We were faced with relocating our oldest community garden last year and successfully negotiated with our City Commission for new space within a public park to gain land tenure. Our city has one other community garden and our county has two gardens. All three of these gardens are located in public parks. We did extensive research and found that community gardens are included in parks all across the country. The "Bloom to Grow" article is excellent. You'll also see that community gardens are included in the Master Plan of some pretty important cities. Burlington (VT), Seattle, and Portland (OR) are some of the places that I recall from my research. You'll find that many areas consider community gardens to be a function of parks and recreation. You must identify your supporters and capitalize on them. You also must identify your adversaries and their specific complaints so that you can address them. The support that we received during the whole ordeal was overwhelming. People came from out of the woodwork on our behalf. No one came forward to support our opposition. Reach out to the people around the garden and let them know of its function. Make sure that the garden is not seen as elitism, but as inclusive and diverse. If you would like further insight, email me direct. Good Luck, Barbara Powell Harris Florida Master Gardener Volunteer Community Garden Coordinator Rosemary Community Garden/Orange Blossom Community Garden (opening Fall, 2008) Sarasota, Florida
**************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20080401/a8a6936c/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
