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Hello1 I am starting a community garden behind my church and have been given pretty much free rein on what I can do. I have never participated in a community garden before and was wondering if anyone has. It will be fairly large, about 3/4 acre, and I have a man coming next week to till it up, but am not sure of where to go from there. Any advice? I really want it to be all organic..that is my only hard and fast rule. I would love to hear from some of you who have some experience with this... I don't know what to do next!!
Thank you so much!
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I don't really have any advise. I just wanted to say how cool I think this is. I can't wait to hear what advise everyone has to give. I wish that we had an organic community garden in our area. Sorry to post without advise.
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I think this is a GREAT idea, and WTG for you! I have no advice either, most of us are garden newbies, we need an expert. At the top of the forum are some helpful articles you might want to check and see if you get any helpful info from those. As far as staying organic, I think there is a thread with some natrural pesticides and stuff.
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Very cool idea. Is it community as in "everyone gets to help and then reap the rewards", "you do all the work and others get to participate in the rewards", or "you're sectioning it out so everyone has their own small area to grow"?
IMO - I think some of those answers will help to lead you in what to do next. Please keep posting on your progress and your experiences as I would love (and I'm sure others would too) to learn from what you are doing.
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Originally Posted by kellynkay
Very cool idea. Is it community as in "everyone gets to help and then reap the rewards", "you do all the work and others get to participate in the rewards", or "you're sectioning it out so everyone has their own small area to grow"?
IMO - I think some of those answers will help to lead you in what to do next. Please keep posting on your progress and your experiences as I would love (and I'm sure others would too) to learn from what you are doing.
I would definatly love to hear how this turns out! Please keep us posted!!
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Thanks for the support! I am really excited about the project. I had in mind, to go ahead and till it up, section it off into raised beds, and then let interested parties plant whatever they want in their individual plots. I know the preschool at the church wants a small plot, as well as the local Scout troop, I want one, and so does one of my friends.....Maybe more people will come forward and want to participate if I put an article in the local newspaper. This would be a great way for me ( and others) to learn from some of the old-timers here who have grown food for their families for generations. I think we will need to put a small fence around it, and a sign, and maybe a small place for shovels, rakes, etc. I am pretty much just making it up as I go along. I am also trying to get our little town to start a Saturday morning farmers' market on our village green. Then, maybe we could sell some of our surplus, and meet other gardeners...I was thinking of having it be all kinds of homemade, homegrown things...like whole wheat breads, fresh eggs, veggies, flowers, goat cheese...etc. Sorry I am rambling...
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It sounds like so much fun. If you are gonna section it off, I would think your next step after tilling would be to divide it up (so you know how many "gardens" you have to offer, and then find the gardeners. I would think that the planning part would be done, unless you want to put together an outline for how the garden should be run. Some may want to do their own thing (which may not be organic). If you have these overall goals and guidelines on how the garden should run before then you can let the people decide if they would like to participate in that type of thing. Does that make sense? Then, I would even start to finalize the search now, so if they wanted to get started right after tilling they could.
I think what you are doing is an awesome idea. I hope that the community comes together to make your garden dreams come true!