Consultants & Contractors
A quick skills audit of the community members involved in your garden is likely to uncover a large amount of skills and knowledge relevant to helping your garden survive and thrive. At times though, your garden might find it useful to bring in outside expertise to assist with development.
Areas of support that are sometimes brought in by gardens include:
- Community development
- Community engagement and stakeholder consultation
- Permaculture design
- Participatory garden design
- Landscape architecture
- Landscape design
- Place making
- Site works
- Garden construction
- Installation of sustainable infrastructure (e.g. water tanks, solar panels)
Ask around for recommendations and conduct web research to find suitable people to work with. If your budget is limited, you may find consultants or contractors who are willing to provide assistance on a pro bono basis or students who are interested in assisting your garden as part of a learning opportunity (for example the design for the West Leederville Community Garden was completed by students completing a Permaculture Design Course).
When bringing in outside expertise, always look for ways to build the capacity of community garden members at the same time. For instance, a straw bale building workshop was held at Carss Park community garden in Sydney where members learnt skills under the guidance of a qualified instructor whilst assisting with the construction of a straw bale building onsite.
