First, happy New Year to everyone on this list serv, contributors and lurkers alike. May you have vibrant community gardens, however you interpret that deceptively simple phrase, and whether or not you belong to ACGA.
I first discovered this list in the late 1990s. My wife's job had moved us to Charlotte, NC, faaaar from my home on the California coast. Community gardening in Charlotte at that time "belonged" to a single organization in a wealthy white church, who with the best of intentions worked to help poorer mostly Black folks start vacant lot gardens. Something told me that, although much good came of the church's efforts, community gardening could mean much more - but that didn't fly. They _knew_ what community gardening was - it was what they did, and that was that. The director of the church group kept tight control over the program and showed no interest in, and even a bit of hostility and suspicion toward, community gardens outside her group's. We inevitably clashed, and I was left with nobody to talk to - few people in this well-heeled New South city seemed to know or care about community gardening. At my wit's end, I turned to the Internet and found this listserve. It changed everything. "No more whining - get out there, find ways to work together, make gardens work!" Said Adam H in NYC, in so many words. And so, inspired by him and many others on this list and in ACGA, I got to work. We've made much progress in Charlotte, though we've still got a long way to go. With some irony, my major project has become a garden originally started then "passed along" by that same church group. The admittedly charismatic and dedicated leader of that group and I are at least on speaking terms, today. Adam (rest his great soul) and Rodney King were right - we have to learn to get along, especially those of us who share deeper values and visions for community gardens (and other things), but differ in our personalities and chosen approaches. ACGA ideally is all about this kind of bridge-building among different approaches. We now have a large and thriving 'model' community garden in Charlotte, plus the seeds of several more. The church-based group is expanding again. There are many more choices for those who want to garden in a community setting, and fast growing interest. My guess is that we might never have gotten here without help from ACGA in general and this list in particular. So, though I know I'm speaking to a completely different group that I did almost a decade ago (Sharon and Doreen, you might have been around, though <:) - and Sally, Betsy...a bunch more of you, I see you lurking there... ), still, thanks to everyone for being a vital if virtual community. Amy, you have a difficult job, as responses to your post show. As editor of the retrospective on ACGA published in 2005, I was able to read documents from our history going back to before the beginning. We've had waves of strongly differing perspectives - some would even say that a an early split in ACGA lead to formation of the very successful National Gardening Association, though that's simplifying history a bit. You can see the later friction between 'gardeners' and 'greeners' in the fact that our magazine is still named The Community Greening Review, when the term "community greening", as understood by a group of environmental activists in 1990, is long since out of date (one person asked me "You mean, like setting up the Green Zone? (eg in Baghdad). (Note of interest: David Malakoff, now an NPR science correspondent, became co-editor at that time, after the name was changed from "The Journal of Community Gardening"). But you all can read this history for yourselves in 25 Years of Community Gardening, or take a longer look via Laura Lawson's book City Bountiful: A History of Community Gardening in America. Point is, North American community gardeners are by nature a divers and unruly lot, and from the beginning, ACGA has been a loose coalition rather than a tightly organized monolith. True, individual leaders, elected, hired or self-appointed, have sometimes had great control over ACGA's organzational philosophy and activities. But, in the end, like my friend at the church, the ACGA's leaders have done quite a bit of good. Maybe more important, life goes on in our individual communities and gardens regardless of whether ACGA is in Philly, NYC or Columbus, and we have to fight our local battles, in the end, pretty much on our own. We are still very far from having the cohesion or influence of the national allotment garden organizations in the UK, Scandinavia or Germany, for instance. Of course, our definition of community garden is not an exact fit with allotment gardening, but one price we pay for our diversity is our lack of ability to speak with a common voice, or even decide what's an appropriate topic for community gardening (btw, zoning is absolutely appropriate...I don't think Amy disagrees with that - but she can certainly speak for herself). I've gone on too long (as usual), so I'll close by mentioning the obvious. It is probably good in some ways, but I'm a much less active participant in this list and in ACGA. Part of that may be simply getting bumped off the plane by USAIR, causing me to miss this summer's conference. If you haven't been, ACGA conferences are excellent, and great for reconnecting with fellow community garden organizers and networking (you actually get to put faces with posts!). But, admittedly, there's more. I've always been most drawn to the 'gardening' part of community gardening. I like growing food, I like gardening, I like composting...you get the idea. Sometimes, I've felt a strong sense of "well that's nice, but it isn't really important" within ACGA. Certainly, now, I recognize that other aspects of community gardening are vital - as Adam said, community gardening is 50% gardening and 100% local political organizing. Thanks to ACGA, I've chatted with and befriended greeners and economic developers and community organizers who might not know a tulip bulb from a light bulb, but they've certainly advanced the cause of community gardens and opened my eyes. In any event, there are other places for me now. Most of my writing goes into my own blog at http://.urbanministrygarden.wordpress.com, and I've become an ardent fan of www.gardenrant.com - those four women who founded it and contribute deserve 'garden writer of the year' awards! It's become my favorite garden "magazine", with daily editions! Yow! I can't help notice that many excellent community garden programs (Denver comes to mind, even Seattle's input is sparse, the list goes on) are scarcely represented in ACGA anymore, and that, while there is not an alternative that I know about, many groups kind-of do their own thing rather than work with ACGA. So, I need to seek them out elsewhere, too. So, what does it mean for the New Year? Don't know exactly, though I know I'll be gardening in Charlotte, and trying to figure out ways so that anybody (including homeless folks) who wants to