Community gardens: A natural way to wellbeing

Abstract

Community gardens provide social, economic and environmental benefits to local urban communities. These include individual and collective social wellbeing, access to cheap, nutritious food and improved functioning of the local ecology. Although regarded by some as a neutral project to organise a community around, community gardening is still highly political. When planned, organised and run by local people and located centrally in the community, (particularly disadvantaged communities) these green spaces offer multiple health benefits that prevent disease and promote wellbeing, a sense of citizen control and social capital. Most indicators suggest that community gardening movement has enjoyed varied success in building healthier Sydney communities. However the intrinsic effects of this low cost, low-tech community process is hard to compare and measure. Challenges include security of tenure, establishing appropriate policy and planning guidelines with local councils and departments, ensuring active and full participation of those community groups 'at risk' and developing persuasive evaluation systems to meet these challenges. It is suggested that community gardens reflect the wider social, cultural, structural elements in the society as well as the human processes that ultimately enable or restrict healthy living.