[Community_garden] Study or research info needed

[Jack Hale]

A while back, when we needed to communicate something like this, we
first used our own rule of thumb that people travel no more than a half
mile to get to a neighborhood community garden (that number doesn't
apply to our large scale "magnet" gardens, but it seems to work for the
smaller ones).  That gave us a way to think about number of locations
and likely placement.  Then we tried to come up with a "plots per
thousand residents" number based on the density of the better developed
garden programs in the country.  I think we used Seattle as our
benchmark.   That could yield an indicator of the number of additional
plots you need to create and the number of additional gardeners you
would need to recruit to get to that level.  My bet is that trying to
come at it from the more logical and scientific direction that you are
thinking about will make you absolutely crazy.  On the other hand, if
you come to the conference in August and get at a table with a bunch of
us old community gardeners and a supply of adult beverages, I bet we
could come up with some garden science that would make your head spin.
Good luck.
JH

Jack N. Hale
Executive Director
Knox Parks Foundation
75 Laurel Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860/951-7694

-----Original Message-----
From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
Kirsten Saylor
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:36 PM
To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] Study or research info needed

Hello y'all, 

 

I'm working with my county to get language supportive of community
gardens into city and county comprehensive plans.  One thing we were
bouncing around is helping planners understand WHEN a community garden
is needed for a community (i.e. a top-down establishment of a community
garden), and I wondered if we could say that there should be enough
plots for XX% of households within a housing complex (for instance).  

 

Does anyone know of a study or research that would help substantiate
what percentage of households to use?  I'm just looking for a general
number or a number for a specific population group (i.e. seniors) - just
need something to hang my hat on.     

 

Thank you, Kirsten

 

 

Kirsten Saylor

GardenWorks, Program Manager

The Green Institute

2801 21st Avenue South, Suite 110

Minneapolis, MN  55407

612-278-7123

ksaylor at greeninstitute.org

www.gardenworksMN.org

Promoting and Preserving Community Gardening Across the Twin Cities

 

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