The seed for a Community Garden was planted at the first public meeting in December ‘08. As I predicted at that meeting, it is going to be a slow growth process, but ultimately very worthwhile.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the progress of Council’s Community Garden policy development, and the Lismore Community Garden project under the auspices of Rainbow Regions Community Farms. While it is slow-going there at the moment, I’m confident that the ground they are breaking together will make it easier for our Garden to proceed by the time we have done our planning and research, and found the right place.
Next week , the people interested in being part of the planning team are meeting to develop a structure and a clear vision for the Garden in Dunoon. (If anyone  would like to be a part of the planning team, contact me asap).
My personal vision for this Garden sees it as being part of a wider process of creating a sustainable village, where the Garden becomes a hub for the exchange of plants, seeds, produce and ideas and much more.

“Sustainability” and living “green” are very much the buzzwords of the moment, but in fact they are the reality that we face to be able to move forward as a society. Being a village in a rural regional area, with a close-knit community, actually makes us ideally placed to integrate a range of sustainable practices and initiatives into our everyday lives, such as car-pooling and other resource-sharing, food co-ops, skill bartering and so on. Creating the Garden together is just the beginning of that process.
I’m no expert about any of this. I’m very aware of the need for new ways of living, and very passionate about being (to paraphrase Gandhi) part of the change I’d like to see in the world. If you feel the same and/or have valuable expertise/resources/land(!) to contribute, I’d love to hear from you.
For more great information about Community Gardens in Australia, check out http://www.communitygarden.org.au/ and http://www.sgaonline.org.au/ (both of which are full of great resource material and links), and to feed the passion for community building, have a read of http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog/articles/how-to-build-a-village-by-... (and then check out Claude’s website, http://villageforum.com/ ).
While we wait for our Community Garden, Christopher and I have been doing a little recycling/preparation for our autumn/winter crop – do you like the seed pots we rolled from newspaper? They worked really well, and the seedlings will be planted straight into the ground this weekend.
Happy gardening!

Tracy Rudd
(6689 5897 / dunooncommunitygarden@gmail.com )