[Community_garden] Starting a community garden

[yarrow at sfo.com]

At 10:43 PM +0000 3/27/07, julie young wrote:
>It has always been my dream to have a community garden where people can come
>in and take what they need, people can learn about vegetables, see a child
>taste a fresh tomato. Now I am starting one in Shelby, NC. ....
>1. Do you have groups take a plot or just have everyone help everywhere? If
>so how do you define what goes back to those in need?
>2. What is a good sized plot?
>3. What is the best thing to plant for new gardens?
>4. What is your budget and how is it provided for?

I'm in a community garden where each person leases a plot annually. 
Some gardeners choose to donate some or all of their produce to local 
food closets or hunger programs, but most grow for their own families.

Start small, especially if the gardeners are not experienced. Find 
out what your gardeners have experience growing. Figure out how many 
gardeners are interested, determine a standard bed size (say, 4x8 or 
4x20), and make the garden no larger than the really dedicated 
gardeners can handle the first year. Your size may be determined by 
water access or how much muscle you have for building beds, too. 
Around here, up to 400 sf seems manageable for highly motivated 
gardeners who aren't necessarily around every day, but even in the 
smallest plots I see a lot of initial enthusiasm with diminishing 
follow-through. Or else make the garden as large as possible, but 
plant farther apart than you normally would -- say, tomatoes 3 ft. 
apart rather than 2 ft. apart -- and plant a lot of space hogs, such 
as pumpkins.

Especially for a public garden  that you expect lots of people to be 
walking through, give much thought to the design of paths. I'd make 
them 3-5 ft. wide at least, perhaps plan one or more gathering places 
in the center of the garden (sundial with herbs). The easiest path 
material is mulch from tree trimmers, piled 6 inches or more deep. 
You can build raised beds if you have donated lumber or trex, or you 
can transfer soil from the path areas to the beds before dumping 
mulch in the paths, and simply have mounded beds.

The best thing to plant is what people in the area want to eat. Ask! 
Tomatoes are often the easiest and most successful crop in the 
summer. Summer and winter squash and beans are good, too, but don't 
overplant the summer squash. Cucumbers are good for eating off the 
bush, but find out what varieties are best for your area. Kids often 
love pumpkins, especially if you plant big ones (10-20 pound range), 
though you may have to hand-pollinate the flowers to ensure a big 
crop. You can let the pumpkin and winter squash vines wind through 
the garden, as long as they don't get stepped on.

I also love the idea someone mentioned of planting herbs and berries 
in communal areas for everyone to pick and use. Herbs are wonderful 
in every garden, for food as well as pollinators, but you probably 
need only one plant of each one (except basil) for the whole garden. 
Flowers make people happy to be in the garden and lure pollinators -- 
it doesn't take much effort to make it beautiful, and people will be 
more drawn to and want to spend more time there if it's beautiful.

For children walking through the garden, the best plants are 
multicolored cherry tomatoes (they come in red, yellow, orange, 
white, black, brown) and berries (whatever grows best where you live 
-- raspberries, blackberries, strawberries). I, personally, don't 
like the tiny (smaller than a walnut) cherry tomatoes. Some great 
varieties I've tried are Black Cherry, Tommy Toe, Sungold, Sun Sugar, 
Galinas.

Needless to say, if children are going to be eating directly from the 
garden, it needs to be an organic garden, so make sure all the 
gardeners are on board at the beginning, even if they have not grown 
organically before.

If you have any ethnic populations, be sure to find out what they 
like to eat. One of the great benefits of community gardens is the 
smorgasbord of foods from around the world.

Good luck!