The event will provide an opportunity for members of the public to view the community garden space, learn about gardening, enjoy fresh food and see displays of honey, wood turning and spinning and weaving.

Ballarat Community Garden president Sheilagh Kentish said the festival was an opportunity to meet other gardeners and see other gardens for new ideas.

"It is also about showing people you can grow quite a bit of food in just a small space and just how good it all looks," she said.

Well-known Ballarat food gardener John Ditchburn (Ditchy) will run a series of free mini talks on topics throughout the day, including protecting vegetables from birds, watering vegetables, planting seedlings in spring and growing tomatoes.

The festival will also feature music, food, a stall with produce donated by the gardeners and stalls run by Enbom Honey, the Hidden Orchard and wood-turner Paul Ryle.

Children's activities will be on offer, including painting with a local Indigenous artist.

The festival is the Ballarat Community Garden's major fundraising event.

Funds raised will support major projects including toilet upgrades at the site and the installation of more solar panels on the meeting room.

Ms Kentish said members of the community garden worked together to organise the event.

She said it meant a lot to many members to be a part of the garden community.

"There are a lot of people who have made some really good friends here," she said.

"A lot of people come to us as soon as they move into town and say 'have you got any garden beds?' because they want to meet like minded people and feel like they are putting down roots.

"I know there are some members who live in flats who don't have the garden space.

"There are other people who it is sort of a lifeline for them. They come here because they have either lost a partner or they have moved from somewhere else or they have had illness in their life.

"It is just a really good place to come to."

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There is currently a waiting list to secure a plot at the Ballarat Community Garden.

Ms Kentish said there was a need for more community gardens in residential areas around Ballarat.

"We should have one in every small area," she said.

"There are a lot of opportunities. I am seeing a few projects that are in the pipeline. People often come to us asking about how to start a community garden."

Ms Kentish said encouraged anyone interested to have a go at growing vegetables in any way you can.

"Grow them in anything. You can grow them in a bucket. Choose something you like to eat and just have a go," she said.

"Enjoy planting it and enjoy eating it."

The Ballarat Community Garden Festival will run from 11am to 3pm on March 1 at the corner of Queen Street and Dyte Parade Ballarat East.

Ditchy will present his mini talk series from 11.15 every half hour until 1.30pm: 11.15am protecting vegetables from birds, 11.45am watering vegetables, 12.15pm planting seedlings in spring, 1pm bottling peeled tomatoes using the Fowlers Method, 1.30pm growing tomatoes.

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