Negotiating for land, planning your garden or farm, health and safety are just some of the issues involved in setting up a community-owned garden, allotment or farm. However, community growing and ‘grow your own’ has been gaining momentum over the last decade. Each local authority in Scotland must now provide a food growing strategy, so check your local authority website to find out what community or allotment space is available and what support is provided in your area. See also our section on farming and growing training 

Guides and toolkits

• Community Growing Resource Pack, Scotland: a comprehensive introduction to setting up, developing and sustaining a community-managed farm, garden or related community growing space (Social Farms & Gardens 2014) (You will need to be registered to access this)
• Community Gardening Know How, Accreditation and Funding. Get Growing Scotland provides a comprehensive range of resources
• Ten Steps to being Incredible: Incredible Edible is a food growing network with tips and ideas for community growing
• Our Growing Community: pack produced to help communities explore new places and more ways to grow their own food (Greenspace Scotland 2013)
• Set up a community garden: planning and design (Royal Horticultural Society)
• Organic Growing Advice: Garden Organic has advice on starting to grow organically
• How to grow…picture resources: NHS Forth Valley has pictorial step by step guides to growing veg

Learning from other projects

• Edible Estates Videos: This Edinburgh project showcases its community gardens
• Social Farms and Gardens: provides case studies from across the UK
• A Review of Gardening for Better Mental Health: Central Scotland Green Network (2020)
• Community gardening: case studies section on this website
• Space to Grow: community gardening in Scotland (CFHS 2004)

Where to go for more advice

• Social Farms & Gardens
• Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
• Trellis: Scotland’s network for therapeutic gardening
• Scottish Gardens and Allotments Society
• The Royal Highland Education Trust 
• Community Supported Agriculture
• Central Scotland Green Network 
• Greenspace Scotland 
• Learning through Landscapes
• Scottish Fruit Trees 

Resources