[Community_garden] Rough notes on plot size

[Don Boekelheide]

(Sorry, this is long and unedited - but I'd like
feedback as I draw things up this week, and at least a
couple people said they' d like to see it - don)

Notes on community garden plot size

There's no one "right" size for community garden
plots. Some successful gardens have tiny plots of 1
meter square (10 ft2); plots in English and German
allotments that have been thriving for 100 years
sometimes are vast, over 100 m2 (>1000 ft2) or more.

Figuring out how large to make plots is a key question
for some community gardener organizers, while others
dismiss the issue as unimportant, since simply making
beds a certain size doesn't necessarily do anything to
help build community involvement and support.

Personally, I think plot size is a significant garden
design element that deserves mindful consideration.
While sensible plot design will not ensure garden
success, it can greatly reduce problems, help the
garden appear more attractive, and make life more
productive and peaceful for gardeners and managers
alike.

Garden plot is a function of several key variables.
Finding the right size depends on how you and your
gardeners want to balance these factors. Among the
most important, in no particular order in terms of
importance, are:

* Amount (and shape) of land available: If you only
have a little strip between the sidewalk and the
street, you've got to work with that. If you can use a
big section of public park, it's a different story
(just be sure to be sure that the park district
includes the garden in the park's official 'master
plan'). Some small places can still make great
community garden projects, though not necessarily
vegetable plots 'for rent'.

* Water availability: Vegetable gardens need ample,
reliable water. Don't make more plots than you have
water for, no matter how big you make each bed.

* Equipment constraints: You need to be able to keep
up your garden area and prepare the soil (often best
done with the help of a local farmer's tractor - yep,
there are still some around, even near big cities - or
somebody else’s (landscaper, city parks dept). If you
will be limited to hand tools, be careful not to bite
off too much space. Plan to grow incrementally
instead.

* Soil conditions: In cities (everywhere really), you
need to be very careful to check the soil for
persistent contamination. If it is clean, but too hard
and rocky to work, your plots may have to be in framed
beds. Same goes for soils that drain poorly. These can
greatly increase costs (see below).

* Shade and other site factors: On many urban sites,
buildings or trees shade areas and compete for water,
making plots in one part of the garden much more
productive and desirable than others. Rather than just
'do a grid', you may want to reserve this kind of
'problem spot' as a place for the compost pile (all
gardens need one...) or turn a liability into an asset
by making a shady gathering place under that old oak
instead of unproductive plots.

Amount of food desired: Generally, the larger the
area, the more food you can grow. Older books suggest
(for instance, NC State's home garden guide) a garden
size of 1000 ft2 (about 90 m2). 'Serious' gardeners,
especially those who drive to their garden, often want
at least 20ftx20ft gardens, 400 ft2 (6mx6m, 36m2).
(20x20 is something of a 'standard' size, used in
Portland, OR's gardens, the huge 15 acre community
garden in Hilton Head SC (25x25, actually) and many
other 'drive to' gardens). For walk-to gardens in
inner cities, much smaller beds can work fine - in
Charlotte's Dovetail Garden, plots are about 1m2 (10
ft2) and in strange artsy shapes.

Garden's purpose (art, recreation, food, therapy...): 
Adam's garden on Clinton St in Hell's Kitchen NYC also
has veggie plots not much bigger than 10ft2. Both of
these 'micro-plot' urban gardens also have, however,
very large, attractive common areas that function as a
virtual park for the community. Folks do get some good
food from their mini-plot, but the production can't be
the same as for a large plot garden. However, there is
another harvest of involvement and engagement. We have
a very innovative and successful community garden here
in Charlotte (June Blotnick helped organize it) with
no vegetable beds at all.

Garden design: Some gardens, such as those on
hillsides in Seattle, end up with lovely curving paths
and plots shaped more like teardrops or almonds than
strict square beds. Much depends on the preferences
and skills of the garden designer - and how well s/he
can communicate the design to the folks who actually
do the digging and layout. For design, both size and
shape matter. The key is the boundary - how each
gardener knows where their plot begins and ends. Clear
boundaries make many management problems (weeding,
theft) much easier to sort out. (Which goes along with
clean signage marking plots, and a clear, coded map of
the garden).

