Carrigtohill Community Garden Project 2.39

CARRIGTOHILL COMMUNITY GARDEN PROJECT
A garden to bring the neighbourhood together

Prepared by: Vanessa Lieghio 16 June 2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Objective
A Community Garden is much more than a place where people gather to grow food. A community garden can help improve food security for participants by increasing physical and economic access to adequate amounts of healthy food. Community gardens provide health, economic, educational, social, and environmental
benefits to participants and the community at large.

Goals
We wish to use part of the unused land in our Estate and make it productive. The main reason is to create a common space, currently lacking in Castlelake, where people come together to tend to plants and to each other.

The Community garden will:

• Provide fresh, healthy, low-cost food that can substitute for otherwise expensive food purchases;
• Encourage physical activity for all age groups;
• Create a social gathering place for the community and encourage the sharing of intergenerational
knowledge;
• Enable participants to learn basic gardening skills, from sowing seeds to harvesting, and to better
understand their food system;
• Provide a welcoming space for participants to build self-confidence, wellness, and personal skills
• Help improve the local environment by preserving and growing green space and by encouraging people to
act as local stewards.

Solution
Any part of the unused land in our Estate will be a viable solution. We will be starting small, by mulching the soil in the coming Fall, and be ready, in February 2016, to plant the first seedlings of our Garden.

Project Outline

Site Selection:

- The plot must get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day during Spring, Summer and Fall
- In regards to access to water, a number of water butts will have to be placed in the Garden
- The plot must be relatively flat
- The plot will need to be inside our estate, for easy access to all residents
- The plot will have to be visible from the street and pedestrian ares, so it will be safe and attract more neighbourhood support
- The plot must be easily accessible from the street
- The plot will require raised beds and fresh soil
- The plot will have to be insured for Community garden use
- The plot will have to be available for the years to come in order to grow
- The plot will need some wind breaks in order to protect the plants, and this will hopefully be done by
planting trees and shrubs around it
- The plot will have to be cleared before use
Garden Committee
- A Garden Committee will need to be established, its members will be the Residents involved in the set up and establishment of the Garden
- The Garden Committee will host meetings and decide on common issues
- The Garden Committee will delegate tasks to the Gardeners according to skills and personal preferences of
the Gardeners
Gardening Tools
- We will operate on a Bring Your Own Tools basis, at least until we can finance or source a shed to store garden tools and supplies. At the beginning we would not require many tools and supplies.
- Gardeners should lend the tools to other Gardeners as needed and when suitable to do so; remember this is a Community Project.
- Gardeners may have knowledge or experience that can help in planning and designing the garden, such as landscaping, construction, or health and safety training.
- Garden members may already have garden tools and materials that they are willing to share. Make an inventory of tools available within the garden group. This will help in determining what additional tools are needed.

Garden Areas
- Considering the population of Castlelake is, in the majority, families with young children, the Garden will have a Children Area, where kids of all ages can enjoy being outdoor with their Gardening parents.
- Small plots will be assigned to children, of a size that is the length of a child’s reach, so the plot will be accessible from all sides.
- The Children Area must be located in the centre of the Garden so that children can easily be supervised and have no direct access to the road.
- Ideally, in the future, an area of the Garden will be kept untouched, and only the grass mowed, to facilitate meetings, yoga sessions and other outdoor activities suitable for the Gardeners and the Residents alike.