[Community_garden] Shade Structures in Community Gardens

[Fred Conrad]

The Hartnett Community Garden has one gardener with five plots.  One of
the plots (8x12) is covered with a hoop house that is alternately
plastic in the winter and remay in the summer.  It seems to do a great
job to extend crop seasons for them.  The structure is just about six
feet tall and does not cast significant shade on the other plots, with
four foot grass pathways between.  I've been tempted to replicate.

fgc

Fred Conrad
Community Garden Coordinator
Atlanta Community Food Bank
732 Joseph E Lowery Blvd, NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
ph: 678.553.5932 fx: 678.553.5933
fred.conrad at acfb.org    <http://www.acfb.org> 
Our mission is to fight hunger by engaging, educating and empowering our
community. 



 

-----Original Message-----
From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
yarrow at sfo.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:01 AM
To: KBR; community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Shade Structures in Community Gardens

As a community structure, or in individual gardens?

One of the gardeners at my community garden has a plot in the center of
the hot sunny area, and he has chosen to grow grapevines that are now so
rampant that, underneath the vines, his garden is a secluded island of
shade. His garden is so interesting, with blackberry vines winding among
the grapes, pansies growing 2-3 ft. high to reach some light, and other
edibles tucked into every possible space as well as garden art, that no
one complains about any shade cast on their plots, though I think only
the path gets significant shade. The vines are supported by a series of
arbors.

Our other shade structure is the stone pines at one corner of the
garden. Someday they'll come down (one fell down on its own last year),
but that's where we put the sign-in table on work days, and where we do
things like shelling fava beans on work days when it's too hot to be out
in the sun.

I've seen shade structures in a few other gardens, mostly small areas
for eating or teaching. Usually no more elaborate than a slat-roofed
open structure.

If it were up to me, I'd plant a few fast-growing, drought-tolerant
native trees/shrubs along one edge of the community garden to provide
shade and also to feed the birds so that they don't have to rely so much
on what's in the gardens. Here in California, my top choices would be
elderberry (for the flowers and berries) and coyote brush (for the
insects it supports, and because the shrubs can be sculpted into a small
shade structure). OK, if it were really up to me, I'd go all out and
plant a multispecies hedgerow of 5 or 10 native shrubs.

At 8:58 PM -0700 7/21/08, KBR wrote:
>Does anyone have any experience with community gardens installing shade

>structures in their gardens? I'd like to hear the pros and cons.
> 
>Kate, Wisconsin"If at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope
for it."

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