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Are you interested in your local food security? Do you care about healthy eating ie food grown without use of herbicides and pesticides? Do you have a background in backyard / front yard food gardens? Do you want to share your knowledge? Is horticulture or permaculture part of your life skills or business acumen? Do you want to learn how to grow and even cook your own food? Do you want to meet socially with members of your local neighbourhood and chat about plants, worms, compost, fresh food, family recipes, heritage seeds, weeds and other garden / food related ideas?

A COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN CAN PROVIDE ALL THESE OPPORTUNITIES.

Logan City now has a policy which is intended, one hopes, to support the establishment of community gardens. That policy was adopted 6 December 2011. Unfortunately to date no group has managed to travel the distance to actually have a leased area of land to begin - in earnest - their community garden.

The policy documents are available HERE.

A Guide to Community Gardening in Logan can be downloaded HERE.

Community Garden Policy is available HERE.

Community Garden Assessment Procedure is HERE.

Community Garden Application Form is HERE.

As I write this I am aware that the ELM PARK group have decided that the process does not meet their needs - and I agree. The Rochedale Charles Barton Park group have still to negotiate location with "council" before progressing, there are 2 other groups in Rochedale a group in Bethania, an ethnic community group and also CADDIES at Jimboomba which already has facilities leased from coulcil for a multitude of services for clients. The latter has almost negotiated the maze to have their application approved.

 

If you are interested in helping to set up - or just grow some food crops for your family then a good place to start is to read the documents on council's website all together on this page.

If you have a question about community gardening in Logan please contact Council and ask to speak with the Community Development Officer for community gardens. At this point in time it is just the general council number 3412 3412.

Please also contact our group Logan_CAN Community Agriculture and Nutrition. We are developing this website to be a resource for groups starting out and for sharing our information.

Lots more to come.

St Paul's Primary School Woodridge is a leading example of community gardening in Logan. The school grounds host both the school kitchen gardens and also 7  family allotment gardens.

Each Wednesday during school term David Saw Wah one of the gardeners will share his knowledge and skills with you - from in ground composting, growing in bags and other no to low cost gardening - so you too can grow your own healthy vegetables.

Grow-local website http://www.grow-local.com.au/  is hosted by Queensland Conservation Council to promote and encourage local food growing, buying locally grown food and sharing a calendar of events with everything from foodie events to sustainability workshops and community exhibitions. To make sure you don't miss opportunities you can subscribe to the Grow-local monthly newsletter to receive updates.

From this site there are several directories to help you locate community gardens, organizations interested in food security, suppliers. Depending on your level of interest there will be something there to explore further.

The information about community gardens in Logan is not up-to-date as only Griffith University-Logan Campus – Community Garden and Loganlea Community Centre - Community Gardens are listed as Community gardens in Logan.

Two not yet listed on the Grow-local website are both very successful gardens. They are the Whiteman Street Community Garden, Crestmead on private land started by local resident Warren Goodlet and the combined school-community gardens at St Paul's Catholic School Woodridge where local migrant family gropus have been allocated their own plots. There may be more  school, community gardens, and  school-community gardens in Logan. Mable Park State High School has a multicultural garden featuring many traditional food plants  of Pacific Islands. The Griffith Garden Space has many traditional African food plants as many of its gardeners are African migrants.

One of the many benefits of our multicultural community is learning about different foods and sharing wonderful taste sensations. After the growing comes harvesting cooking and  sharing.

Another benefit of food and community gardens is creating productive gardens where once land was unused weedy and neglected. Such places can be cultivated with care and provide food for local residents.

If you are interested let your local Logan politican and contact our group Logan_CAN if you like assistance. We are passionate volunteers who care about our and your opportunities to grow food on council land. The image above shows a garden created by young people in another place. Our young people can do that also if given opportunity and assistance.

Farmers' markets are a great place to buy locally produced food. Logan has 5 such markets. Locations and times are listed here.

 

 

Community gardening is happening globally and in most local council areas surrounding Logan City. Those of us who want to grow, learn to grow healthy food in our local areas, and share our gardening skills, will with the adoption of this proposed community gardening policy be able to access council owned / controlled land for this purpose.

Logan now is proposing to support community gardening - growing food crops to support the gardeners who havest what they sow. The 5 page draft policy can be read and /or downloaded here.

Supporting documentation 14 pages is available here.

Questions you are asked to consider are listed below.

Your comments are requested by close of business COB Fridayday 9 September. [extended from 5 September]

1. Do you support the policy objective?
2. Do you understand the benefits and steps involved in having a Community Gardens Policy?
3. Are there any gaps in the policy? For example management or operational issues?
   Has Council left anything out in the steps to set up a community garden?
4. Do you understand and agree with the process that Council has drafted to assess applications for Community Gardens?
5. Would you like to provide additional feedback on the draft Community Gardens Policy?

All documents and feedback information is available from this page including online survey or feedback form to be posted. 

Contact council on 3412 3412 if you have any questions about this process and documents.

LETS GET GROWING IN LOGAN. Use  the Contact Us link at top of page to enquire about LOGAN_CAN Community Agriculture Nutrition

An online discussion group has been set up for food growers in Logan and nearby areas to discuss broad range of topics related to growing your own food in your backyard - or front yard if you want.

Membership is free and discussion/s can be viewed without joining. If you want to comment or ask your own question/s you will need to register.

http://www.loganfoodgardeners.org/ is the address for this discussion and sharing site. It is a NING based site set up by one of Logan_CAN members Lyn Buffet. Congratulations to all who have joined to learn and share food growing experiences. 

Logan_CAN may include a forum on the website as one of its features or DO YOU THINK  we should use group page option. If you are interested to assist with a forum please contact Kathy Faldt This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Following extensive community consultation Logan City Council has endorsed a new Community Gardens policy.

With an aim to increase health and wellbeing in the community, Council's policy will ensure future community gardens are successful, sustainable and provide a range of benefits to the community.

Health, Sport and Community Services Committee Chairperson, Councillor Phil Pidgeon (Division 9) said community gardens had become quite popular in communities throughout the country over the last few years.

"We are now seeing a number of community gardens spring up as a result of the modern society," he said.

"Council receives a number of request from the community to help facilitate community gardens and has had some very successful results over the years and some not so successful.

"These requests have generally been dealt with on an adhoc basis with no policy position or direction to facilitate a successful garden outcome."

Cr Pidgeon confirmed the Community Gardens policy would assist Council to analyse and review applications for gardens with a consistent approach.

"The policy will help ensure that any future community gardens in Logan have the best possible chance of being successful," he said.

"The policy further characterises Council's commitment to thinking globally and acting locally."

See Logan's media release here.