Skip to content

Home

|

Learning pathways

Learning Pathway 3

Citizen Community Gardens

If you’re planning to create a community garden, you’ve come to the right place! This training pathway is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to design and build a community garden.
This teaching program consists of five sequences—the first three focus on reflection, while the last two emphasize application.

Each sequence includes a short introductory video, three or four lessons, activities, and documents to produce. Additional resources are provided to support your learning. Each sequence concludes with a knowledge quiz.
As you progress through your learning pathway, you’ll take on three key roles: project initiator, project leader, and finally, community garden organizer. Understanding these roles is essential to ensuring the garden runs smoothly.

There is no time limit for completing the entire pathway. In fact, taking time for reflection is encouraged. Working together on this project may take several months to complete.
Time is on your side—it allows the project to mature.

You will complete the course in the logical order of the modules, taking on the following roles:

  1. Community Garden Initiator – Module 1
  2. Project Leader – Module 2
  3. Group Leader – Module 3
  4. Community Garden Leader – Modules 4 and 5

You will need to complete the corresponding activities before progressing to the next lesson. These modules are designed to increase your engagement, with activities that will help you build the necessary files and elements to create the community gardens you envision. To support this process, appendices are included to help you specialize in specific topics.

The summary is available in two formats, depending on your preference: a classic document or mind maps.

  • The first format covers Modules 1 to 3: Designing a Community Garden.
  • The second format covers Modules 4 and 5: Creating the Community Garden.

When printed, the summary can serve as your training schedule.

As you go through the course, you will need to gather the documents created during the activities in chronological order to compile the folder for your garden.

Let’s get started!

Module 1

Community Garden Initiator

A community garden is a shared space where a group of people come together to cultivate land, either individually or collectively. Typically, in allotment gardens, the land is divided into individual plots, each managed by a separate gardener responsible for their plot’s yield, which they keep. In collective gardens, however, the land remains undivided and is cultivated by the group as a whole, with the harvest shared among participants. Community gardens take on different forms globally; they may be located in nearby neighborhoods or even on balconies and rooftops, and vary widely in size.
Go to Module
Module 2

Mobilizing Living Forces

To successfully complete this wonderful project for which you have laid the foundations, you need to surround yourself with people and open up the idea to others. Let’s not forget that this is a community garden with many stakeholders! As the project leader, you’ll have to convince people of its social relevance, find partners and, together, build the framework for the collective project. This stage is essential if you want to communicate more widely and attract the interest the community.
Go to Module
Module 3

Founding the Garden Together

In this phase, which is the last and by no means the least, as it is the first stage in setting up the garden, you will be in the position of facilitator. As such, your job will be to guide the group in the development of the materials needed to make the garden a reality, such as the framework document, the charter with its values, and the model of the garden. Your objective will be to bring these elements together to form the project document. You will support your approach using the tools of popular education
Go to Module
Module 4

From idea to action: Bringing the garden to life

Now that the theoretical preparation phase has been completed, this sequence will enable the group to give concrete form to this wonderful garden in the making. There will be some initial work to do, depending on the reality of the situation, such as levelling the ground, putting up a fence, accessing the water supply… These could be carried out by a local authority partner.
Go to Module
Module 5

Community Garden Leader

What could be more natural than to think that a garden can thrive on its own! But this is not the case. Very quickly, certain material needs arise, such as the purchase of tools, seeds, etc. These expenses require resources and a budget. Good communication will help to reach people who are sympathetic to the cause, and consequently to recruit members, volunteers, donors and even fundraisers.
Go to Module
Project Number: 2023-1-FR01-KA220-ADU-000153638

The objective of the Gardeniser Academy project is to support the development of community gardens in Europe by offering online training contents tailored to the needs and expectations of gardeners all over Europe. 

Contact
Envelope
Subscribe to our newsletter!

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Privacy Policy
·
Cookies Policy

The GARDENISER ACADEMY platform is almost here!

We are currently building the GARDENISER ACADEMY E-Learning Platform – a space designed to provide free to use training for gardeners all around Europe.

To ensure you don’t miss out on the launch, be sure to join our mailing list.