Cool!
Well, we're off to a roaring start then
community garden - basic ingredients:
-people who labour together to organise the creation of the whole garden
-people who participate by just having a plot
-some agreed upon decision making process
-a little piece of land to use
-some basic resources, a bit of lumber, hose, wire fence (perhaps), etc.
-tools, seeds, water, etc
-heart
In a nutshell, community shared gardens are usually formed with a core group of committed participants who create a board, this could be formal or informal I suppose. In Canada, they would usually create a legally registered non-profit society, and roles would be official. Here in HK, I'm not sure what vehicles are available - have to do some research. Perhaps a group might agree to govern itself without any legal red tape. Often these boards would try be quite 'level' in structure, governing as much by consensus as possible.
Basically you get a piece of land and then divide it up into plots. Often raised beds are constructed. Individual plots might be , say, 2m by 1.5 m in area. Of course this would be decided by the group. The piece of land in question is across the path from the swamp out past the public toilets, so water is readily available. The soil is rich - years ago the spot had been used as a vegetable garden by my landlord's mother. There would be some initial labour required to clean up the area, level the land and build the raised beds. People who 'rent' plots would pay some relatively low fee that would go towards the ongoing maintenance of the whole garden, buying goodies for occassional garden parties, bbq's etc.
Of course, community shared gardens are about growing flowers and vegetables, but I think they're even more about building community relationships. The community that grows with a garden, along with its flowers and butterflies, is its heart. They're great for kids as well, and create a sort of 'third place' where people can meet regularly and socialise while they tend their own garden plot.
We're coming into the hotter part of the year, so it might not be the best time to start, but it would give lots of time for things to be well organised by the beginning of next fall/winter gardening season.
If your interested, please pm me with contact information. We could schedule an initial meeting sometime in the coming couple of weeks. I imagine a Sunday might be best for most folks?