Here in Seattle we have an agreement each gardener signs, In short it states that you must keep your plot "well groomed", in practice that means looks like your gardening. Gardeners also agree to keep their growth inside their plots and maintain the community paths boarding their plots. Gardeners agree to provide 8 hours of community service in addition to conforming to organic garden principles. Failure to live up the agreement results in the loss and reassignment of the plot.
In practice gardeners are contacted first usually by a fellow gardener and if there are extenuating circumstances a support plan is worked out. If the gardener just continues to "fail". The garden administrator from the city makes a call and the writes a letter which usually gives a "do this by this date" command. Failure to comply is the loss and reassignment of the plot. I garden at Interbay one of the largest in the city. We have around 125 gardeners every year. The garden is divided into 4 support areas, each area has two or more volunteers (block leaders) that provide a contact point for gardeners. If for example gardeners are going to be out of town they contact their Block Leader. The Block Leader finds someone to water and if necessary harvest (for the local food bank) their plot while they are gone. The Block Leaders also contact gardeners whose plots begin to look un gardened to find out if the gardener needs help. The garden is a community and we look out for each other and make sure that surplus food is not left to waste rotting on the ground. Ray Schutte "Life is a Good Idea" Nikki Giovanni President P-Patch Trust Advocate for Community Gardens in Seattle www.ppatchtrust.org -----Original Message----- From: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org [mailto:community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of Robyn Harvey Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2011 11:39 AM To: ACGA Subject: [Community_garden] Adapting Roles Dear Fellow Community Gardeners, We are having trouble with our garden adminstrator. Our communty city wide community garden system has been going through some upheaval. Its been hell but it is also an opportunity for change. Dirt and politics with people who moan "Oh, please I just want to garden. Let me be! and buy the way can you get longer hoses?" So, a big issue is abandoned plots.Often the people who abandon have really good reasons, but they never let anyone know that they are having trouble. Some gardens have no community trust or feel to them. They are just allotments for a growing season. It could be anyone anywhere. Other gardens have a soul, a purpose and a community. The latter gardens are struggling with the city garden administrator who believes the sad stories of the many persons who have abandon their plots. They believe these people as many as three times! Well we would like these people to be all put together in a sort of rehab plot for broken gardeners. One suggestion was some kind of a buddy system or pairing with experienced gardeners. We want to fix the problem and not throw away the gardeners who don't work out. What stands in the way of this happening is that the administrator has to give over some authority to the garden managers on site. If the person with problems is returned to the garden with out some condition that they have to listen to us then they don't and we have to watch them sink and fail again Anybody else handling this sort of situation. ? I am looking for books, experience or successful models of adminstration that solves problems at community gardens. ~ robyn. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communityga rden.org/attachments/20110220/c609a64f/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@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.commu nitygarden.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: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
