The community garden as an organ of the closed cycle neighbourhood metabolism: options for the sub-tropics

As the inevitable decline in availability of non-renewable agricultural inputs proceeds, increasing emphasis will be placed on the importance of producing food close to where the people are, and community gardens could play a major role in this process. With fertiliser prices soaring, the need will arise to create closed cycle neighbourhood metabolisms that recycle nutrients and carbon locally, visibly and elegantly. This paper describes a small rural settlement with a community garden and food production system in the moist subtropical area of northern New South Wales which aspires to such a nutrient metabolism and refers to several ecotechnologies that have the potential to achieve this in much larger human settlements. Note is made of the importance of structuring new and upgraded residential developments in a way that facilitates the creation of these metabolisms.