Tucked away on a quiet suburban street, the Bethania Street Community Garden is much more than a patch of green—it's a thriving hub of community connection, education, and sustainability.
Starting with a simple question—“Where is the community garden?"—a small allotment of land within a community park soon blossomed into one of Brisbane’s most respected green spaces. In 2009, with Brisbane City Council’s vision to establish a garden in every ward, a few locals brought up the idea to their local councillor. Just months later, in February 2010, the group was officially incorporated.
From the very start, the garden has been a true team effort. An early committee brought their skills and experience to the table, guiding the garden’s growth with structure and purpose. With support from Brisbane City Council and a lengthy search for a suitable site, the group found their permanent home in Bethania Street and broke ground in September 2011.
In the beginning, grants and the garden membership fees helped establish the community garden. When looking at how to best use these funds, members first needed to establish what the local community wanted. With two basic ways of running a community garden, the decision was between individuals purchasing their own individual plot or everything being done communally. It was decided that the garden’s values would be firmly rooted in community.
Rather than allocating individual plots, everything is shared. “No one owns a plot here,” explained Co-ordinator Jenny Evans, who has been involved with the Bethania Street Community Garden since its incorporation. “We made the decision early on that everything would be grown and maintained collectively.” This communal model remains the foundation of the garden's spirit and success.
Q: What kind of support did you receive in those early days?
There was strong support from the local community and Brisbane City Council. After the 2011 floods, BCC funding understandably shifted, but the support remained in terms of collaboration and planning. The vision behind the garden was twofold: building community and educating people about food security and organic gardening—two values we still uphold.
Q: What challenges did you face early on?
Initially, the financial challenge was significant. We’ve spent over $100,000 developing the garden. Fortunately, we were successful with obtaining grants, and working with the council has been a huge help. Decision-making in a large group was also a challenge, but we had a skilled committee to guide us. It was a process of listening to what everyone wanted and then having decision making processes set in place to work towards a solution together.
Growing Together
The garden is designed to be inclusive and accessible, featuring raised beds of varying heights and a wheelchair-accessible concrete path in some parts. Over the years, its layout has evolved organically, shaped by the community's needs rather than rigid plans.
Seasonally, Jane, the Gardening Time Coordinator, has a discussion with the Wednesday Gardening Time gardeners about what they would like to grow and then undertakes research to develop a planting plan.
In Brisbane’s subtropical climate, plant selection is key. During the hot, wet summers, the garden thrives with crops like okra, winged beans, ridge gourd, eggplant, and New Guinea bean. Cooler months bring success with more traditional vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower—though only certain varieties perform well in Queensland’s warmth.
Signature crops include Rosellas (used to make jam), and, surprisingly, potatoes. “We were told you couldn’t grow potatoes in South-East Queensland,” laughed Jenny. “Every year, we prove that wrong with an amazing harvest of potatoes.”
Q: Is there an approach you take to keep plants healthy without using chemicals?
Organic gardening is a key principle here, both by choice and license requirement. The bottom line with growing organically is to keep your plants healthy. Healthy plants start with healthy soil. If your soil is not rich, friable and healthy from the start, plants will struggle. Another important thing is to grow to the climate and season. If you don’t, your plants won’t be healthy and will be prone to all sorts of problems.
Q: How do you keep the garden organic and manage soil and pests?
We are part of Brisbane City Council’s community program. There’s a section of the garden where people can drop off veggie scraps, and 4-5 of our hardworking volunteers process those scraps into compost. We produce a lot of compost, so our soil is healthy to start with.
We use healthy seeds and seedlings. We do add supplements such as rock minerals and organic fertiliser. Natural methods such as netting are used to keep off pests like cabbage moths and we use fruit fly traps.
Q: Can you tell us about the food forest?
A food forest is a permaculture concept, designed to be a sustainable system that mimics the layers of a natural forest—fruit trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and vines working together. If well-designed, it should require minimal maintenance once established.
Our design included establishing swales, which are trenches dug on the slope’s contour, to collect the rainwater, which over time soaks slowly into the ground. By digging the swales we could build up a deeper planting bed (on the lower side of each swale) that encourages the roots of the plants to establish well—tapping into moisture—but without sitting in water, which can cause rot.
We used a local earth mover to dig the swales and redistribute the soil to the raised mounds. Following this, the raised mounds were ripped to 400mm and then 10 cubic metres of compost were laid onto the planting area. This created an area of nearly 400 square metres of space that now supports the growth of over 30 healthy, resilient trees, in a very sustainable way.
