Community gardens are places where people come together to grow fresh food, to learn new skills and make new friends. Community gardens are typically on public land and are run, maintained and used by the community. There are traditionally two main styles (or a mix of both).
- Shared gardens where participants share the gardening and the harvest
- Allotment gardens where participants manage their own plot and share the maintenance of common areas.
Community gardens typically consist of vegetable beds and planter boxes, fruit trees, waste disposal systems such as compost and habitat for wildlife including logs and water features. However, it isn’t all about gardening! Community gardens can also be a meeting place or to teach or learn new skills.
The City provided funding and or assistance for four community garden projects in City owned or managed land. These include Joondanna (2009), Westminster (2012), Hamersley (2014) and Inglewood (2019), and the Brighton Road Community Bush Garden (2020). All these projects are still active. For more information on these community gardens please visit the Community gardens page.
Social benefits include providing communities with access to fresh food, encouraging physical activity, building social connections and sense of community.
Environmental benefits include waste reduction, improving air quality and regenerating public spaces.
No, the community garden at the proposed site will only be approved by Council if community consultation shows sufficient community support for the garden and interest to participate.
We don’t know yet. These decisions will be made by the garden committee in consultation with its members if the community garden is approved by Council.
Community gardens do not attract anti-social behaviours more than any other forms of public open space.
A properly balanced compost pile should not produce bad odours. Compost should smell like dirt and when it doesn’t, there’s something wrong. For example, the compost pile is not properly heating up and breaking down the organic material.
No, community gardens located on City of Stirling land are open to all members of the community to visit and enjoy, whether they are formal members of the garden or not. This is in keeping with the Community Garden Policy.
Community gardens experience occasional vandalism like any other form of public open space. In cases where it becomes a regular problem, it is managed in partnership by the garden group and the City.
No, the site will be unpowered, therefore limiting the ability for evening events or to run power tools.
Yes, the Policy was adopted in 2017. Please refer to useful documents.