Australian Community Gardens as Food Security Initiatives

In October 2010 researchers at the University of Canberra collaborated with community garden organisation, Canberra Organic Growers Society to host Australia’s first academic conference on community gardening. Keynote presenters included Myles Bremner from the UK’s Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Trust), television presenter Costa Georgiadis,  Phil Harris, Professor in Sustainable Agriculture and Head of International Development at the University of Coventry, and Greens senator, Christine Milne. A number of students, academics and community gardeners from around the country also presented papers.

I gave a paper on community gardens and food security, which can be downloaded here (300KB PDF).

Full proceedings from the conference are available for free download at the conference website. A report about the conference, written by Russ Grayson, was published in the Summer 2010 edition of the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network‘s magazine, Community Harvest which can be downloaded here (10MB PDF).

Community Gardening: An Annotated Bibliography

The Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network frequently receives requests from students and researchers looking for information about community gardening, and from community gardeners seeking evidence of the benefits of community gardening for their submissions and proposals. I developed an annotated bibliography of community gardening research for the Network to help it meet these requests, and to encourage and facilitate further research.

The first edition was published in 2008. In the couple of years that followed, community gardening was the subject of increasing academic and professional attention, and a revised and expanded version of Community Gardening: An Annotated Bibliography was published in August 2010 to include the latest research and analysis.

Community Gardening: An Annotated Bibliography includes brief descriptions of guidebooks and manuals, books, Doctoral, Honours and Masters theses, articles in academic and professional journals, and a number of other research-based documents, such as project evaluations and submissions.

In addition, there are brief introductions to sources on key areas that provide additional context and evidence for community gardening: therapeutic horticulture, urban and civic agriculture, food security, organics and permaculture.

Community Gardening: An Annotated Bibliography can be downloaded here (4.8MB PDF) and from the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network website.

Growing Community

I was commissioned to write Growing Community: Starting and Nurturing Community Gardens for Community Centres SA and SA Health in 2009. The book and its companion website were created to encourage and facilitate the establishment of new community gardens and to support the flourishing of those already growing. Together, they address all the essentials of community gardening including advocating for community gardens, garden design, involving people, growing community, accessing funds and resources, and administrative and decision-making processes. The book also contains sections on gardening with children and in schools and for community, local council and landscape workers whose roles include supporting community gardening. Throughout, there are case case studies of established and in-process community gardens around South Australia. The book was distributed to government and non-government organisations around Australia, and also found its way further afield.

Growing Community is still available for $15 (including postage within Australia) from Community Centres SA. The companion website, which includes a number of additional fact sheets and downloads, can be viewed here.

The book is also available for free download as a 6MB pdf file here, or in smaller sections here.