RE: New Community Garden

H* A*

Kathy:

Check out the American Community Gardening Association website thoroughly
(links too) : http://www.communitygarden.org/index.html

There should be information about local groups who community garden in your
area.
Please feel free to check out our garden's website:
http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org where we have some basic membership
material, rules, etc. 

Again, first check out the American Community Gardening Association ( ACGA)
and  the Trust for Public Land (TPL) websites ( the TPL website is an ACGA
link) for community gardens and organizations in your area. 

Talk to your neighbors about whether they think a community garden is a
something they'd be willing to support as gardeners, monetarily or as an
amenity they would push their local elected officials to support. Be sure
that folks withing a five block area really want a community garden to
happen or you'll have a sore back!

Check you municipality's rules on composting, whether you can get a source
of water, etc.. Make friends with your garden site's neighbors, especially
if you want to keep a beehive! ( Check your municipality's rules on bee
keeping.) 

If you have the land, the gardeners and neighbors who are willing to
tolerate you in your pursuit, email me again. As a community gardener for 20
years in NYC, our crew has made our share of mistakes, the lions share of
which can be avoided. Remember, in an urban area with so many competing uses
for land, community gardening is 50% gardening and 100% political. Make sure
that you get a genuine consensus from your community before you start and do
everything you can to keep your garden inclusive and fun.

Community gardening is extremely fulfilling but can break your heart if you
don't pay attention to  the community first. It's always people before
plants.

Good luck!

Adam Honigman
Bowne Publishing Division
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Tel: (212) 414-8933
Fax: (212) 229-3421
email: adam.honigman@bowne.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Kathy Marshall [SMTP:triciaann@ctcweb.net]
> Sent:	Saturday, February 12, 2000 11:21 PM
> To:	community_garden@mallorn.com
> Subject:	[cg] New Community Garden
> 
> I am organizing a community garden.  How do I get started?  How do we set
> our design, schedule, etc.  Are there web sites or other information
> sources?  We will probably want to plant in the next several weeks for the
> early springs stuff.  The soil has already been tilled.  I know I want a
> little of everything - herbs, flowers, vegies, the works!  What do I need
> to know?

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