John Irving Community Garden, Rosehill
I visited the John Irving Community Garden located in Rosehill within Parramatta council area to meet with Ronda Evenden , who is the co-ordinator of the garden employed by the Council.
I chose to walk from Harris Park train station. As I walked from the station, making my way through the dull and barren suburban streets, I started imagining the spaces on the foot-ways and bus-stops that I passed, transformed through veggie and herb plantings.
After a 20 minute walk, I arrived at a well established garden plot that was tucked away at the end of a quiet and unassuming suburban street. The garden has 27 plots allocated to community members who look after and care for their allocated plot. Some plots had just been planted while others were flourishing with vegetables and some others were waiting to flourish.
Ronda was very welcoming as we sat down for a chat under a small open shed that was turned into a meeting area. Heard from Rhonda how back in 2008, she gathered interested local community members and put a request to the Council. It took nearly two years when the Council finally allocated the land for community gardening. The garden was officially opened in April 2010.
Ronda said there was a long waiting list of community members who wish to do veggie gardening and could not be allocated the plots. She also told how Council seemed to have no more space to allocate.
Therefore, when I shared about how our program aims to get in touch with disused land owned by land owners other local councils for growing veggies by the community, she was very encouraging of the idea.
Apart from her best wishes, she offered two valuable pieces of advice- 1) To make sure that in our program, we do 'no dig' gardening which involves making raised beds by separating and on top of existing soil bed, to deflect the concerns about contaminated soil in high density suburbs. 2) To think about the process by which the gardens will receive consistent care and attention because when relying on volunteers, consistency of care becomes a critical factor.
Armed with Rhonda's best wishes and advice, I left the garden grateful and encouraged.
I chose to walk from Harris Park train station. As I walked from the station, making my way through the dull and barren suburban streets, I started imagining the spaces on the foot-ways and bus-stops that I passed, transformed through veggie and herb plantings.
After a 20 minute walk, I arrived at a well established garden plot that was tucked away at the end of a quiet and unassuming suburban street. The garden has 27 plots allocated to community members who look after and care for their allocated plot. Some plots had just been planted while others were flourishing with vegetables and some others were waiting to flourish.
Ronda was very welcoming as we sat down for a chat under a small open shed that was turned into a meeting area. Heard from Rhonda how back in 2008, she gathered interested local community members and put a request to the Council. It took nearly two years when the Council finally allocated the land for community gardening. The garden was officially opened in April 2010.
Ronda said there was a long waiting list of community members who wish to do veggie gardening and could not be allocated the plots. She also told how Council seemed to have no more space to allocate.
Therefore, when I shared about how our program aims to get in touch with disused land owned by land owners other local councils for growing veggies by the community, she was very encouraging of the idea.
Apart from her best wishes, she offered two valuable pieces of advice- 1) To make sure that in our program, we do 'no dig' gardening which involves making raised beds by separating and on top of existing soil bed, to deflect the concerns about contaminated soil in high density suburbs. 2) To think about the process by which the gardens will receive consistent care and attention because when relying on volunteers, consistency of care becomes a critical factor.
Armed with Rhonda's best wishes and advice, I left the garden grateful and encouraged.
Connecting with Melbourne champions via Incredible Edible UK
Snow-ball effect of connecting with Incredible Edible Todmorden was that one of the members of their network emailed me and informed me about Kate Dundas who has initiated a similar movement in Melbourne under the banner of 3000acres.org
Kate is a landscape architect who migrated to Australia from Scotland. She initiated the movement as she missed her connection with land and soil that she developed by working on a veggie patch that she was allocated during her life as University Student in Scotland. She shares a fascinating and inspiring story in a Ted Talk. She took inspiration from a similar movement in New York under the name of 596acres.org.
I immediately emailed Kate and was excited to know that she was going to be in Sydney for a couple of days attending a conference. However, because of a busy schedule that she had at the conference, we were unable to meet up, in person. But I managed to connect with the facebook page of 3000acres.
From their facebook page and the website, I gathered that the initiative goes about in a very systematic way as it is supported by Planisphere - Melbourne based landscape architect and urban planning consultancy that Kate Dundas is a member of. They have also managed to secure some grant funding from Victorian Health department.
Leveraging on their professional expertise, Planisphere has created a map of various potential sites for veggie growing across Melbourne. They have been working systematically the process of identifying the land-owner and negotiating the arrangement whereby the site can be accessed by members of community for growing veggies on the site. The map clearly shows sites that have already been negotiated and are available for members of community to start using them for growing food.
The facebook page also shows how they have been systematically building raised planter boxes using recycled materials for use on quite large in size to cover large disused sites.
New York City's 596acres.org take a similar approach, and have detailed guidelines for members of community on how to contact and negotiate with land-owners, if they wish to convert potential site shown on their map to a community garden site.
Kate is a landscape architect who migrated to Australia from Scotland. She initiated the movement as she missed her connection with land and soil that she developed by working on a veggie patch that she was allocated during her life as University Student in Scotland. She shares a fascinating and inspiring story in a Ted Talk. She took inspiration from a similar movement in New York under the name of 596acres.org.
I immediately emailed Kate and was excited to know that she was going to be in Sydney for a couple of days attending a conference. However, because of a busy schedule that she had at the conference, we were unable to meet up, in person. But I managed to connect with the facebook page of 3000acres.
From their facebook page and the website, I gathered that the initiative goes about in a very systematic way as it is supported by Planisphere - Melbourne based landscape architect and urban planning consultancy that Kate Dundas is a member of. They have also managed to secure some grant funding from Victorian Health department.
Leveraging on their professional expertise, Planisphere has created a map of various potential sites for veggie growing across Melbourne. They have been working systematically the process of identifying the land-owner and negotiating the arrangement whereby the site can be accessed by members of community for growing veggies on the site. The map clearly shows sites that have already been negotiated and are available for members of community to start using them for growing food.
The facebook page also shows how they have been systematically building raised planter boxes using recycled materials for use on quite large in size to cover large disused sites.
New York City's 596acres.org take a similar approach, and have detailed guidelines for members of community on how to contact and negotiate with land-owners, if they wish to convert potential site shown on their map to a community garden site.