Diane, What the ACGA has is a database where people can put their garden on the map. The ACGA database, while a cool tool, provides detail on particular gardens but no idea of the total number of gardens, because there is no fire to get each garden listed. A Survey Monkey, as I described it, could accomplish a much different task because it would ask just one question, how many gardens are there, and because it would be time limited, there is some fire to get it done.
So why is it important to know how many gardens there are? Now that interest in CGs is rising, ACGA needs to have a number to tell reporters, which would drive the press to ACGA. Right now no one has any idea how many gardens there are - and we never have. All previous surveys have been seriously incomplete. What would have to happen is someone in each state would need to take charge getting the estimate. I can start a spreadsheet to gather state contacts and start the survey - if a critical mass of people think this plan has merit. Lets hear from folks. Steven Steven M. Garrett, PhC, MS, RD Food Geographer "Will work for food issues" ________________________________ From: Diana Liu <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; Steven Garrett <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 8:40:18 AM Subject: Re: [Community_garden] How many community gardens in US? I though ACGA already had a survey link. My suggestion is not to duplicate efforts. Why not share that link (also the Local Harvest) to the community gardens that we know? Do we just want a number? What does that number mean? Or do we want more info, such as locations, number of gardeners, number of plots? What is the purpose of having this info? Can we not also sent out a notice to those who are keeping a database to see if we can consolidate them? I just don't want to see people duplicating efforts, and at the end it goes no where. Diana web address: http://activecommunitycoalition.googlepages.com/home acc calendar of events: http://tinyurl.com/acc-calendar ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao Tzu "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." - Winston Churchill "There are seven sins in the world: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principle. " - Mahatma Gandhi ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ --- On Tue, 4/7/09, Steven Garrett <[email protected]> wrote: From: Steven Garrett <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] How many community gardens in US? To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 8:32 AM This is not going to work well if everyone just responds to the list. We need a way to capture it. I was going to do this for my diss, but did not find funding, so I backed off of it. However, if we just want to do this simply and quickly, I can start a Survey Money to capture statewide estimates. What do you all think? As flawed as that method is, it is better than what we have now; which is nothing. Steven ________________________________ From: Cordalie Benoit <[email protected]> To: Don Boekelheide <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 6:17:22 AM Subject: Re: [Community_garden] How many community gardens in US? Maybe we can each report for our own states? I have data for Connecticut, although it is not exhaustive, just pretty robust. Best, Cordalie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Boekelheide" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 5:16 PM Subject: [Community_garden] How many community gardens in US? > > Hey, all, > > Pam Ruch at Organic Gardening asked if I knew how many community gardens there currently are in the US. I sent the following reply - anybody have another idea? > > It's been really nice, but it is getting chilly all of a sudden. Better run out and drag everything inside, slap up some Reemay... > > Don > >>> my note to Pam...<< > > ACGA reported just over 6000 in 1996, which unfortunately was the last > scientific study, overseen by Mark Francis at UC Davis. ACGA did a follow up in the early 2000s, but the data was never > compiled that I know of. > > In the decade since, there has been a noticeable expansion - in > Charlotte, for example, we moved from 8 gardens in '96 to at least 15 > today. Statewide, I've seen a similar trend. > > There is also this amazing burst of interest right now, boosted by that > wonderful White House lawn project. People are talking about starting > at least 6 new projects locally that I know of, some of them really big > ambitious ones. > > Given that we've lost some gardens during the same period (that big one > in LA a couple years ago, locally at least 3 have tanked), I'd still > say the current number is approximately 15,000, with New York alone having at least 2000 > (they had 1900 in 1996), and Philadelphia over 1000. > > By the end of the next year, the national number could jump to closer to 20,000. > > I'll send this question to CG listserv and see if anybody has anything firmer. > > Don > << > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090407/576a6600/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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090407/75445446/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
