Community Gardens Projects
Community gardens foster the growth and distribution of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers for rural and urban neighborhoods. In the early 1980s, community gardeners gathered to form an official organization: the American Community Gardening Association. This nonprofit organization provides educational resources, workshops and support to community gardeners across the United States and various parts of Canada. Ever since the ACGA's establishment, gardeners have continued to grow fresh foods in specially-designated areas of their communities. Does this Spark an idea?
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Function and Features
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Community gardens serve as a centralized place for urban and rural gardeners to plant, maintain and harvest fresh foods and/or flowers. Depending on how the community sets up its garden, the space may include only vegetables, herbs or flowers, or it may accommodate a mixture of many different plant types. The garden may exist as one single plot or may be divided into individual plots per person or family.
Organization
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Community gardens require planning prior to breaking ground. Community members secure a plot of land and then form various committees to oversee the project's development and sustainability. For example, a finance committee ensures that the project receives enough funding from start to finish. This funding may derive from membership dues, donations, grants or a combination of various sources. A children's committee can work with the youth in the neighborhood and establish a section of the garden just for children. Another committee may coordinate rotating shifts for watering, weeding, composting and harvesting throughout the growing season.
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Membership
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Membership in a community garden depends on how the planning committee establishes its rules. Individuals may simply "sign up," or they may need to agree to a special contract that spells out the regulations of the garden. Some agreements may instruct members how often they need to tend to their plots or what pesticides, if any, they can and cannot use. Other regulations in a contract may address membership fees and interference with other community members' plots.
Benefits
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The primary benefit of a community garden is the fresh food that it produces, with some communities implementing 100 percent organic gardening practices. Gardeners may tend to the produce for their own families or they might donate the entire harvest to local food banks, shelters and other nonprofit organizations. In addition to fresh foods, the garden itself beautifies neighborhoods and supports green living. Furthermore, the social interaction of children, adults, families and friends working in a garden helps to strengthen relationships within a community.
Considerations
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Community members brainstorm various considerations prior to beginning a community garden project. Funding, land acquisition and its location, fertility of the soil, and preservation are examples of considerations that members discuss. Furthermore, the community garden runs the possible risk of vandalism and theft. In order to address these sorts of crimes, some communities may purchase insurance to cover losses.
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References
- Photo Credit vegetable medley image by Liz Van Steenburgh from Fotolia.com
