East Bentleigh Village Garden

We asked

Community gardens are unique places where the community come together to grow food, learn new skills and connect with each other. In 2017, Council sought the views of the community on their level of interest in community gardens. If there was a high level of interest, the engagement would determine preferences for the location, garden-style and governance arrangements of a new community garden. There was strong interest, and so began a round of community engagement on this topic.

You said

Community engagement was held from September to November 2017. Engagement methods included online and hardcopy surveys, a postcard with an open comments section and a community workshop. There were a total of 75 submissions.

You told us that:

• Over 40 participants expressed interest in setting up, hosting, and/or providing resources to support community gardening in Glen Eira
• The preferred governance model was a lease/licence agreement with a community based management group
• A variety of potential locations were suggested and the preferred style of garden was a pilot project with pop-up community garden boxes.

We did

We analysed the feedback and prepared a report which was presented to Council on 19 December 2017. At this meeting, Council committed to:

• Establish a community garden at Moorleigh Village in 2018-19
• Provide information about community gardening on Council’s website including different types of community gardens and locations of existing community gardens in Glen Eira
• Consider the creation of community gardens in public open space in the development plans for parks and the review of the Open Space Strategy.

In May 2019, the East Bentleigh Village Garden was officially opened by the Mayor, Cr Jamie Hyams. The East Bentleigh Village Garden is located at Moorleigh Village at 90-92 Bignell Road in Bentleigh East. It is a shared space with communal raised planter boxes. For more information, email eastbentleighvillagegarden@gmail.com