Community gardens

SoHo Community Garden

Community gardening is an increasingly popular activity for growing food locally and encouraging healthier lifestyles. It is also an immensely satisfying and enriching experience for communities, bringing local people together.

The City of Hobart has developed new Community Gardens Guidelines to help residents establish a community garden on City-owned land and to guide the implementation and management of community gardens.

Community gardens in Hobart

Hobart currently has four functioning community gardens:

  • SoHo Community Garden: Run by South Hobart Sustainable Community, it is located off Cascade Road adjacent to Wellesley Park at the rear of the Badminton Centre car park.
  • Lenah Valley Community Garden: Located off Creek Road next to John Turnbull Park.
  • Urban Food Garden: Found at the St Johns Creative Living Park in New Town, it is run by Kickstart Arts, who have partnered with New Town High School, New Town High Old Boys Association and the Dirty Hands composting collective to establish a community education garden.
  • Source Community Wholefoods community garden: Part of a wholefoods co-operative and café on the University of Tasmania Sandy Bay Campus.

SoHo Community Garden
Community gardens are a great way of bringing your local neighbourhood together. Photo: South Hobart Sustainable Community Inc.

Community gardens guidelines

Our guidelines provide a framework and process to help communities establish their own gardens on suitable City of Hobart owned land. This will give residents:

  • access to fresh and healthy organic produce, reducing costs for the provision of food
  • opportunities to develop social connections with their neighbours and within their community
  • a means to enhance physical and mental wellbeing
  • opportunities to learn about sustainable living practices and develop resilience in a changing world climate.

The guidelines are based on the experience of successful community gardeners and draw on resources from across Australia, including research conducted into the factors that influence the success of community gardens.

These guidelines will help support the development of beautiful community gardens in Hobart.

Application form

If you would like to apply to develop a community garden on City-owned land, please use our online form:

Community garden application form

Please read the guidelines, criteria and application form carefully. If you are satisfied that you can meet these requirements, we would be happy to meet with you to discuss your proposal before you prepare your application.

For more information, or to organise an appointment, please contact City Amenity on 03 6238 2886.

A printable application form is also available here: Community Garden Application Form(PDF, 40KB)