Greetings, I think the word community garden answers the question. You could do both. secure the land and hold public meetingss telling the people who live in the neighbourhood that you have done so with the intent to set up a garden. That first meeting begins the process of forming the gardening committee which oversees th daily operation of the garden and makes such decsions as to what to grow and how to grow it.
This is a quick response but one purpose of a community garden is to develop community and by including the future gardenres in the deicsion making process, you have taken a major step towards that goal. Bob Ewing http://bewing.wordpress.com/ Hello all, I am new to this listserv. I am intrigued by Adam's question of "What comes first?" The neighborhood/community interest in a garden or the garden itself? I am employed by an NPO that operates a food pantry in Baton Rouge, LA, as well as a mentoring program aimed at stabilizing low-income families housing situations. We are currently contemplating starting a community garden here at HOPE. We are blessed with quite a bit of flat, sunny land on a busy urban street (the most underutilized land in the neighborhood, in fact). We would like to grow a garden in order to stock fresh produce in our food pantry as well as to bring the community together in the realization that they do have the power to take control of their diet and not be so reliant on the corporate-based food distribution system currently operating in our country. But here's the rub? Do we go out and secure a large grant, hire a Gardening Coordinator, build raised beds and then throw a planting party, inviting the neighborhood? Or do we build grassroots support for the garden and make it more of a neighborhood project from the start? I am tend to favor option #2, but this is the long-run approach and could take a very long time. Whereas we are a well-established organization which does have the resources (and access to resources) to build a garden in a much more expeditious fashion. So what to do? I would love it for those of you on this list to hash it out with me. Ready, set, go! Jonathan M. Hammett Case Worker Family Mentoring Program United Methodist HOPE Ministries (225) 355-0702 ext. 28 (225) 357-6351 fax jhammett at hopeministriesbr.org The mission of United Methodist HOPE Ministries is to coordinate ministries, provide resources & establish relationships that help the people we serve move toward self-sufficiency with dignity. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20061012/453db8d2/attachment.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org End of Community_garden Digest, Vol 12, Issue 1 ***********************************************
