​About Five Villages Community Garden Inc.

Five Villages Community Garden Incorporated is a community gardening group based in Manyana on the NSW south coast. We are registered as an Incorporated Association in New South Wales under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (Registration number: 2100397). We were officially registered on the 8th of April 2021 after several years of planning, community engagement and dreaming up big ideas for our small community. ​

​What is a community Garden?

A community garden is a public space set aside for people to come together in a safe and inclusive environment. Community gardens facilitate creativity, happy and healthy living, and provide a place for sustainable practices to flourish.

There are many different forms of a community garden and generally no two are the same. The most common type of community garden incorporates a communal garden and/or individual plots. Some gardens are fenced in while others are open, some are more elaborate than others with things like chicken coops, propagation facilities and even pizza ovens.  Some gardens could just involve the planting out of a neglected area of public land. The common theme is to provide a source of fresh food (for humans and fauna) and happiness!​

In our foundational years the Five Villages Community Garden is constrained by the space and funding we have available. Our initial projects will mostly involve the establishment of communal garden plots and beatifying prominent public spaces that need a lift. ​

​How It All Began

While we were officially founded in 2021 the seeds for a community garden in our coastal villages were planted in 2018. However, with the unprecedented 2019/2020 black summer bushfires, the COVID pandemic and some intense local activism to save a local forest, the concept of a community garden was paused.

​Analysis of a community survey conducted by Manyana Matters Environmental Association in November 2020 indicated that community gardening was the number one activity our community would like to pursue to support and facilitate healing from the trauma of the 2019/20 bushfires.  This motivated our passionate founders to form a small committee in early 2021 which led to the launch of the Five Villages Community Garden.

The first ever Public meeting held at Yulunga Reserve on 10th of January 2021

Our First Activity & Community Event

On the 10th of April 2021 we held our first ever public gardening event. The event was held at the Manyana Rural Fire Service Brigade Station at Cunjurong Point.  It involved a working bee or 'Permablitz' where over 40 local community members young and old were able to get their hands in the dirt. We created an educational demonstration garden and gave talks on no-dig gardening techniques and bushfire resistant plantings. The garden provides a beautiful space for RFS volunteers to relax, reflect, conduct training and pick delicious plums, citrus and seasonal herbs while they are at the station.

Before

After

​What's Next

​Our vision is to develop a garden space in each of our five villages. The outcome will be a variety of garden spaces that teach our community different ways to work with nature for the benefit of both the community and the environment. Working together we will share knowledge about food production, permaculture and garden design principles.

In the spirit of reconciliation Five Villages Community Garden Inc. acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and play, the Yuin People and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people.