Up the garden path

The Garden Path

There are lots of great lessons from community gardens. I am enjoying getting around the City of Onkaparinga to see as many as I can and here are my top 5 lessons so far.

Five Lessons from Community Gardens

1. Have a great sign to welcome people and invite them in.
2. Build the soil, nothing will grow without quality soil and some of this comes from plants and trees that need to be cut off and cut down. Compost matters.
3. Make sure water is close at hand - for what grows in the ground and to make a cuppa when it is time to rest.
4. Harvest and share the fruits of the labour with everyone who has made a contribution and go out and beyond to invite others to share in the harvest.
5. Make little pockets of surprise with colour, movement and creativity.

The community gardens in the City of Onkaparinga are in most neighbourhoods. You can check them all out here.

Toolkit

I was fortunate to be part of a consulting team supporting the development of a toolkit to share across Councils and communities over the past year. It is now available for everyone to use and has oodles of practical ideas and tried and true techniques to support building resilient food systems.

Beyond Competition

If I become Mayor of Onkaparinga, I will be seeking to advance the Mayor's Garden Competition. I will be curious to see how it might be able to become a vehicle to unlock and unleash more transformational opportunities in our food systems.

Possibilities

We know community spaces generate community connections, increase food security, support biodiversity, improve physical and mental health, hold space for friendships to evolve, seed saving practices.

They are also places where children and families can learn how to feed themselves, come to an understanding of our rich natural inheritance and connect to First Nations knowledge.

I am looking forward to tapping into more of the possibilities and power of community gardens. This is the Garden Path I find purposeful to follow.

What Garden Path are you following? Do you have a favourite community garden?