A triumph for community gardening
Posted on 28 March 2012 (Permalink) by Thomas
One of the most exciting things in Community Gardening happened last weekend. You might have missed it, because it was without fanfare, and very localised: Maud and Neil put up a planter box on a streetside close to where they live. You don’t feel excited? You should do, because this was the first streetside planter box to be installed under the City of Yarra new guidelines. And the City of Yarra guidelines are very progressive. More than that, Yarra are the first local council to employ an officer to facilitate the application of urban agriculture. For that, we congratulate them. The first permit took four months to issue, as all issues of all the relevant departments, and all the bureaucracy and risk aversion of public service had to be negotiated. Without a facilitator, this would have been impossible. The normal reaction of Council would have been to play it safe, and simply reject the concept of planter boxes, nature strip planting, fruit trees and all other forms of urban agriculture in public space. The normal reaction would be to keep things as they are, but the City of Yarra didn’t do this, and they are leading the way, with the eyes of other councils and organisations upon them.
Maude and Neil with the new planter box (permit no. YCG-01)
The recent events in Princes Hill, where a divided local reaction stopped the proposal for a community garden on parkland, has demonstrates more stongly than ever that Yarra’s Urban Agriculture Facilitator is needed. It’s not suprising that some urban residents don’t want to loose public open space; it’s equally not surprising that some urban residents feel the strong need to grow some of their own food. The compromise is to use marginal space, like Maud and Neil have: their planter box is on a slight raised area that is neither foot path or road, it is just separation space. The planter box doesn’t interfere with lines of sight or access. It appears from the very short time it has been there to recieve overwhelming support from locals.
But this small scale, decentralised model needs more effort to work, and local residents just don’t have the know-how to get through the local government bureaucracy, and local government departments just don’t have the incentive to deal with local residents on these issues and coordinate with other departments. And because we are talking about marginal space, it is always at the margins of responsiblity.
This is why the Urban Agriculture Facilitator role is so essential. If the role is lost, all the good work that has been done up to now will be wasted. Yarra’s leading position will be lost. It is currently a part time role, but it needs to be increased to five days a week. Time is needed in processing applications and granting permits, and all the communication that involves. In addition available land needs to be put on an inventory, a more robust grants system is needed, more resources are needed for residents of our city, and time needs to be spent on promotion and education.
Please leave a comment and tell us what you think of the Urban Agriculture Facilitator Role and Yarra Council supporting urban agriculture like this.
This is exciting and inspiring. I hope more councils take up this model and that we start to see a lot more space like this used to produce food. Community gardens foster stronger communities and reduce our impact on the environment in many ways.
Great blog post Thomas. Very nice looking blog (banner, gallery – bravo). Smart looking planter box too…
I was appalled at the division in the community caused by the recent application for a community garden (as opposed to a street garden on a ‘brownfields’ site).
I think Council must take a coordination role regarding identification of possible sites along with government organisations such as VICRoads and VICtrack (along rail lines).
But also we should consider the main focus of establishment of these street gardens as educational /awareness raising rather than just putting up allotments for private use.
We’ve been receiving lovely feedback from lots of people walking by as we tended the garden this week! Our neighbour who lives right beside the garden box has said she’s also overheard lots of inquisitive and positive chats as people ponder where our little garden came from!
Thanks to the City of Yarra for helping us to get this started. We would highly recommend it to anyone – its been a wonderful excercise for us to be involved in.
Great news that you can get a permit for a planter box on your nature strip! Good to see a government being progressive.
Thanks for the lovely words folks – I’d also like to point out that its not ‘our’ box, though we are the permit holders and will take responsibility for ensuring that it always looks neat and tidy and that there are good things growing, but it belongs entirely to our neighbourhood. to eat
This community planter box, and some more soon to appear in Clifton Hill, was sponsored by the Clifton Hill/ North Fitzroy Community Bank on Queens Parade in Clifton Hill. We’re grateful to them for supporting this community initiative.
Community Bank. Community Gardens. Seems like a natural to me.
And look at the lovely planter box that has been a created as a consequence
What a fabulous idea especially in the inner city suburbs where many households simply do not have the land or sunlight to be able to grow vegies. Good on Yarra for taking the initiative and creating the Urban Agriculture Facilitator role. Let’s hope they keep funding it.
I think I want to be an Urban Agriculture Facilitator!
Great way to share the neighbourly joys of foodgardening! Congrats Maud & Neil, Yarra Council and Yarra Urban Ag Facilitator. I’m more than happy for our rates to go towards making the Urban Ag Facilitator position permanent as this is such an important role in building local resilience in a changing climate.
Great article, I have had my eyes on a nice patch of soil behind the North Carlton library on Newry St for years. Its about 7m x 5m and curently mulched with wood chips. This potentail vege patch appears to be on power authority land as i think there is a substation behind it. Its only suitable for summer planting as the substation in on the northside and shades the patch in the winter. The power authorities never seem to access this buildinge and if they ever do need to replace the transformer (once every 50 years!) , no prob just trash the vege garden and start again next year. The garden doesnt need to be anything showy, just basic summmer veges: tomato’s, corn, zuc, beans etc..i recon the library could provide a water tap…plenty of cafes to provide compost too!
Tony, I think I know the spot. Sounds like an ideal opportunity for a bit of community gardening. I’d recommend that you start liaising with the Council Facilitator and see if anything can be done.
Wow, I’m not from city of Yarra, but wish I was. Urban Agriculture Facilitator!? WTF! That’s great news! Exclamation mark. I’m going to have to sell the farm and move back the city. Seriously though, I’m sure concealing a mini disc or whatever under the lettuce for a day would reveal and confirm the full extent of excitement and praise pouring into that wonderful crate of joy. Hats off to the council, the facilitator, and the gardeners!
How fantastic! Imagine the changed feel and look of our urban streets as this idea grows! Hope Moreland Council is watching!
[...] GuidelinesPosted in Models, Movements, Policies by Jessica Bird on April 16th, 2012From “A triumph for community gardening” by Thomas, YCAN Local Action GroupOne of the most exciting things in Community Gardening [...]
What a fantastic idea. I would love to see this idea spread to other councils, like Sydney. Space to grow food is going to become such a precious commodity in the future, we will have no choice but to use these bits of space. The idea of the Facilitator is great, as negotiating all the red tape to get these permissions would be a nightmare for most people. Well done City of Yarra – wouldn’t it be nice to think they were the forerunner of more progressive councils everywhere!
What a great initiative! Congratulations to all concerned and may this be the start of something which inspires many other.
This is wonderful to see. It can be so difficult getting anything through any Council, quite bewildering and exhausting. Hooray for progress, and massive congratulations to Yarra for employing the facilitator to help make such things happen. That’s really the most essential bit of all this, having someone with a working knowledge of what to do and who to talk to.
I love this idea. I recently approached the Moreland Council about a piece of land across the road. Not quite a nature strip but has nothing growing on it but weeds. Tends to be a good spot for the local renters to dump their unwanted old furniture. If it had a planter box that problem would be sorted. I have run out of space in my back yard for anymore raised garden beds but I would love something like this to bring the neighbors together. Busy street, hardly get to talk to any of them, this would be ideal.
Great idea , Ive been trying to campaign residents in strata units to have there own gardens in my local area here in Sydney, a/it greens up wasted lawn area(most unit occupiers never use the outside common areas,
b/ it brings a closer knit residential community together
c/ fresh garden veg is healthy and accessible ,d/ reduces organic kitchen waste that usually gets put into bins
This is truly awesome news. Not only does making use of shared space bring community together it also allows people to learn how to grow their own food and reconnects people with nature. I think we are going to see a lot more of this sort of thing happening and look forward to me and my family being a part of it…