Hi Nadje & all -- I've owned a multi-family house in the Boston area for 24 years and have invited tenants to have a place to garden. I'm currently selling the house so I won't be gardening this spring; but I was pleased to see your email.
Over the years, a few tenants have had a few tomatoes in a container in the yard or on their own porch. Only a couple of tenants over the years have been interested in having a garden of their own. Other communities might have a more garden-oriented atmosphere; but in the community where my house is, I've found that most tenants invest more energy into making their apartments homey, less so the outdoors. A nice exception - one recent tenant took one of the semi-raised bed sections the front garden to plant peppers, lettuce and kale as well as some flowers of her choice. She preferred the small space provided in the front yard, rather than the larger open space in the back yard. She kept some of the plants that I already had in the space, so that she was just filling part of the bed with the plants she wanted to grow. One concern property owners have is maintaining a neat yard -- not necessarily "perfect" but neat enough that neighbors and other tenants don't think you are neglecting the yard. So I think a key to your initiative is to provide small, manageable spaces for tenants to garden. Easy access to good soil, compost, water, maybe mulch or ground cover plants will be important to help gardeners/tenants to be successful so that the start-up is not overwhelming. On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 4:50 AM, tanya <[email protected]> wrote: > In my experience, having a garden at the place where I pay rent would not > be a good idea. Even in places where I ended up staying for years, rentals > always felt temporary to me. If you move, you lose everything. One place > where I lived for 18 years (apt. in a house) had a whole acre of land, all > of it sprayed, and there was no place where I was allowed to have a garden > -- even if I had wanted to risk growing food in a place that was regularly > sprayed with poisons. > > People I've known who have had gardens at rentals have had individual > agreements with the owner. In most cases, they want the street side to be > lawn and poodled shrubs, but the backyard or fenced yard is ok to use. > > The good thing about community gardens is that (assuming you move locally) > at least you still have your garden when you change rentals. For me, "home" > has always been one of my gardens, not the place where I'm paying rent, so > perhaps I'm an outlier. > > > > > On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Nadja at Gardening Matters < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Hello gardening friends- > > This is not exactly a community garden question, but a question about > > increasing land access for those who may live in a rental property with > the > > potential of gardening where they live. (This is important because we > have > > long wait lists for many gardens, but we could help utilize other land.) > > So- I am beginning work on a project to increase land access for renters > > who would like to garden. We are working to compile best practices > working > > with landlords and tenants. The idea is that landlords would allow > > gardening on their land, with specific guidelines for the renters. Has > > anyone done any work in this arena? We are thinking about landlords of > > single family homes, duplexes, and triplexes, but also landlords of > larger > > buildings who might allow gardening. I'd love to chat if you have any > > experience. Thank you! > > > > -- > > Nadja Berneche > > Program Director, Gardening Matters > > 310 E. 38th St., Minneapolis, MN 55409 > > Office: 612-821-2358 > > [email protected] > > www.gardeningmatters.org > > -------------- next part -------------- > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > URL: < > > > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140213/1a90a6e6/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 > > > > > > -- > If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. -- Cicero > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140214/e7de148c/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 > -- Jennifer Leonard The Skills Library 781-321-7894 Web: http://skillslibrary.com Email: [email protected] Blog: http://skillspages.com/blog * f Skills Library on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Skills-Library/195427640469811?sk=wall>* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140214/573696f2/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
