What are the different factors you should consider when starting your own community garden? How do you ensure success and make it inclusive? What are the rules, what are the pros and cons? Read on..
Introduction – How to start a community garden
Starting your own community garden project can offer a wide range of benefits, assuming your garden management is effective and secure overall.
To start a community garden successfully, backing from your local community is crucial. Ideally, check this before getting started to ensure there will be support. Local businesses may also want to get involved.
Have you ever thought about starting your own community garden? No doubt running a community garden can offer a myriad of potential benefits, and with this in mind, we have outlined a few key things you should know about starting a community garden.
Hopefully, this will help you find out more about how to safely and successfully start your first community garden – and, notably, ensure that you’ve got the most appropriate strategies in place to start it successfully.
After all, there’s a lot that goes into running a successful community garden; still, with a little thought, you can help ensure things go smoothly.
What is in a Community Garden?
First of all, we need to ask the question: what is in a community garden, anyway? Within a community garden or community allotment, numerous different vegetables may be grown at any time; these typically include crops that are easy to grow without extensive experience.
Common examples of crops grown within community gardens may include potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, leafy greens, herbs, fruit trees, and the like; however, if you have a more experienced grower, you may be able to tackle more complicated crops as well.
“Gardeners, scholars say, are the first sign of commitment to a community”
ANNE RAVER
How do you start a Community Garden?
Starting a community garden is a relatively simple procedure! While you will need to obtain insurance for public liability and the like (contact your insurance provider to find out more about the specific types of insurance you’ll need to safely run a community garden), to begin with, all you need is a plot of land with some open space (urban areas, public land or a vacant lot (with approval) and rooftops work too), some seeds, and some interested members who are willing to put in the elbow grease to get the community garden started.
Take into consideration garden area, plot sizes, garden design, water access, and the amount of daily sunlight. With time, members can help establish the crops and get the first harvests on their way – which may help you extend the appeal of your community garden to a wider audience.
What are the rules of a Community Garden?
The rules of every community garden differ; however, in many cases, garden or allotment management will be based on a rota-type system, with members committing an equal share of time to the allotment in exchange for a share of its produce.
Several other common garden rules may also include additional points such as only X number of members at the garden at any one time, whether or not dogs can be brought along to the community garden for exercise, the types of crops that can be planted, who to consult before harvesting crops, and the like.
How Long Does it Take to Create a Community Garden?
Starting your community garden is an incredibly simple process since all you need is a plot of land and some dedicated volunteers ready to chip away at setting up the allotment! However, it may take a good number of months until your community garden is ready to begin giving the first harvests back to members.
Of course, the growing times will be directly linked to the type of crops you’ve decided to grow and the time of year you’ve started the allotment. What’s more, while some crops – such as carrots or potatoes – will only offer a single harvest, others – such as strawberries and tomatoes – will continue to yield fresh healthy food throughout the growing season.
As such, when planning your community garden, we recommend starting in spring or summer to cut the length of time expected until you begin achieving your first harvests. We also recommend planting a mixture of continuous crops and one-off crops to ensure that your community garden members can take plenty of fresh produce home with them.
What Makes a Good Community Garden?
Numerous factors make a good community garden, and we’d likely be here all day if we tried to outline every single point in this regard. However, some of the key things that make a good community garden may include:
- An engaged and enthusiastic community of growers working together can drastically help the garden thrive in both short- and long-term perspectives.
- A suitable soil type for growing crops without major hassle can help ensure that the community garden is accessible for growers of all levels and experiences. Soil testing may need to be conducted.
- Friendly local community members ensure that growers and allotment holders are comfortable getting involved.
- Some good quality mulch will help to protect the plants – you can look at different types here.
- Green space to grow healthy food with a minimal impact on the environment.
- A good community garden should always aim to grow a wide selection of different crop types, as this can help ensure that there is plenty of fresh food available for everyone.
These are just a few of the most prominent factors influencing what makes a good community garden. Fortunately, establishing a good community garden doesn’t have to be a major challenge, and this can offer excellent opportunities for your new project overall.
