How to Start a Community Garden

Author - Tony Damico

Community Gardens can reduce blight in vacant lots, increase community connections across social divides, and improve the health and happiness within our neighborhoods. Over the years, I’ve helped develop several gardens in Long Beach and served on the Board of Directors of the City’s largest community garden organization. I hope these best practices are helpful in creating self-sustaining gardens for your communities!

A. Organize a group!

1. Recruit a group of 10-25 locals who are interested in the concept.
2. Have the group meet to decide the development process, and establish roles, from membership management to garden work organizing.
3. Decide if you’ll launch the garden as a new non-profit organization, a sponsored organization, or an informal organization. 
4. See if there are already qualified organizations that manage gardens in your area. 
5. Decide what will be required of members. Most gardens charge a small fee for a single plot per season, and require a certain amount of volunteer hours to maintain the broader garden space and perimeter, as well as to help with community-focused programming at the garden. Other gardens are communally operated; they may look more like a farm in terms of not having individual plots, in which case it’s helpful to delineate responsibilities for different sections of the garden, and find equitable ways to share the bounty. 
6. Create rules for what adequate maintenance and participation looks like, and make sure gardeners are growing for non-commercial purposes.
7. Be clear about the communities you want to affect and serve, and the environmental impacts you believe your garden will have. These will help you garner support!

B. Identify a space - Community gardens can often be found in public parks, vacant privately owned lots, open space at churches, public and private schools, and even generous homeowners’ front yards. Each space requires a different kind of agreement, but we recommend having contracts that guarantee use of the space for at least 4-5 years. Soil testing to determine whether garden plots will be above ground raised beds, or in-ground.

C. Identify key partners - You’ll end up with a more diverse membership if your community garden organization recruits members through other community-based organizations who serve the communities you want to reach.

D. Get proper permissions - Cities and counties have varying rules regarding where community gardens are permitted, and permit fees are often associated with those projects, as well as public notice so that the neighborhood knows it’s coming. Consider parking impacts, getting community buy-in, and showing great examples of projects that have been successful.

E. Establish sponsors - Starting a community garden can cost roughly $5,000-$50,000. You’ll need financial support. Having a non-profit status or sponsor can help, and there are lots of small grants available for community gardens. Being housed under a larger organization can help you qualify for larger amounts of funding so you don’t have to piece together lots of small grants. Aside from grants, companies often like to sponsor material costs, from soil donation to lumber.

F. Designing and building your garden. Obviously this is a complicated step, but here are some key things to consider.

1. Have an accurate blueprint so that you can fit the right amount of plots.
2. Plan for a composting area of the garden that’s not too close to neighbors.
3. Plan for adequate fencing to secure the site - fences can be costly!
4. Figure out what kind of tool shed and tool set will best suit your garden.
5. Calculate how much and which raw materials will be used to build garden beds and infrastructure
6. Plan the type of irrigation you’ll use and schedule getting a water meter installed and approved long in advance, this step can take time!

G. Grow your programming. Once launched, gardens can offer a lot of added benefits beyond the individual plots. Some examples include:

1. Seed sharing and seed banks
2. Plant sales and giveaways
3. Charity plots to donate to local food pantries
4. On-site workshops that are open to members and non-members
5. Memberships for folks who don’t want a plot, but want to learn or help out at the site
6. Community composting programs at the garden
7. Cooking workshops
8. Performance arts and community meeting space at the garden
9. Volunteer days to build out new spaces in the garden