How To Start Your Own Community Garden

A community garden is a great way to take control of your and your neighborhood's mental and physical health. There are several different factors out of our control that impede us from spending an adequate amount of time outside, hanging out with friends and loved ones, and eating healthier foods.

Community gardens are not the end all be all for these problems, but they are a great way to start. By starting a garden in your neighborhood, hospital, or school you are allowing people to learn new skills while spending time out in the sun and socializing.

Our lives have become severely automated in the last century and because of that many of us have been raised to value time above all other things. We spend our days working and or studying to be able to give ourselves and our families the lives we deserve. As a result, we end up toiling over the few spare minutes we have trying to take care of ourselves physically and mentally.

We do our best to go to the gym, cook, spend time outside, hang out with friends, and pursue hobbies. However, there are only so many hours in the day and a lot of us must do away with things we enjoy doing in favor of being able to work more.

Community gardens are a great way to combine many of these daily needs into one. By starting one people get to spend time outdoors surrounded by nature, they get to learn how to grow their own foods, and they get to spend time with their community whether it be with old friends or with new ones.

Maybe for some of us starting a community garden feels like a daunting task but in reality, anyone can start one with the help of those around them. No one can make a real change alone the way they could with the support of others.

Getting organized:

• The first step is actually the most obvious. Figure out what the purpose of your garden will be. Maybe you want to diversify your local ecosystem by introducing new trees, clover, or other types of fauna where people can come and spend time in the shade. Or maybe you want to give your friends and neighbors access to healthier foods, so you want this garden to be for food exclusively. With the right space you could even make a combination of the two, but either way you need to write down your ideas with a guide like the one provided by Ohio State University.

• In any big project like this it is important to get your neighborhood involved. One person alone can’t plant and cultivate a bigger garden all on their own. You need people that have experience with gardening, and people who are eager to learn how to garden. Luckily, they’ll also come up with their own ideas of how the garden can serve the community. Things will always run smoother with more than one person coming up with plans.

• This could be made an easier process by starting a committee or club. Put up fliers in busier areas, make posts on social media (like on a Facebook group for your city), and speak to people personally at your job or in your classes. You could ask for a moment to speak to everyone at once about the idea to see if anyone's interested.

• Naturally the next step is to figure out who can do what so you can assign roles. You’ll ideally need people that have the different skill sets it takes to not only start a garden but get a plot of land ready to sustain a garden. You will need to have people that are familiar with horticulture, landscaping, and carpentry to name a few. There are also the essential club roles such as president and treasury.

Finding land:

• After all that gets situated comes the really fun stuff, which is finding an actual location for your garden. You want to go around to any possible areas that are currently unused, get plenty of sunlight, and don't have an unreasonable amount of debris. You also want to make sure it is close to all the people that are part of your committee or club.

• Once you have a few places in mind you’ll want to make sure they have access to water even if there is no longer a water service there having a pre-existing water meter is a lot less expensive than installing a new one. There is also the need to test the soil in the area to make sure it can sustain a garden.

• Because you are typically going to be using land that is not yours you want to get in contact with the property owners. Let them know about your intentions to use the land and sign a lease for it if you can. You want to get something official and binding, so they can’t just easily change their minds and take your garden away.

• At this point you absolutely must let your local government know about your intentions of making a community garden. Most municipalities will have the appropriate paperwork ready for volunteers to fill out (you’ll have to wait to start your garden until they approve the idea).

Getting the money:

• As you wait for the go ahead it's not a bad idea to start funding for all the supplies you’ll need. Your club or committee can go around the neighborhood mowing lawns, running a bake sale, and reaching out to local businesses that might be willing to donate. Whatever idea you choose you’ll want to post all over social media about it to let your city know where they can go to help raise money.

• There is also the option of starting a fundraiser with other likeminded organizations that could help you not only get started with looking more official, but also help you draw in more outside support and funds from people who may not directly benefit from your garden but still want to help.

• This is going to be the most taxing step in creating a community garden, but there are plenty of things you can do beyond the ones I’ve listed above. You can always do things that get the whole community involved and get more volunteers for your garden like holding auctions or doing a neighborhood yard sale.

• Just to get started with your basic tools and supplies gardens can be $2,500 to $5,000 so don’t be afraid to try multiple things at once because bettering our communities ourselves with no government funding takes a lot of work.

Making a site plan:

• All gardens can look vastly different from one to the next and that is because they are all built with different site plans in mind. You must plan where you’ll plant certain vegetables or flowers based on how much water they’ll need and how fast they grow. You should also keep in mind what diseases plants can contract because vegetables like tomatoes and potatoes should not be planted near each other for the simple reason that same bacteria make them sick, so they increase the risk of infection when they’re together.

• What's more, maybe your club or committee will want different amenities in the garden like a water fountain, a picnic area, or a grilling area. It is important to get together to plan out all the things you want your garden to have because you unfortunately cannot have everything everyone will suggest.

• To boot you need to plan how you can most functionally water the garden (the plan that uses less water more effectively), where you’ll have the compost bins and trashcans, if you’ll have play areas for kids, where the walkways will be, how you can fence off the area, and where you’ll set up a storage area for all your supplies.

• It’s best to walk the space and draw an outline of all the things you want to do before your club or committee gets started with clearing the weeds, turning over the soil, and clearing the debris. However, don’t remain in the planning stage for too long or else you could get stuck there without ever even starting the garden.

There are a million benefits to starting your own community garden, it really almost makes you wonder why our government doesn’t just make them for us everywhere. Either way no one feels the needs that are being neglected in our neighborhoods more than we do, so there’s no reason for us not to do something about it.

Despite the obstacles that will arise as you take the first steps to make your own garden, your community and or neighborhood will feel the positive effects in various ways. Having access to nature helps people to de-stress and ground themselves, and with a garden they will be getting that and the added bonus of spending time with others with cheap healthy food.

We hear it so much it sort of loses meaning but, we really can make the change we want to see in the world. With urbanization, deforestation, and the co-opting of land for cattle we need natural undisturbed land where plants and trees are still growing.

Making the bigger changes that are needed in order to save the ecosystems of our planet is going to take a lot more time and work from multiple parties. Starting a community garden is a small way to start that change locally.

Of course, there are concerns that come with community gardens like maintaining the upkeep of the soil and the new things that need to be planted. There is the reality that fundraising never really stops for a garden as you will seasonally need new seeds and tools. It is a lot of work and maybe not everyone in your club or committee is ready to commit to it for the rest of their lives.

People move and have complications arise that impede them from volunteering. Your club or committee needs to take on a life of its own that garners new members that are willing to step up and take those leadership positions even when you find yourself unable to maintain the garden.