Invitation to Co-Create the Ediblescapes Community Edible Forest Garden

Dear Friends, Volunteers, and Supporters,

Ediblescapes is entering an important new phase as we begin implementing the long-envisioned Agroforestry Zone Project. After two and a half years of preparation, learning, and collective care, we have arrived at a model of a natural edible forest garden—rooted in agroecological, permacultural, and syntropic principles, and inspired by the socio-ecological relationality between human culture and nature.

We are proud to deepen our partnership with the City of Gold Coast Council, collaborating to align with the city’s natural recreation standards while extending a warm welcome to neighbouring communities and visitors. Together, we are inviting the public to experience a new form of community gardening: an edible forest that revitalises the millennia-old Indigenous cultural legacy that shaped the rainforests we inherit today.

Through the Ediblescapes Edible Forest Garden, we are co-creating with nature—not only planting food but nurturing a living legacy for future generations. This vision is shared with the Country Paradise Parklands Nerang community as we work towards developing the Horticulture Hub outlined in the Parklands Master Plan 2024–2035.

We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable support that has made this journey possible:
🌿 Councillor Peter Young, for securing funding for the shed footings that will support the garden’s infrastructure.
🌿 The Community Sustainability Action Grant from the State of Queensland (Department of Environment and Science), which provided funding in June 2023 for the Agroforestry Zone Project (Edible Forest Garden).
🌿 The Council of the City of Gold Coast, including stakeholders and councillors who formally endorsed and supported, on 21 October 2022, the establishment of a Horticultural Community Precinct in the Paradise Country Parklands Master Plan.

The soil cultivation, tree planting, and communal care of the edible forest garden regenerate nature and foster shared stewardship of common land. Community participation is essential to bring this garden to life. The Ediblescapes Community Edible Forest Garden provides a space for hands-on action and conversation, where members, volunteers, and participants help develop and maintain the garden for the benefit of the community, visitors, and the local ecology.

We warmly invite you to join our upcoming Community Edible Forest Gardening Action events, where every gardening day is paired with a conversation to shape the future:

🌿 17 May 2025 – After morning gardening, we will gather to define our group’s role, goals, and vision for implementing the Edible Forest Garden in the Horticulture Hub through a volunteer program.

🌿 28 June 2025 – After gardening, we will focus on the Country Paradise Parklands Horticulture Hub, exploring how the Ediblescapes Edible Forest Garden proposal contributes to this development.

🌿 19 July 2025 – After gardening, we will discuss the Council’s vision, compliance standards, and project submission outcomes to prepare for formal proposal submissions.

Participation in these volunteer action events is key to the garden’s implementation. Each contribution helps grow a communal edible forest garden that honours the past, serves the present, and leaves a legacy for the future.

We encourage everyone interested to join these conversations and actions—whether you are a regular volunteer, a new supporter, or simply curious about community edible forest gardening.

Let’s grow this vision together—rooted in care, culture, and community.