garden has the opportunity. Back to the roots, I suppose. I'll keep up my membership in ACGA, and one of these days try again to send in some pic and info for the map. That's helpful. You can certainly count on me keeping on coming back to this list. From past experience, I imagine we'll see how wide a definition community gardening has! Five Rings? Cool! In spite of Fred's fine posts from Atlanta, I'll probably grumble once in a while (to myself) about how there's not enough dirt gardening stuff for the likes of me, but I now find that elsewhere. Most of all, it is always good to hear your voices and share your stories. Happy New Year! Don Boekelheide Charlotte, NC http://.urbanministrygarden.wordpress.org ----- Original Message ---- From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 12:02:31 PM Subject: Community_garden Digest, Vol 329, Issue 1 Send Community_garden mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Community_garden digest..." Today's Topics: 1. List Serv "Etiquette" (Amy DeShon) 2. Re: List Serv "Etiquette" (Mike McGrath) 3. Re: List Serv "Etiquette" (Diana Liu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:04:06 -0500 From: "Amy DeShon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Community_garden] List Serv "Etiquette" To: "List Serve" <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello Folks! The office has been asked to send out a message to everyone reminding you of ACGA's list serv etiquette. Since its the start of a new year (tomorrow) and we have a whole bunch of new list serv members, here's a brief synopsis of the bigger "rules". 1. Topics should be related to community gardening only. 2. Topics that spin off into other topics not related to community gardening should be taken off the list serv and done through individual email services. 3. Banter should be taken off the list serv and done through your individual email services. 4. Absolutely no threats, swearing, or character assassinations: we respect each other's opinions, even if we don't agree with that opinion. Sincerely, Amy DeShon, MPA Executive Director American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) 1777 E. Broad Street Columbus, OH 43201 1-877-ASK-ACGA Direct Line: 614-645-1537 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:36:07 -0500 From: "Mike McGrath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] List Serv "Etiquette" To: "Amy DeShon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "List Serve" <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Uh oh! I think we all just got sent to the principal's office. ---Mike McG, (Proud violator of 1 through 3, but not that damn stupid #4!) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Amy DeShon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "List Serve" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 9:04 AM Subject: [Community_garden] List Serv "Etiquette" > Hello Folks! > > The office has been asked to send out a message to everyone reminding you > of > ACGA's list serv etiquette. Since its the start of a new year (tomorrow) > and > we have a whole bunch of new list serv members, here's a brief synopsis of > the bigger "rules". > > 1. Topics should be related to community gardening only. > 2. Topics that spin off into other topics not related to community > gardening > should be taken off the list serv and done through individual email > services. > 3. Banter should be taken off the list serv and done through your > individual > email services. > 4. Absolutely no threats, swearing, or character assassinations: we > respect > each other's opinions, even if we don't agree with that opinion. > > Sincerely, > Amy DeShon, MPA > Executive Director > American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) > 1777 E. Broad Street > Columbus, OH 43201 > 1-877-ASK-ACGA > Direct Line: 614-645-1537 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _______________________________________________ > 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: [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: > http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org > > ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:52:05 -0800 (PST) From: Diana Liu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] List Serv "Etiquette" To: Mike McGrath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Amy DeShon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, List Serve <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" But isn't everything connected with everything else? So everything is somehow connected with community gardening and with what we do using community gardening as a tool? Well, ok may be except, #4 unless you are really frustrated with something! Then you can swear in private discussions, I won't mind. :-) Mike McGrath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Uh oh! I think we all just got sent to the principal's office. ---Mike McG, (Proud violator of 1 through 3, but not that damn stupid #4!) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Amy DeShon" To: "List Serve" Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 9:04 AM Subject: [Community_garden] List Serv "Etiquette" > Hello Folks! > > The office has been asked to send out a message to everyone reminding you > of > ACGA's list serv etiquette. Since its the start of a new year (tomorrow) > and > we have a whole bunch of new list serv members, here's a brief synopsis of > the bigger "rules". > > 1. Topics should be related to community gardening only. > 2. Topics that spin off into other topics not related to community > gardening > should be taken off the list serv and done through individual email > services. > 3. Banter should be taken off the list serv and done through your > individual > email services. > 4. Absolutely no threats, swearing, or character assassinations: we > respect > each other's opinions, even if we don't agree with that opinion. > > Sincerely, > Amy DeShon, MPA > Executive Director > American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) > 1777 E. Broad Street > Columbus, OH 43201 > 1-877-ASK-ACGA > Direct Line: 614-645-1537 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _______________________________________________ > 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: [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: > http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org > > _______________________________________________ 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: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao Tzu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20071231/f7602b0b/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: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org End of Community_garden Digest, Vol 329, Issue 1 ************************************************ _______________________________________________ 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: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
