An Austin-area resource for community gardens has a new look—and a wealth of helpful content! With support from Sustainable Food Center and the City of Austin’s Community Gardens program, the Coalition of Austin Community Gardens (CACG) has thoroughly revamped its website: http://communitygardensaustin.org.
The CACG’s mission is to facilitate the creation of more community gardens in the Greater Austin Metro Area. The CACG strives to foster stability and land security for existing gardens, and to help them to become more vibrant, diverse places. The CACG receives administrative support from Sustainable Food Center and from the City of Austin’s Community Gardens program.
In order to better carry out the CACG’s mission, the new website contains:
- An easy-to-read garden profile for each community garden in the Austin area on the Gardens page. Profiles include basic information including English and Spanish contacts, the garden’s physical address, and links to gardens’ websites and/or Facebook pages. Garden profiles can be updated by sending a message to site administrators via the web form at the bottom of the Gardens page. If your community garden is missing from a profile, please send us a message and we will create one for you.
- A Resources Section to support the creation of new community gardens and to ensure that existing community gardens can thrive for the long term. This section will help visitors to the site locate gardening education opportunities, funding opportunities, team-building resources, and more.
- An updated map of Austin-area Gardens & Farms. The map includes layers of community gardens, urban farms, school food gardens, school wildlife habitats and/or monarch waystations, and schools with rainwater collection projects.
- A map of Eligible Future Community Garden Sites. This list includes city properties that have been vetted by city staff and are eligible for a community garden.
- A “Latest” Section where you can find current grant opportunities, upcoming CACG meetings, and other community garden-related news.
We encourage you to explore the website and share any feedback with Sari Albornoz, Grow Local Program Director at sari@sustainablefoodcenter.org or via the web form on the site’s Contact page.
While you’re exploring CACG resources, we also invite you to check out:
- The CACG Discussion Google Group (request to join this forum)
- CACG’s Instagram account (@communitygardensaustin)
Finally, if you’re looking to start a new community garden or strengthen an existing one, we invite you to join us at one of our free garden trainings coming up in Spring 2018.
Happy gardening and happy holidays!