials through composting located close to the high rise.

If local community members living close to community gardens are invited to participate, it may be that communal composting systems are a more efficient way for inner city residents to compost.

Some people are interested in waste reduction but do not want compost on-site in their inner city terrace courtyards. Others are attracted to the idea of minimising their waste for the larger 'green' cause.

Providing council support

Ways in which councils can support community gardens include:

• political support
• policy
• design
• materials
• labour
• dollars.

Specific examples of council support include:

• ongoing advertising in local papers
• promotion of the value and potential for community gardens in council publications and on council's website
• internal comments are requested for grant applications - I have increased the knowledge of councillors and bureaucrats regarding community gardens
• bus trips for new council employees now go to community gardens
• bus trips for non-English speaking residents now go to community gardens
• provision of signs for new community gardens similar to those of existing gardens
• translation of materials and provision of interpreters for compost training workshops
• advice of grants available through council - ie. community grants up to %5000 and donations of $500 per year
• Waste Officer with responsibility for community gardens and access to a vehicle.

More opportunities for council:

• within the open space plan, having community gardens recognised as a valid and accountable use of public open space
• providing opportunities to sometimes underresourced groups
• measurement of the gardens against Agenda 21 criteria
• measurable outcomes need to be established, both quantitative and qualitative.

Opportunities for South Sydney gardeners

Existing opportunities for the South Sydney Community Gardens Network include:

• a contact person for community gardens in South Sydney available during working hours
• a contact in council for gardeners to make requests
• ability to organise bus trips.

Challenges for the network

• new gardens have different skill levels
• how can we regard everyone in events regardless of English proficiency or age?
• council interest in community gardens may start to dwindle if they continue to require large amounts of time from a staff position meant to focus on waste education.

Possibilities for inner-city living

Community gardens, for me, have become an important image of the possibility of sustainable inner-city living.

They offer many opportunities for working with local councils, but they also present many challenges.

As a waste education officer, I see their value as demonstration sites. Community gardens have started to become venues where practical skills for reducing waste can be taught in South Sydney.

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PAGE UPDATED... Friday, 1 March 2002