RE: Church Associated Community Gardens

**"Jim Call" j*@casagarden.com**

About 6 years ago, I was approached by a Lutheran Church to help establish a
community garden on their grounds.  Their mission was to give the harvest to
the poor elderly, similar to the CASA Community Garden's (CCG) effort.  This
was a presented to the church by a small number of members (5 or so) who had
visited the CCG.   It was chaired by a "Lynne Mabry" type who had the
responsibility of making this happen.  On "Plant Day" in spring, they had
about 25 or more volunteers.  Good turnout for a 50' by 100' garden.  All
goes well.  The soil was what I call a "gum shoe" clay.  Just terrible.  It
screamed for organics.  I ask the Pastor of church afterwards... have you
ever heard of the phase
 "God is testing you"?  He said "yes".  I responded, "Pastor, this garden
will be testing all of you".  I told him it will take a few years of adding
amendments to it in order to raise its harvest level. I gave him and their
garden leaders advice on going forward.

During that summer, I visited the garden on occasions to review their
progress. As predicted, it produced poorly and had severe weed problems. As
the hot summer weather approached the volunteerism waned.  I understand the
lady overseeing this project quit the church the following year and without
leadership the project was discontinued.

To this end, I would advise you to make sure you are aware of all the
requirements needed to operate this garden.  Meet with your Garden Committee
and make note of all the equipment, materials (including seeds, plants,
etc.), volunteers, tasks, rules/regulations required to operate it.  I'm not
a "meeting" kind of person (unless its in the garden), but I would advise
having someone take minutes to record your meetings.  Email the minutes to
everyone involved.

You have quite a challenge.  If you have additional questions, please email
me and I will try to help you out.

Wishing you the best in your efforts,   Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: community_garden-admin@mallorn.com
[c*@mallorn.com]On Behalf Of Fred Mabry
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 11:31 AM
To: community_garden@mallorn.com
Subject: [cg] Church Associated Community Gardens

My name is Lynne Mabry.  I live in Laurinburg, NC.  Laurinburg is on the
border with SC, between Charlotte and Wilmington.  My church, Laurinburg
Presbyterian Church, has about 2-3 acres of unused land that we are planning
to turn into a multi-purpose community garden for the next 10-15 years.  I
am
the unofficial coordinator at this point.  I need to get a plan together and
present it to our Session (the church governing body) for approval.  Do any
of
you know of another Presbyterian church with a garden?

I would appreciate hearing from any of you across the country who know of
or
have association with any church /community garden.  What are your
guidelines?
Who can have a plot? Plot size?  What percentage is given away to the
hungry?
All information and suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks!  Lynne

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______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden