Other Community Gardens
Other Community Gardens in the Greater Perth Area
Great ideas are great. However, it is helpful to see if others have tried it before and their methods, along with their madness. There are 113 community gardens, of various natures, across the state (Community Gardens Australia 2024). Half of them are in Perth. I reached out the closest community gardens over the Christmas period. My timing is terrible. However, some of the community gardens did get back to me. I documented their responses in the forms of blogs. The main idea behind this was to synthesize what information they could share to give me ideas, along with do's and do not's. Though I sent out 46 emails, by the 5th email response, I noticed a picture building in funding and strategy. This was my agenda the entire time. It was to build a 'profile' of a community garden.
Figure 1. Seeds.
Source: Figure reproduced from Canva (2025).
Synthesis on Other Community Gardens
Within the first couple of responses, I noticed a pattern. Both Britannia Community Food Forest and Garden Gnome are located in the City of Vincent. It's obvious that if there is one success then it is much easier to convince a beauracracy to invest in another. The Department of Communities has also contributed to some of the community gardens. However, it helps to have funding also from memberships or people using the garden plots. A community garden doesn't need to be expensive, but it helps to have some. $10000 seems more than enough to establish a garden.
Another thing I noticed is the preference of creating healthy soil over fertilising. However, gardeners are not adverse to supplement using fertiliser. The problem with fertiliser is it does damage the ecosystems of soil, which are fragile. When it comes to crops, they all seem to lean towards what is in season. Crops can be established together to compliment each other.
Communication and a community willing to do the hard work of the yard work are vital in determining whether a community garden thrives, survives or dives. It's not a one man band or Indiana Jones crusade to establish and maintain a community garden. The original Curtin Veggie Patch was established and driven by one man. When the one man runs out of petrol, if there is nobody else, the garden will dive.