This area only requires occasional pruning of trees and pest management. We grow a wide variety of fruits such as citrus, bananas, miracle berries, persimmons, guavas, mulberries, black sapote, panama berries, custard apples, sour sop, macadamias, pecans, and jaboticabas.
Q: How do your raised beds and self-watering beds work?
So, they are two different things. Raised beds are just normal garden beds with some type of edging around them. They are great for accessibility, as they are higher off the ground, and they help to keep things neat and easier to manage. We are fortunate as we have excellent soil on-site.
The self-watering (otherwise known as wicking) beds are something different. They’re usually made from colourbond steel and are taller, around 45-50cm high. The soil in these beds do not touch the ground soil at all. This may deter some people since it limits the exchange of nutrients, worms, fungi, and all the good things you get from being in contact with the earth, but they do have other advantages.
Inside, there’s a reservoir of water at the bottom. Above that sits a permeable barrier, like underfelt or shadecloth, which allows water to seep upward but keeps soil and water layers separate. Soil is then added on top of that.
The water wicks up into the soil, that’s where the name comes from: wicking beds. What’s great about them is they don’t need to be watered from the top like regular garden beds.
Because the plants are drawing water up from below as they need it, they get a much more consistent supply of moisture. When it rains heavily, the excess water just overflows, so the system takes care of itself in that way too.
Q: What can you plant in the wicking beds?
Leafy greens do fantastically well and thrive in wicking beds. At first, we were told that crops like tomatoes and eggplants wouldn’t do well in wicking beds, but we have successfully grown those. We have also had success with carrots. We suspect that potatoes may rot as they do not like a moist soil.
A Community Built on Learning
The garden isn't just a place to grow food—it’s also a place to grow knowledge. Through Brisbane City Council’s Active & Healthy program, the Bethania Community Garden offers free workshops on everything from composting and permaculture to citrus growing and seed propagation. Attending these workshops is recommended for first time gardeners wanting to try out growing their own organic food. They’re a great starting point for learning! The details of the workshops are available on the Bethania Street Community Garden website here.
When asked about tips for first-time gardeners, the advice is simple:
Focus on building healthy soil first. Your soil feeds your plants. When choosing your plants, start with what you love to eat, do your research and find out if the growing season is correct. It is suggested to initially choose short season crops that suit Brisbane’s subtropical climate. A great resource for Brisbane gardeners is Annette McFarlane, a well-known and respected expert in organic gardening whose growing guidelines are well suited to our weather conditions.
“If it’s a new garden, don’t try and grow carrots and cabbages,” Jenny advised. “Start with leafy greens because you can eat them soon, they’re pickable over a long season, and they germinate quickly. With success over time, you grow in confidence and can grow a wide range of edibles”.
Q: What's a great DIY garden feature for home gardeners?
Definitely the wicking beds! As the climate changes water will become more of an issue. The wicking beds are a fantastic solution, low maintenance and water efficient.
Q: Are wicking beds affordable to make?
Yes absolutely. Ours are specially made as we didn’t want to use plastic liners due to the toxicity in the plastic. If someone at home doesn’t have an issue with that, DIY versions are very easy to build with easily purchased materials, and there are many YouTube tutorials online. All you need is a raised bed, black plastic and some basic plumbing. It’s very simple and straightforward.
Q: What’s next for the Bethania Street Community Garden?
Honestly, we’re not planning to expand. We’ve filled the space and have a strong community of about 120 members and 25–30 active volunteers every week, and new members are always very welcome. Our focus now is on maintaining the quality of everything we’ve built together: the garden, our reputation, relationships, and the community.
It is also important to note that the harvest is shared communally among those who regularly contribute their time and effort into growing the produce. As a reminder, the garden is not open for general public picking. “We’re located in a public park and don’t have fencing due to a condition of our license, so occasionally produce goes missing,” Jenny explained. “But we do have signs asking people to leave the food for our hardworking volunteers.”
After over a decade of growth, the Bethania Street Community Garden has matured into a sustainable space with a strong core group of volunteer gardeners and a clear sense of purpose. At its core, the Bethania Street Community Garden is about people coming together around a shared interest. It’s proof that with a bit of land, a good plan, and a committed group of volunteers, you can build something that not only feeds the body, but supports learning, connection and resilience in a practical way.
Feeling inspired by the Bethania Street Community Garden? Whether you’re keen to grow your own veggies, build a wicking bed, or just give your garden a little love; we’ve got loads of tips, ideas, and products to help you get started. Head over to our how-tos, news & updates, or product info pages and see what sparks your next project.
Got questions or not sure where to begin? Our friendly team at Rock ‘n’ Soil is always up for a chat. Give us a call, shoot us an email, or swing by the store. We'd love to help bring your garden plans to life.