Community Gardens: How community spaces grow climate action

Date: 30th January 2025  

For decades, community gardens in Australia have been fertile ground for growing vegetables and progressive thinkers. They are dynamic spaces for intergenerational learning and climate change education, offering practical engagement and symbolic significance.

Gardening offers students a hands-on way to connect with the natural world, fostering a personal relationship with nature (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016). Research indicates that time spent in gardens nurtures a sense of stewardship, enhancing their appreciation for nature (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016; Mayer-Smith, Bartosh, & Peterat, 2007). In the garden, students observe seasoned gardeners, providing a model of care and optimism for the future and showcasing sustainable practices that younger generations can embrace and internalise.

Gardens, especially when combined with art, create an environment for meaningful, experiential learning. Working in the garden alongside artistic expression offers a creative and interactive experience that builds lasting environmental stewardship and highlights the practical impacts of sustainable practices in daily life (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016). Engaging with plants stimulates the mind, energising students and enhancing creativity (Cameron, Manhood, & Pomfrett, 2011). As discussed in the research by Cameron, Manhood, and Pomfrett (2011), the notion of “learning to be affected,” introduced by Bruno Latour (2004), addresses the gap between knowledge and action in modern urban contexts. This concept particularly applies to addressing climate change through experiential learning in community gardens. In these settings, students can learn to recognise the signs of the land, developing a new language for 'reading the land' that they can explore through practical art projects. By connecting with individuals where they are, they gain new skills and gardening techniques, helping to bridge the knowledge-action and value-action gaps, ultimately motivating proactive engagement.

Symbolically, gardens provide fertile ground for cultivating innovative ideas, much like plants take root and flourish. They serve as dynamic spaces where abstract concepts like climate change and sustainability can be explored tangibly and interactively, bridging the gap between symbolic and practical learning. They engage with art's playfulness while exploring significant ideas about the world, such as climate change (Borba et al., 2024; Kolb & Kolb, 2009; Dewey, 1938; Bentz, 2020). Furthermore, art and play are powerful tools for experiential learning, fostering creativity, social engagement, and critical thinking in climate change education (Borba et al., 2024; Kolb & Kolb, 2009; Dewey, 1938; Bentz, 2020). The natural chaos and organic systems in gardens encourage exploration of boundaries and experimentation with modes of existence. Community gardens serve as ideal spaces for exploring and creating grassroots movements. The roots surrounding the students and the community are ever-present and essential to the garden's functionality.

Historically, gardens have also offered a vibrant space for exploring climate justice. Community gardens have a rich history and have played many identities and roles in the Australian environmental movement over the last 50 years. The following discussion is based on anecdotal conversations with older gardeners in the Inner West and older environmental activists with whom I have worked and volunteered over the years. Ongoing policies and cultural shifts have transformed the face and nature of environmental movements and activism. The 1970s marked the birth of Australian environmentalism, with anti-nuclear activists providing a powerful introduction to activism for many older members of environmental groups today. Many community members talk about the power and strength of these movements still today. A key movement in Australia that many remember is the Protect Australia movement, which also emerged from the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign (1973). The 1980s ushered in the movement towards conservation in Australia, which was catapulted by the incredibly successful Franklin campaign and Bob Brown (1982). It also brought into the public conversation land rights and the rights of Indigenous Australians to the environmental movement.

The coinciding popularity of locally grown food, vegetarianism, and ethical food production caused a global ripple effect. After the devastation of the 1970s economic crisis, Wendy Berry established the Eat as the Environmental Act movement in 1985, which was heavily influenced by Wendy Berry, where many community gardens and schools were established to increase availability to local, organic and seasonal food. The 1990s saw the emergence of permaculture and anti-logging. In gardens in the 1990s, the focus was mainly on the responsibility of the individual consumer to change the world around them. This was similarly reflected in community gardening principles around the world. Community gardens in Australia still use permaculture principles today, promoting a more wholesome use of gardens, contributing to a 'sustainable living' perspective (Mollison, 1996; Flannery, 1998).

The 2000s saw a shift toward consumer empowerment, emphasising 'slow food' and 'power saving.' I came into consciousness during this period of environmentalism. Earth Hour, which began in Sydney in 2007, exemplified this trend by encouraging individuals to take direct action to reduce energy consumption. A campaign I worked on. Furthermore, the 'War on Waste' movement emerged, influencing the ban on plastic in South Australia. Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (2014) was fundamental in shifting the perspective from individual consumer habits to considering the systemic role of capitalism in climate change and doughnut economics. Even the Pope introduced Laudato Si, which promotes ecological responsibility, leading many Catholic schools to implement more sustainable principles in their curriculum.

2022 brought climate emergencies with the Black Summer bushfires and birthed many young climate activists. Greta Thunberg led a movement to strike from school to demand action on climate change. This was a response to a rise in ‘eco-anxiety’ experienced by school-aged students (Pihkala, 2021). Climate grassroots groups like 350.org focused more on renewable energy projects and divestment movements. The movement toward regenerative agriculture began shifting away from the term 'sustainable' to a deeper understanding of regenerative living, where we live to sustain and thrive (Kimmerer, 2013). All these movements have been reflected and contained in community gardens as fertile spaces for conversation, action, and activism.

Through the years, community gardens have proactively been spaces where people can practice their theoretical beliefs and values and symbolic spaces that reflect Australia's historical movements. Thus, using community gardens as spaces for engaging students through art in the idea of climate justice is practically, symbolically, and historically ideal.  

References 

Bentz, J. (2020). Learning about climate change in, with and through art. Sustainability Science, 15(1), 91-102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00861-9 

Borba, J., Bonatti, M., Medina, L., Löhr, K., Tremblay, C., Gutberlet, J., & Sieber, S. (2024). Socially engaged arts: Climate change education through drama and social learning—Playful inquiry for building extreme weather events adaptation scenarios. Climate, 12(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010006 

Cameron, J., Manhood, C., & Pomfrett, J. (2011). Bodily learning for a (climate) changing world: Registering differences through performative and collective research. Geographical Research, 49(3), 300-312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2011.00695.x 

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan. 

Flannery, T. (1998). The future eaters: An ecological history of the Australasian lands and people. Reed New Holland. 

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions. 

Kolb, D. A., & Kolb, A. Y. (2009). Experiential learning theory: A dynamic, holistic approach to management learning, education and development. The SAGE Handbook of Management Learning, Education and Development, 42-68. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857021038.n3 

Mayer-Smith, J., Bartosh, O., & Peterat, L. (2007). Teaming children and elders to grow food and environmental consciousness. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 6(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/15330150701319388 

Mayer-Smith, J., & Peterat, L. (2016). Sowing seeds of stewardship through intergenerational gardening. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), Education in times of environmental crises: Teaching children to be agents of change (pp. 43-54). Routledge. 

Mollison, B. (1996). Permaculture: A designer’s manual. Tagari Publications. 

Pihkala, P. (2021). Eco-anxiety. In Situating sustainability: A handbook of contexts and concepts (pp. 119-133). Helsinki University Press.