How to take action- Assess and generate interest. If there aren't community gardens in your area, a good place to start is to find out if there's an appetite for them. Hold a meeting, or develop a survey, and find out if others are interested in this idea.
- Many hands make light work. While a small community garden initiative is something one person could possibly take on, it's easier and more fun to set up a committee, or to support an existing organization.
- Divvy up the tasks. Things to do in the initial set-up stages include:
- Researching locations;
- Contacting the city, private developers or landowners about site availability;
- Generating community support; determining the organizational structure and any necessary regulations;
- Signing up gardeners;
- Keeping things up to date and running smoothly.
Once the set-up is done, it's time for all members to get involved and pitch in together. - Locate some space. There are many different ways to find land for gardens. Most often it’s through municipal parks or green space land, but other places to try include: unused or underused public lands, church yards, schools, community centres, land developers, universities and colleges, or private donors (or lenders). For Vancouverites, there is a Neighbourhood Garden Lands sign up form to fill out if you want to be informed when newly available city lands become available for gardens.
- Determine who owns the land. Your local city staff can tell you if it is municipally owned, but to protect privacy, they cannot tell you who owns private land.
- Get creative. The space can be a gravel patch, a flat rooftop, in a field, on an unneeded parking lot or along a laneway. Gardens can be built up above the existing land, so it doesn’t matter too much what’s underneath.
- Don't only think big. You don't need a huge space for it to be worthwhile. Even a few garden plots will make a big difference. And once one garden gets started, you can always work to create another.
- If finding land is proving difficult, one alternative is to match landless people who want to garden with people who have land they are willing to share. Payment can be through a food sharing agreement or some other arrangement.
- Enjoy. The work is worth it, even just for that first bite of a freshly picked carrot, but likely you will also gain new friendships, knowledge and skills, and it will make a community of difference.
Why it makes a difference- Community gardens are especially important in urban areas where there is high-density housing and many people who lack the space for vegetable gardens.
- Local gardens provide local food, which reduces fossil fuel based transportation, and means fresher, tastier produce for your table.
- Garden plots become beautiful places to work in or just visit. They create a place for people to breath fresh air, smell the flowers, and dig their hands (and sometimes toes) into the dirt.
- Gardens increase local biodiversity, bringing beneficial insects, birds, and other species into the area.
- Community gardens boost regional pride.
- The gardens can become a gathering place, an essential building block of community.
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