Five things my sister learned when starting a community garden
My kid sis Rachel Fracassa and her friend Megan Grimwood decided to start their own community garden in Raytown, Missouri, despite having limited gardening experience themselves. Rachel's a go-getter, so I asked her to tell me what hurdles she ran into so far, because I figure she's already found how to get over them.
If the lot is vacant, there's a good reason.
Growing some veggies on empty land is not as easy as it sounds. When we first started thinking about organizing a community garden, we became more aware of all the abandoned lots around the city. It seemed like there was so many lots available, it would be no big thing to just grab one and grow tons of food to pass out to the neighborhood.
Perhaps it is indeed that easy if you don't mind trespassing, but trying to get permission to use vacant lots is another story. Just trying to figure out who actually owns the property can be quite a feat. And as it turned out, the majority of vacant land we encountered was owned by the county for back taxes (which must be paid before anyone can step foot on the property).
Make a budget, then double it to cover everything you've forgotten.
It all seemed so well planned. We had composed a nice, neat budget and had a huge fundraiser in the works to cover all of our expenses. The time had come to start seeds, and we quickly realized that seed starting equipment costs weren't part of our budget.
After six trips to Home Depot for trays, soil, light fixtures and bulbs, we'd spent another $600 out of pocket. For now, we're pretending that all those out-of-pocket Home Depot expenses are going into a "special" account that we'll get when the fundraising event is über-successful (crosses fingers).
Don't be afraid to rig up a kitty litter and Christmas light contraption.
As amateur seed starters, we were convinced our seeds would not sprout without heat mats. We were utterly disappointed to discover that they were so expensive, so we browsed some DIY sites until we found a homemade heating mat method using Christmas lights set in a tray and covered in kitty litter.
We spent the first few days tripping over a mass of tangled electrical cords attached to our home-made heating mats while simultaneously pouring gallons of water into trays and setting them on top. Not surprisingly, they weren't that effective, and we ended up scrapping the whole system.
We had to be open to change. We tried egg cartons, plastic and fiber trays, toilet paper rolls and multiple different lighting methods to find the best possible growing habitat for the seedlings. But we had fun experimenting!
"I'm sure the guys are all over you."
...my manager said sarcastically after I explained the community garden project. Not everyone thinks gardening is cool. We found the people who are passionate about growing veggies, and made them part of our core team. We realized that the most important part of community garden is community. Delegate! It's near impossible to plant 1500 seedlings, plan a fundraising event, and build six raised beds with a team of two.
You don't have to have experience to be a professional.
People assume we are experts just because we're organizing the garden. It's become a joke between the two of us as we both have little gardening experience. Plants want to live, right? They want to grow. That's what we just keep telling ourselves
Between our moments of terror, we're determined to live up to the expectation. We'll just have to fake it 'til we make it. And even though this project for community education, we'll be the ones doing most of the learning.
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Your point about if the lot is vacant, there's often a good reason why, is well taken. I've seen a lot of vacant lots that were actually unable to be built on because of contamination from gas stations being there.
One of our local community gardens is right next to the homeless shelter, so needles and such turned up and many things got picked or messed with.
But if you can find a place where the community is truly supporting of what you do, it can be one of the most wonderful and rewarding ways of giving back to the community and the earth.
Even if folks don't have a community garden nearby, there's a shocking amount of food that can be grown in pots on balcony gardens. Radishes, tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, chard, carrots, peas, beans, etc. They can all be crammed into a few productive pots. And don't forget about herbs and salad greens. The potential is huge for inidivuals to grow their own.
If you spent $600 to build a garden, you're doing it wrong.