There are a number of community gardens in the Inner West of Sydney (and many more beyond). These provide a great opportunity for those with small gardens (or no gardens!) to grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruit.

Today we visited the Marrickville Food Forrest, located on Addison Road, in the Addison Road Centre (ARC). As is typical, it is squeezed into an unused plot of land behind some buildings, but thriving nonetheless.

It makes me appreciate how lucky we are here. We have easily 5 to 6 times the space of a typical community garden plot, with plenty of sun, and room for growth. Now the pressure is on to really make it thrive!

Over the next few months we’ll try to drop into more of these gardens, to get further inspiration on what (and how) to grow. There is also the potential to join up with a Seed Savers group, to swap seeds (we have plenty left over).

These are the gardens on our list for the Inner West:

• Glovers Community Garden (Rozelle; end of Glovers Street)
• Petersham Anglican Church (Petersham; Frederick Street)
• Whites Creek Community Garden (Lilyfield; 29 White Street)
• Glebe Community Garden (Glebe; Corner of Derwent Lane and St Johns Rd)
• Marrickville Community Food Forrest (Marrickville; Lot 48/142 Addison Rd)
• Marrickville West Community Garden (Marrickville; 1 / 7 Henson Street; Marrickville West Public School Grounds)
• Angel Street Permaculture Garden (Newtown; Cnr Angel St and Harold St)
• Newtown Community Garden (Newtown; Jane Evans Day Care; off Longdown Street)
• Greg Hewish Memorial Garden (Redfern; Cnr Ogden and Marriot Streets)

Further information:

• Australian Community Foods has a good list of community garden sites, plus other resources
• Leichhardt Council’s map of community gardens
• Marrickville Council’s list of established community gardens