Community gardens are reporting a major spike in interest as Australians look to grow their own food to avoid soaring fruit and vegetable prices.
Organisations across two states told The New Daily surging grocery prices – plus a lack of green space in rental homes and a desire for greater community engagement – were encouraging an increasing number of Australians to explore how to become more self-sufficient.
But many could be left disappointed, with waiting lists for some community garden memberships stretching as long as 10 years.
Seeds for growth
Inflation and bad weather have pushed up grocery prices dramatically this year, forcing more than one million Australians per month to rely on Foodbank to help feed their families.
Down’s Estate Community Project management committee secretary Maureen Griffin said the rising cost of living has “definitely” been a factor in increased interest in the communal garden project, on the edge of Victorian town Seaford’s wetlands.
She said the project is piloting individual garden plots for the first time in response to the surging demand, moving away from the communal garden that members have farmed together since 2017.
But the project is cautious about growing too quickly.
“We’re off grid, we’ve got water tanks, we’ve got solar power, a composting toilet,” Ms Griffin said.
“So we don’t want to develop too fast in case it becomes a bit disorganised.”
Rhonda McComish is the fundraising secretary for Labrador Community Garden, a space on Queensland’s Gold Coast that her daughter set up 11 years ago.
Ms McComish said the garden has about 52 members who pay $30 a year for a six-metre-long garden bed, with more people ringing every day to join.
The garden’s committee is considering halving individual garden bed sizes to accommodate more members.
Members from a range of cultures use the gardens to grow replacements for supermarket essentials – such as lettuce, carrots, and beans – and also grow produce from their home countries that are hard to find in shops.
Ms McComish said in addition to escaping the rising cost of living, people have turned to community gardens because their housing situations don’t allow them to garden at home, either due to strict rental agreements or unit living.
Sharing a gardening space has fostered a community feeling within the group, with several members meeting every week.
“If anyone wants to come and meet people, they come on Wednesday afternoons and we have a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits, or if it’s someone’s birthday, we normally have a cake for them,” Ms McComish said.
But not everyone will get a chance to enjoy the various perks of community gardens.
Blown-out waiting lists
Rising demand for community garden memberships mean some interested parties could potentially be turned away.
Ms Griffin said she recently had someone ask to join Down’s Estate Community Project despite living half an hour away, as their local community garden had an excessively long waiting list.
Their experience isn’t unique – hopeful gardeners in Fitzroy North face a decade-long wait to get into Rushall Garden.
But for some, the benefits could be worth the wait.
A report by the Australian Psychological Society and Swinburne University of Technology shows one in four Australians feel lonely on three or more days a week.
Being in green spaces helps, the research found.
Melbourne-based CERES encompasses an environmental centre, social enterprise hub, urban farm and community garden.
CERES partnerships manager Ben Manassah said food grown in community spaces helps share knowledge in the community, and provides much-needed social interaction.
“People coming in, learning to grow food, is more about the skills they get and the community connections they make, more so than the food that’s actually grown,” he said.
“We find a lot of people come thinking they’re going to go into self-sufficiency … but when they come here, they realise that actually they were just looking for a community to belong to, and CERES is able to provide that for them.”