Gardeners' ability to keep the plot neat: Here's the
hidden problem for those drive-to 20x20s. Unless a
gardener is serious, a plot that size can very quickly
become a weedy mess, especially in warm climate areas.
So, you don't want beds to be larger than your
gardeners can keep up with - or, I think better, you
want a sensible choice of garden plot size available
depending on the gardener. (Also, that way, if you
have a weedmonger, you can 'downsize' them for the
next season, rather than 'kick them out'.)

Mindset of the organizing person, managing agency or
main funder, or (less often) the garden designer: This
can be maddening - somebody with authority (mayor,
parks director, rich funder
) can arbitrarily come up
with a bed size they 'like' (say 4x16, or 10x20) and
simply impose it, and that will be that. You have to
work hard to make your case for a more sensible
overall design, and do your homework. Also, you need
to take the time and effort to draw up a proper plan,
and be willing and able to so out and mark it in the
garden, on the ground - and stick around to help with
creating. (See the note below on paths and bed
dimensions).

Use of framing to enclose beds: Another maddening
factor. 'Framed' beds, usually using landscape
timbers, appeal greatly to some people, including
funders. They want to see something tangible. (These
are often called 'raised beds', but you can raise soil
level without a frame - just look at any commercial
vegetable farm. Raised beds and framed beds are two
different things). The big disadvantages of framed
beds are that they are very inflexible - once in place
you are stuck with them, and they make large-scale
plowing or mowing impossible when/if you need that -,
the materials usually cost a lot of money (the framing
material, then the fill soil), and the sad fact of how
forlorn they look when abandoned. 

Framing is very valuable in certain situations where
the existing soil is so bad it can't be worked (this
happens in cities - I just faced this last year, and
put in 4 framed beds). Also, framing beds can be used
to increase access by physically challenged folks who
want to garden. As a rule of thumb, though, unless
your space is severely limited, I'd question the need
to make a whole garden of framed beds. If you want to
go that route, I'd suggest using masonry (blocks)
instead of wood framing.

Each community garden's unique history: Sometimes, a
garden is created ad hoc by citizen activists with no
garden experience at all. Then it grows, and changes,
and adapts. One area floods out - that becomes a weed
patch, then morphs into a charming pond thanks to a
high school student partnering with a senior citizen.
So, the plots have a history. Be very careful if you
go into an existing garden or any space with
established uses with an eye to changing things -
there's a history there that you'd better respect.
That becomes true very fast in a community garden -
people quickly become attached to their particular
plot in ways much deeper than the amount of money they
spend on it for compost.

In the spirit of Steward Brand's wonderful book 'How
Buildings Learn', garden designs and the plot plan
need to be able to 'learn' - to adapt to changes and
become better community garden spaces. 

For that reason, I'm now leaning toward (in my own
community garden, if I can get the powers that be to
agree
) a 'nesting' strategy, where there is a basic
plot of 20ftx20ft (6mx6m), which can be easily
subdivided into 4 10x10s. (I can't decide if it should
be 20x20 or 24x24, so there is room for a 4' (1.2m)
path if the plot is split - I have strong feelings
that paths should be wide enough for people and garden
carts, and that good paths make better neighbors -
though gardeners then need to keep weeds out of the
paths next to their beds - or someone does...

Last thought: about paths and bed dimensions. I prefer
squares for the plot shape in a 'no nonsense'
veggie/food garden. The reason is math, basically. The
ratio of perimeter to area is lower for a square than
for a rectangle. So a path around a 20x20 400 ft2 bed
is 80 feet. A path around a 10x20 bed is 60 feet - 3/4
as long - but that bed contains only half as much
space, 200 ft2. Put another way, if you wanted 400 ft2
of gardening space and use beds 4 ft wide, you'd need
a bed 100 ft long, with a path of 208 ft around it.
Since maximizing gardening space is important, I like
squares. (organic shapes also can work, since the most
efficient ratio of area to perimeter is a circle - but
that raises other questions).

I'm interested to hear if others would toss some of my
factors, and/or suggest others.

###

What do you think? Don Boekelheide, Charlotte