I was a facilitator for, and co-founder of a community gardening initiative in my hometown several years ago. We started out gung ho about a centralized community garden, and after preliminary research realized that a) it would be a long time coming, and b) most people in our community (rural, ~1,800 people) would prefer to garden at home.
So, we shifted our focus to encouraging the community to garden. We launched a "Grow Choteau" initiative which included an "adopt-a-gardener" mentorship program, and had great success. I am no longer involved with the program, as I live on the opposite side of the country. However, here's what it looked like: https://sites.google.com/site/growchoteau/Home/adopt-a-gardener-program. It might give you some ideas. Bethann G. Merkle fruit.root.leaf. communications consulting www.fruitrootleaf.com ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 12:00 PM Subject: Community_garden Digest, Vol 1558, Issue 1 ----- Forwarded Message ----- 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. community garden collaborations with backyard gardeners (Jama Crawford) 2. Re: community garden collaborations with backyard gardeners (Maryanne Lucas) 3. Re: community garden collaborations with backyard gardeners (Jama Crawford) Friends I continue to mull the disappointing news that 87% of Chicago's registered community gardens did not produce any food. The bright side of this dull penny was that a great deal more food production took place in backyards than was imagined, particularly in poor neighborhoods where fresh food was otherwise scarce and expensive. So it seems to me that a good model of urban community gardening would somehow support and advance backyard gardening too, perhaps in bulk purchases of seed, transplants, organic fertilizers and pest control, sharing knowledge gleaned from years of experience, or perhaps scheduling volunteers to assist elder backyard gardeners. Are there any community gardens out there with a backyard garden outreach program? I may want to borrow ideas to expand our own garden's benefit to the community ... without expanding the physical operation within our garden fenceline! Jama Crawford Durango CO Look at the City Slickers Farms website. They are doing most of what you mention. They work in Oakland CA. http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/mission-and-history Maryanne Lucas is on the road. Sent from my iPhone [email protected] Kids Growing Strong On Feb 20, 2013, at 2:07 PM, "Jama Crawford" <[email protected]> wrote: > Friends > > I continue to mull the disappointing news that 87% of Chicago's registered > community gardens did not produce any food. The bright side of this dull > penny was that a great deal more food production took place in backyards than > was imagined, particularly in poor neighborhoods where fresh food was > otherwise scarce and expensive. > > So it seems to me that a good model of urban community gardening would > somehow support and advance backyard gardening too, perhaps in bulk purchases > of seed, transplants, organic fertilizers and pest control, sharing knowledge > gleaned from years of experience, or perhaps scheduling volunteers to assist > elder backyard gardeners. > > Are there any community gardens out there with a backyard garden outreach > program? I may want to borrow ideas to expand our own garden's benefit to > the community ... without expanding the physical operation within our garden > fenceline! > > Jama Crawford > Durango CO > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20130220/26bd42ba/attachment.html> Thank you everyone. These are exciting models of outreach. On the one hand, I hate to add work to our operation by supporting other efforts. On the other hand, this year we bought a lot of seed in bulk and sold some of the surplus at cost to backyard gardens. It amazed us all when someone walked out with $100 retail value in seed for only $15. It turns out the colorful little package is almost 90% of the seed cost. At the very least, I thought "there should be more seed buying cooperatives." Our one acre garden feeds 70 families and then some - we donate food to charity and sell excess produce to raise garden funds. But what about a backyard garden behind the home of an elder who can no longer mow her grass? That garden might feed 5 households, including the elder. I'm happy to hear the models are out there and look forward to reading up on them. Our community is having a conference this week on the problem of local food security. Our grocery shelves carry only 3 days of food, but the participants will wring the same cloth that there isn't enough community garden space and try to get the city, again, to sponsor more space. I think we have to look at that problem differently. A community garden might operate in a dozen backyards with willing property owners. The members might share infrastructure costs - tiller, tools, seeds, transplants, even the occasional group of community voluteers who want to help. The property owner needs some incentives too, and reimbursement for water useage, but a share of the fresh food itself is a powerful incentive. At least, that's why my husband and I have a community garden on our property - good people, good food! _______________________________________________ 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/20130221/66d85f3d/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
