Glovers, Sydney’s heritage garden — a photo essay
Photos and story by Russ Grayson 2009.
GLOVERS COMMUNITY GARDEN is a heritage garden, a historic site that marks the dawn of community gardening in NSW. It also marks a successful and long-lived example of community initiative and enterprise.
The first community garden in NSW, from its founding in 1985 Glovers has attracted a changing population of gardeners and continues to do so. Like other gardens, Glovers has gone through ups and downs in participation, however the garden continues in existence because it has evolved with gardener needs.
This photo essay celebrates the continuing, edible presence that is Glovers Community Garden…
A welcoming sign

There’s nothing like a big, bold sign to make a community garden a welcoming place, and Glovers does just that.
Standing in the garden are Glover’s spokeswoman, Jane Mowbray, and a visitor from Newtown Community Garden.
Then and now

The photos above and below show changes in the garden. They were made looking in the same direction over Glovers Community Garden. The above was made sometime in the 1990s. The below was made in August 2009.
The building above still exists, only now it is hidden from this viewpoint by trees. The garden beds have been remade and are now edged with roofing tile seconds. New fruit trees have grown. There are now a small number of allotments whereas the garden pictured in the 1990s was a shared community garden only.


Urban animals


Bees and chickens make up the small, productive urban animals kept by the gardeners.
The bees are cared for by someone with the necessary expertise and their honey has been sold as a fundraiser.
Chickens have long been a presence in Glovers Community Garden.
The planting of fruit trees within the chook yard makes use of the design principle of multifunction — of deriving additional uses for something in addition to its primary use.
The chook house is conveniently large, sufficient to accommodate the number of chickens that are kept by the gardeners and also of a size that makes cleaning and maintenance easy.

The 200 litre fuel drums seen on the left of the chook house are connected in series by a pipe so that stored rainwater, harvested from the roof of the chook house, flows to a tap from which the gardeners can fill watering cans to irrigate garden beds or otherwise make use of the water.
Gardeners say that they have become something of a dumping ground for unwanted roosters — a number have been tossed over the fence into the chook yard.
Productive tree fruits, too
Glovers gardeners have established a number of citrus and other fruit trees to supplement the herbs and vegetables, eggs, and honey that their garden yields.

Sturdy garden edges and productive beds
Annual and perennial vegetables are the vegetative backbone of any community garden. They are what provides gardeners with a continuing supply of fresh, nutritious food that changes with the seasons.
It is the cultivation of vegetables by which gardeners learn of the seasonality of our food supply and the primary role of fertile soils and rainfall in making that available. Some gardeners describe this learing as ‘getting back in touch with nature’.
The climate, the weather, the soils, propagating the plants from seed to seed through new cycles of life, watering and caring for them and, all the time, acquiring the knowledge that comes through the understanding of others and from practice and observation — this is how nature is experienced and combined with human understanding in community gardens in our cities.


A tradition of education

media
01/01/2010 at 7:55 amGlovers Garden is in a transition period at the moment in the handover from the State Goverment to Leichhardt Council,and the latter have requested me as president of the garden to compile a history of the garden since its inception.
I am now appealing to any former members for their assistance in this endeavor and would be grateful for any information you can forward to me.
Regards Greg Heffernan
gloversgarden[at]yahoogroups.com
Jason McRoy
21/02/2010 at 5:29 pmLooks like a really thriving garden project!
I’m from Denver, Colorado in the states and we’re looking to incorporate chickens into our community garden this year. Has that been successful for you in the past? It looks like you have an organized schedule for taking care of the birds. Any issues with this in the past? What about security and safety of the animals?
We’re in a pretty urban area and are initially concerned someone might mess with them if they’re unattended on a vacant lot at night.
Hopefully your garden goes well this season, from your post above it looks like you might have some red-tape jumping to do. That’s the worst!
Cheers–jason
Jane Mowbray
24/02/2010 at 7:02 amKeeping Happy Chickens
Most of the members of Glover’s Garden communicate with each other through a group email site which is useful for requesting help with the chook roster.
Touch wood, we have had no problem with foxes and that may due to our locking them in their house each night. We have had problems with wild birds eating lots of the grain in the chook shed and have now netted the whole run. This seems very successful apart from the small number of birds that find their way under the net.
The garden is surrounded with a chain link fence and the gates are locked when people aren’t gardening so the chooks are protected from dogs etc. We have 9 hens and one rooster who is very protective, always standing between the hens and any people or dogs.
Having a duty roster has been great as even if someone forgets, there should be enough water and food til the next person shows up.
Good luck with your chickens Jason.
Jane
Heda
15/06/2011 at 11:24 amI used to be a member of Glover Street Community Garden some years ago. I’m moving offices at the moment and have just come across a CD containing digital images of diary entries from Glover Street Garden as well as some images. I’m assuming this is just a duplicate CD and you already have the original but I thought I’d check before disposing of it. If you could send your reply to my email address that would be good.
Jane Mowbray
27/07/2011 at 12:26 pmHi Heda,
We would love the Glover’s CD. We have papers and photos from the past but no CD diaries! Your address was not published but you can call me on 0438860954.
Cheers, Jane
Lesley Gillett
08/07/2012 at 1:48 pmHi there,
So happy to see that Glovers Garden is still a living local treasure! My husband and I worked on its beginnings with David and Yvonne Taylor and others back in 1985-89. I have a few photos from the very early days e.g. building the original no dig beds + mucking out the Canterbury stables for old horse manure 🙂 Can scan and send if you are interested.
Best wishes,
Lesley GIllett