What are the Different Types of Community Gardens?
There are countless different types of community gardens, and carefully considering these may help influence your final decision on the ideal community garden to operate in line with your own growing requirements.
Notably, some of the most common types of community gardens may include:
- Plot gardens with individual plots per member
- Shared plots with multiple members per plot
- Neighborhood gardens
- Residential gardens
- Institutional gardens
- Educational gardens
- Demonstration gardens
Why do Community Gardens Fail?
Why do community gardens fail? This is a question that you should consider before founding your community garden to ensure that it goes as well as possible; however, several pivotal influences that can lead community gardens to fail may include:
- A lack of growing knowledge.
- Growing the wrong type of crops.
- Not growing the right type of crops for your soil type.
- Having poor access that makes managing the garden a chore for members.
- Low yields that offer little incentive for growers to get involved.
We should point out here that land limitations are not often a key reason why community gardens fail, many different layouts can be used in minimal space. Indeed, while many people assume that one of the pivotal influences for community garden success will be the amount of land available to dedicate to the growing efforts, this often isn’t true. Even a very small plot of land can be turned into a bountiful community garden with minimal effort; for example, why not try elevated growing on trellises or fence lines to increase the number of crops you can grow at any one time?
How do I get People Involved in my Community Garden?
If you want to encourage more people to get involved with your community garden, there are several key options you could consider. Of these, one of the simplest is to give out local leaflets or simply rely on word of mouth in your local region; both of these methods can be highly effective ways to target local growers. In addition, you might also want to consider linking with other community organizations, neighborhood groups or getting schools involved with your project, offering children the chance to learn how crops and produce are grown in a safe environment. In turn, this can directly promote your community garden to families who may be interested in getting involved.
What are the Pros and Cons of a Community Garden?
There are, in short, countless benefits associated with opening a local community garden. Indeed, community gardens are much less of a commitment than starting your own gardens, and you’ll often benefit from a wider range of crop types than you could grow in your backyard with limited time (thanks to the input from countless other members).
Additionally, the year-round fresh supply of produce may help cut costs to feed your family, and you can ensure the crops have been grown in line with your own standards, be it for lower-chemical use or if you’re just looking for fresher and more nutritionally dense veggies overall.
And, we haven’t even mentioned the social side of things! Running your community garden is great fun and offers you and the family the chance to meet other community gardeners or master gardeners and develop new skills. It’s certainly something that could come in handy one day – and it’s perhaps for this reason that more and more people are giving community gardening a try.
You can read more about the benefits of community gardening here.
Perhaps the main drawback, however, is that you don’t directly own the community garden itself. As such, if you chose to leave the garden, you wouldn’t be able to take any of the equipment or garden tools with you. Additionally, you must be able to work as part of a team; if you struggle to get along with the other gardeners, you may not enjoy the experience.
What are the Costs of a Community Garden?
While a community garden can reduce the price of produce there can be costs in starting one and keeping it running. There could be annual dues for the land you use, costs of a water meter, installing raised garden plots, or a soil test to check for heavy metals. If the community share tools, that will also keep the cost lower. A small amount of research should help you minimize these costs. A small annual fee could be negotiated or ask local businesses for sponsorship or donation of tools to share. Excess produce can also be sold to raise money.
How Can I Find a Community Garden Near Me?
If you’re not quite sure that starting a community garden is the right step for you, many cities or urban neighborhoods may have an existing community garden. These can easily be found through local social media, community groups, word of mouth, and the like; so, stay on the lookout, and you’ll surely soon find a great local opportunity to begin developing your gardening skills. There may already be an established garden group in your area for you to tap into.
Conclusion
If you have been looking to start a community garden, you must have the right skills and knowledge in place to make it successful. However, starting a community garden irrefutably comes with several key challenges, and considering these may help you optimize your community garden overall.
From ensuring that you’ve got plenty of engagement with the garden through to factors such as ensuring that there are vegetable varieties on offer for every participant, there are numerous ways you can run a successful community garden.
