Doe anyone also have information on how you measure outcomes relative to the community building aspect of community gardening? While the amount of food produced is helpful, it is helpful to know what the other outcomes are.
Thanks for your help with this. Noreen “In some ways, I saw the garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life. A leader must also tend his garden; he, too, plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates, and harvests the results. Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed.” (Nelson Mandela -Excerpt from his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”.) Noreen Warnock Co-founder Director of Community Outreach Local Matters 731 East Broad St. Columbus, Ohio 43205 www.local-matters.org Office: 614.263.5662 Cell: 614.204.7758 Be Localiscious! On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Robin Mitchell <[email protected]>wrote: > Ana > > I just finished a project in Berkeley California that was part of a > research project at UC Berkeley, where 10 community "teams" were given > plots (20'x60') to see how much produce we could grow (Aug - Nov). Because > one of the primary aspects of the project was to measure what we produced, > we very carefully weighed everything that we picked, and recorded it in a > spreadsheet. We used a digital scale which was pretty convenient, although > it was sometimes necessary to break up the weighing into smaller > increments. > > We kept the scale at the site, in a container so that it would be > protected. > > Even though it is a bit of trouble, I do think that carefully recording > what you produce (as well as how it is distributed) is a valuable > discipline to develop. It allows you to see what crops do well, what > doesn't, and will give you a sense of the overall effectiveness of your > gardening methods. > > We haven't implemented this in the community garden that I work with, but > by the spring, we plan to have a digital scale (stored in a waterproof / > bang-proof Pelican case) at the garden -- then we just have to get everyone > to put their measurements in the log file that will also be in the Pelican > case. > > I also bought a used hanging produce scale but because it is big and heavy, > and our garden is "unsecured", we can't leave it out and it is too much > trouble to set up and take down each time we need to use it. Hopefully in > the future we can also take advantage of that scale. So for now the small > digital scale is the best option for us. > > Also, I can share the spreadsheet we used if you want it -- it is a google > doc spreadsheet, with a tab to keep track of nutrients as well as weight. > It isn't very fancy, and you will probably want to modify it for your own > needs, but it would give you a place to start. > > Robin > -- > Robin Mitchell > El Cerrito Community Garden Network > Email: [email protected] > Web: https://www.sites.google.com/site/elcerritocommunitygarden/ > > > > On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Bruce A. Hamilton <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > In the two community gardens where I have worked (affiliated with Wasatch > > Community Gardens in Salt Lake City, UT) we use a combination of hanging > > produce scales and visual estimates to record weekly harvest totals by > > weight and by vegetable type. We report annual totals in an annual > report. > > > > --Bruce (Bruce A. Hamilton, Salt Lake City, UT) > > [email protected] > > http://bhami.com/ > > > > > > At 06:13 PM 1/4/2014, Ana Rasmussen wrote: > > > >> We have a small-but-growing community agriculture program in Santa Cruz > >> County, CA working with low income families to grow organic produce for > >> their own tables. > >> > >> One of our funders has requested we find out what other Comm Garden > >> programs are using for best-practice measurable outcomes. I agree, we > >> haven't been so good at that aspect of our program yet. > >> > >> I would really appreciate any of you sending along the kind of goals and > >> outcomes you have found to be both useful in helping you better > understand > >> your program and guiding you toward improving it. > >> > >> Any suggestions welcome. Thank you, > >> > >> Ana Rasmussen, Program Director > >> Mesa Verde Gardens > >> [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 > > > > > > > <https://www.sites.google.com/site/elcerritocommunitygarden/> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140105/39434aa9/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/20140105/b1ca05ef/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
