Young Professionals - Leading the Change

Community Gardens - what support is out there?

Community Gardens seem to be sprouting up all over the place. I want to know what support is out there for people who want to start one up. Can anyone give me information on:
* funding?
* training?
* mentoring?
* networks?

I live in Auckland and work for the Auckland City Council. I am working on a project to bring together resources for groups who want to start up or develop their community garden. I figure there are heaps of great things going on out there so we might as well pool the learning aye?

Thanks!

Tags: community, gardens

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Guy S on November 11, 2008 at 9:35am

Hi Eva and thanks for posting this - I was meaning to set up a Community Gardening group or something (we met at intersect drinks the other week and talked about all this). Yes definitely much interest on my part and it seems all over Auckland, and especially in Grey Lynn. Your work in this area for ACC sounds really interesting. I have a couple of UK reports on 'urban agriculture' courtesy of NGO Sustain, which I'm uploading here. The first one, Urban Agriculture in London, attempted to estimate how much of London's food could be grown within the city limits - it reckoned about 20%of all its fruit and veg which is fairly impressive. I wonder if any similar studies have been done for Auckland. The Mayor of London and his food champion, Rosie Boycott, have recently launched a new scheme called Capital Growth, which aims to create 2,012 new growing spaces throughout the city before the Olympics in 2012: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/04/boris-london. Pretty inspiring - could Auckland do something similar (if smaller)?

Attachments:

Urban Agriculture In London - Garnett 1999.pdf, 568 KB
Growing Round the Houses - Sustain 2008.pdf, 450 KB

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Permalink Reply by Carl Chenery on November 13, 2008 at 9:34pm: I imagine there must be masses of information or resource, s albeit disconnected, around community gardens in an NZ. Perhaps put something out on the transition towns, or one of the groups like this raised bed group and see what comes back.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rebeka Whale on November 22, 2008 at 1:09pm: Hey Eva, I'm a member of Innermost Gardens project for refugee and migrant women, with support from women from Aotearoa.
Emet Alpay is a wonderful woman from Turkey who has been working on community gardens projects for the past couple of years based at the Sustainability Trust in Wellington.
she has helped set up a few community gardens in Newtown. I can hook you up with her if you're keen. We have a ning site too... let me know.
I've been out of Wellington this year so am a bit out of the loop, but I was at the last AGM, and will be more heavily involved in 2009.
Love your work!
xox B; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eva Lawrence on November 26, 2008 at 10:04am: Thanks for this. Yeah I remember meeting Emet when I was still in Wellie. Hope to see you soon :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by George Darroch on November 22, 2008 at 7:17pm: I know that Housing NZ are supporting projects, as are various other councils and local authorities. I'm not the one to talk at length about these, but I've put you on to someone who can.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stephanie Fill on November 24, 2008 at 7:02pm: I know there is a Kingsland community garden, and the Unitec one just turned into a community garden...There's also Kelmarna gardens in Herne Bay - not sure of the ins and outs of them but I hope that helps. Steph; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by shay on December 4, 2008 at 7:45pm: there was a meeting to try and save the Unitec Garden, which was doing some great stuff beyond simply growing things - they designed a great vertical composting system and the like.
the garden is now under threat through having its funding pulled and had a huge clearance sale the other day. did anyone make it to the meeting?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robbie Mackay on December 11, 2008 at 8:48pm: Hey - where is the community garden in Kingsland?
I just moved to about 2mins from the Kingsland shops now...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eva Lawrence on December 15, 2008 at 2:55pm: here: http://www.zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/auckland/kingsland/northwestern+moto...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eva Lawrence on November 26, 2008 at 10:03am: Thanks everyone for your replies on this - it's great to get the information. And keep it coming!

Also, have you seen the movie that is fresh to the DVD shelves at the mo called "Grow your Own"? It is set in a garden plot site in London and it is well worth a watch.

:); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by shay on December 4, 2008 at 7:47pm: i have some information from Seed Foundation in the UK who are doing some interesting gardening and community development stuff. will email this particular document. or check seedfoundation.org.uk or some such thing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joanne Tunna on December 12, 2008 at 12:57pm: I just stumbled across an article on the kinds of work Sydney is doing in this space... very inspiring indeed! Haven't had a chance to look through the whole guide, though it looks to have some great guidance around getting new projects off the ground.

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Environment/documents/CommunityG...; ▶ Reply to This