The Cape Paterson Ecovillage has a large community garden planned which will assist residents in growing their own organic food and reducing food miles. The current land use is grazing and the land is quite marginal. A well organised community food garden will generate a far greater community and food production benefit than the current land use, while reducing greenhouse emissions.
Community gardens have made a resurgence in Melbourne, where areas of State Government or local council controlled land are handed over to a local committee of management for the purposes of growing food.
These gardens are often a focal point for the community, and allow people to come together, spend time in the garden exercising and have time out in a peaceful setting while growing good organic food for the table. They are often places of beauty, colour and creative art and bring together people of all ages.
Community gardens are often the place where you can find less common and heritage varieties of vegetables, which play an important role in maintaining biodiversity in food in a world that is increasingly seeing a reduction in biodiversity in our food production. A community garden is even more important in times of increasing food costs..
All photographs here were taken at VegOut Community Garden in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia.
