A community garden is much more than just a plot of dirt in the middle of a city, it is a collaborative oasis of calm in an otherwise busy city.
The Hub acts as a welcoming, community managed '3rd place' where people from all ages and walks of life come to exchange skills and grow food as well as relationships. Chats about vegetable and flower gardening flow freely while gardening tips are scrutinised and verified over morning tea. World news, individual tribulations and successes are celebrated and future plans for the garden are marked down over a therapeutic mug of tea and volunteer-provided snacks.
The Hub Chatswood is a proponent of eco-friendly regenerative, organic gardening: waste is composted, rainwater gathered in tanks and pollinators encouraged in a cycle as close to nature as practical. Classic favourites like tomatoes and lettuce thrive while new and rarer plants find places to take root amongst the garden beds, donated by volunteers to diversify the ecology or their fellow gardeners' palates.
Participation in the community garden is a flexible arrangement where individuals make decisions about what, when and how they can contribute whether it be seedlings, knowledge or simply time. All members' input is valued!
