Planning a community garden? This checklist helps your group think through key decisions upfront, avoiding common pitfalls and ensuring everyone is aligned on vision, structure, and practicalities.
Starting a community garden checklist [PDF 133KB] Use this checklist to:
- record what you like and what you are uncertain of when touring community gardens to collect ideas for a new community garden
- think about what you would like in a new community garden and how you might manage it.
After visiting community gardens, organise a debriefing session to collate, from this checklist, what you like, what you don’t want and what needs further investigation for inclusion in your new community garden.
1. What type of garden?
Decide your core model:
Shared garden: Everyone gardens, maintains, and shares the harvest.
Allotment garden: Individual plots; shared maintenance of common areas.
Hybrid: Both allotments + shared spaces.
Allotment specifics:
How long can unused plots be held?
What size will plots be? (Influenced by available space.)
2. What’s our purpose?
Recreation/community building:
Safe space to grow food and connect.
Family-friendly (parents + kids).
Food security/nutrition:
Access to fresh, local food.
Reduce food costs.
Supplement household supply.
Education:
Open to schools/community colleges? Yes/No
Offer public workshops (compost, gardening)? Yes/No
Allow others to run education? Yes/No
Other purposes:
3. How will we garden?
Organic? Yes/No
Reasons:
Training new gardeners:
4. What plants?
Consider space needs (trees: 3–5m spacing):
Vegetables
Culinary herbs
Fruit/nut trees
Berry shrubs/vines
Water crops
Medicinal plants
Bush foods
Native/indigenous plants
Flowers
5. What animals?
Chickens
Other poultry
Bees
None
6. What structures?
Sitting area/pergola (shade/rain protection)
Lockable tool/seed shed
Plant propagation nursery
Fireplace/BBQ (coffee, food prep)
Kids’ play area
Public art
Educational signs
Rainwater tanks (shed roof → irrigation)
7. What training do we need?
Gardening/construction:
Plant propagation
Soil analysis/improvement
Compost/worm farms
Mulching
Irrigation
Pest management
Seed saving
Garden construction
Planting calendar
Harvesting
Design:
Site analysis
Garden design process
Other:
Cooking garden produce
Skills in group? Yes/No
Source if not:
8. Council collaboration (if on public land)
Demonstrate policy alignment:
Waste reduction
Water conservation
Regreening
Organic gardening
Energy efficiency
Biodiversity
Nutrition/health
Food localisation
9. Agricultural biodiversity
Plant non-hybrid/heirloom seeds (save/replant)? Yes/No
Join/start seed savers group? Yes/No
10. Sustainability education
Sustainable food gardening
Compost/worm farming
Mulching
Recycled materials
Low-water gardening
Waste reduction
11. Water conservation
Rainwater tanks
Mulching
Drought-tolerant plants
Efficient irrigation
12. Funding
Startup:
Grants
Membership fees
Self-funding (events, etc.)
Ongoing costs:
13. Ideal site features
Size needed:
Public transport access
Sunlight, water, wind protection
Comments:
14. Management structure
Incorporated association? Yes/No
Public liability insurance? Yes/No
Member agreement (rules/code of conduct)? Yes/No
MOU with landholder? Yes/No
Decision-making:
Conflict resolution:
New member recruitment:
15. Preventing problems
Next steps: Share completed checklist in your land access submission. It shows councils and landowners you’re organised and thoughtful.
