A large circular garden can provide a number of allotments or can be used as a shared garden. Coutour ditches (swales) were excavated to catch water and fruit trees planted on the slope behind the circular vegetable garden at the Interlife project in NSW's Blue Mountains.

Now that you have brought your gardening group together and found land, it’s time to start the design process.

First, go to council and obtain a copy of the site survey plan. If this is not available, measure up the site and draw it to scale.

The design process is best led by someone such as a landscape architect or permaculture designer who knows about site analysis and the characteristics of functional design. Where the garden is to be built on a government housing estate, the department’s landscape architect may assist with the design.

Design works best when everyone ‘owns’ it and this happens when the design process involves the full participation of the community gardeners.

Professional designers can work with the gardeners and present to them a range of design options.

Site conditions

First, work out site conditions. Look at the existing features and analyse the effect of characteristics such as:

• wind characteristics – the direction from which prevailing winds blow throughout the year and their characteristics (cold/ hot/ dry, blustery/ sea breeze etc); when you make your garden beds, you will want to protect them from potentially damaging winds by carefully placing them and through where you plant windbreaks; the department of metoerology may provide year-round weather information
• look at how the sun moves across your site; think about how much access to sunlight your site has year-round (vegetables need a minimum of about six hours sunlight a day); will there be enough sunblight when the sun is high in the sky in summer and when it is lower in the sky in winter?
• shade patterns will affect your site; shadows are longer in winter than in summer; work out whether any nearby trees or buildings will overshadow the site in winter; this information is used to locate your garden beds
• does your site slope? which way? This affects how runoff will move across your garden; work out how rainfall runs through the site – does it flow through in a torrent? does it pool in areas of poor drainage? is it likely to wash in pollutants from busy roads?
• identify microclimates such as:
  • exposed places that will receive the full blast of the hot summer sun
  • areas which are permanently shaded
  • boggy, moist areas
  • pleasant and unpleasant places (how do they feel?)
• existing paths, fences and buildings are on site; are they in good condition? do you want to keep them?
• identify existing wildlife using the site, including neighbourhood children, and whether there are any rare plants worth keeping.

Draw up a base plan – site analysis

This information goes on to your base plan which has been drawn up from your site measurements or traced from the plan obtained from council.

The base plan is a scale drawing of your site showing boundaries and fixtures (existing paths, buildings, water supply, services, significant existing vegetation and so on).

Develop a wish list

Base plan drawn up, now brainstorm the things you would like on site such as:

• vegetable beds
• potting and propagating shed
• play areas for children
• seating areas
• orchard
• shelter
• passive and active recreational areas etc.

Develop a concept plan

Now, where will you locate these things?

Using the information you compiled during the development of your site analysis, on a sheet of tracing paper overlaid over your base plan, mark in the areas where you would place the items in your wish list

Remember that it is important that things are placed so that it is easy to move around the site and so that parents can keep an eye on their children.

You may do several versions of your concept plan before you are happy that your plan has taken into account your site conditions and everyone’s needs.

Draw up a final plan

Finally, draw up a final design. This guides you in constructing the garden.

A final plan shows more detail than a concept plan, such as:

• types of plantings – the location of annual vegetable beds, fruit orchard areas, windbreaks, herb gardens and so on
• types of structures – such as storage shed, sitting areas, nursery
• location of taps and water supply
• paths.

If you have obtained assistance from a landscape designer, then they will produce these plans for your approval. If the process of finding this information has been done by the gardeners themselves, under the guidance of the designer, then they will have a better understanding of their site.

Planning and starting your community garden by Russ Grayson + Fiona Campbell, 2002