This could be an interesting thread so I hope everyone posts to the list
serv rather than replying just to the sender.
In my opinion, you have two concerns and they should be treated separately.
One is how you define your service population, which includes a very broad
range of gardening participants. Privately held backyard gardens which have
opened up their property for use by others is one of the most sustainable
models out there. So I hope you will continue to consider them "community
gardens" and an ongoing part of your service population.
But then there is the matter of distributing a valuable and finite resource:
compost.
In this case you have every right to establish a different set of rules that
have nothing to do with your community garden definition. This could be
something like "first available to gardens that strictly feed the poor and
homeless" and then available to "every other registered garden on a first
come first served basis." When you have a valuable resource to give away
like this, it helps to give your selected population a couple weeks more
time to pick up their share. Then open it up to your next group.
I think it would be easy for each of us to think "my garden qualifies as a
community garden." For example our garden has 70 households, it is on our
private property, and it is not open to the public to come and go as it
pleases. But it is open to our paid members. I'm certain it is a community
garden, but it would not meet some of the suggested criteria.
Sustainable urban food production does need to test a lot of models so I
admire your tolerance of different approaches.
Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
----- Original Message -----
From: "Margaret Shields" <margaret.gardeningmatt...@gmail.com>
To: <community_garden@list.communitygarden.org>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 12:01 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] seeking community garden "qualifiers"-what
makesa cg a cg?
Hi community gardeners,
Hope all is well! As I know people are experiencing in other parts of the
country, Gardening Matters here in Minnesota is experiencing a BOOM of
community gardening--great!
However, we're really struggling with data management with all of these
gardens. Like the ACGA, we keep a very broad definition of what a
community
garden is. We say "A Community garden is any place gardened by a group of
people to meet the needs of that group of people"
Problem is, as we work with cities, organizations and businesses to try to
expand resource availability for community gardens (compost,
seeds/seedlings, etc..) we are struggling to maintain the "integrity" of
the community gardens for which we are advocating.
Most recently, many new "community gardens" are registering with us for
free compost, but according to their registrations, it is a privately
owned
lot (i.e. someone's back yard) with at most 4 gardeners, and the only
primary contacts are the homeowners. I can't help but feel like we're
being
taken advantage of, but without limiting our definition, how can I fairly
deny them access to these limited resources?
Can you help me think of specific "qualifiers" that embody the community
garden spirit without taking away the intentional inclusiveness of our
broad definition? Some examples may be:
- There must be x number of people beyond the property owners or primary
garden contacts involved in the garden
- x% composition of the garden must be of community members
- there must be some formal organization of the garden-whether in terms
of garden rules/regulations, regular meetings, communicatoin network,
website/blog, or toher
- the garden must be readily accessible to the public (either unsecured
and/or with clear signage in a publicly accessible place about who to
contact in order to gain access)
- there are many other possible qualifiers I can think of but i won't
list them here...
We don't want to get into the business of policing who is and isn't a
community garden (that doesn't help our cause) but we don't want our
organization or the greater community gardening community to get a bad rap
because we're not addressing these fringe cases of people trying to take
advantage of our leniency?
If you have any insights or references/examples that would help me grapple
with this question, I would greatly appreciate it!
Spring tidings,
Margaret
--
Margaret Shields
Education and Outreach Coordinator
Gardening Matters
612-821-2358
*Shared Leadership Training (April 6 & 7) *-- tips and techniques for a
new
approach for organizing community gardens. Spots still available. go to
http://www.gardeningmatters.org/events/2013-shared-leadership-training
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