from:"Jama Crawford"

Re: [Community_garden] Different membership levels for community garden

2016-07-13 Thread Jama Crawford

We have a "volunteer" role. These people don't pay dues but sign a liability 
form and are allowed to help out (such as weed) under the direction of a paying 
member. In some cases volunteers are allowed to harvest, particularly when our 
members have taken all they want of a specific crop. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 12, 2016, at 6:52 PM, Tracey Jacobs  wrote:
> 
> I’m curious if there are other community gardens that offer a “friends of the 
> garden” membership i.e. individuals that are interested in supporting their 
> community garden but do not want to maintain a plot.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Tracey Jacobs
> 
> 
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Re: [Community_garden] Farmers Market at the Community Garden

2015-04-01 Thread Jama Crawford

Hi Connie.

I hope you don't mind me chiming in since we have conversations in other
venues!

At Shared Harvest in Durango CO, we sell produce once or twice a year. We once
tried taking surplus to Farmers Market but found that to be too much work for
too few people and too little profit. Plus there is waste if you don't sell it
all.

So instead we have a Friends Harvest every year. The customer must be a friend
of one of the garden members and must be accompanied by a garden member during
the harvest. We figure out which crops we have in excess of our needs
(something that is hard to predict when you plan your garden because weather
conditions often dictate which crop will be a bumper this year and which one is
a dud). Once we identify those crops in excess, then we prepare a harvest list.
The customer can have 6 eggplant, a gallon of bush beans, 3 onions, a gallon of
kale, two dozen cucumbers, one dozen peppers, a gallon of lettuce, a head of
broccoli, etc. The customer is not allowed to trade one item for another, such
as four dozen cucumbers and skip the onions. Either they like that food item or
they don't and then don't harvest it.

Finally they pay $25 for the bag of fresh organic produce. Most of our
friends just love it because they really like to select their own veggies
right off the vine! And because they get a lot of organically raised food for a
low price.

Problems arise if the member does not accompany the customer. For example, one
friend was told by a member to go ahead and harvest on their own. The family
took a dozen unripe winter squash confusing them with summer squash. So we
don't sell anything to the general public as we don't want to deal with novices
inside the garden harvesting.

Big advantage is we garden managers don't do much but come up with a harvest
list and accept payment. Far easier than a market. And there is no waste.
People only harvest what they want. We aren't trying to find a charity to
accept 20 bundles of kale at the end of the day.

Our purposes are to make ends meet if our budget is a little tight. Or to raise
money for a large purchase such as our high tunnel. We have had as many as 60
friends harvests in one season, generating $1500. We generally operate solely
on dues but this little bit of income can be quite nice.

I don't know what side you are on in this friendly debate but I personally
would nix the market as just far too much labor for volunteer staff.

Jama Crawford
Durango Co

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 1, 2015, at 10:22 AM, Connie Bergstrand cjbergstr...@gmail.com wrote:

Would like any info and/or input from other community gardens about having a
market at the garden. Do you have them at your garden? What is the purpose of
the market and who helps...where does the $ go? We started out on a
shoestring, like most community gardens. We had a market with our extra
produce to bring in a few extra $$ to pay for insurance, seeds, etc. We are
now a 501 (c) (3) and have been able to secure some grants, more membership,
etc. for income. We have an area that is for individual plot rentals and an
area the is in a HEALP (Healthy Eating and Living Participation) program. The
individual plots operate as expected. The HEALP portion is based on a
membership fee with a commitment of at least 2 hours/week of work at the
garden. In the past, the excess produce has been sold. We would now like to
donate the excess to local charities. We are having a little conflict over
closing the market. I was just wondering if any of you have a market in
conjunction with you gardens
and how it is handled? Really, there should be no excess, we should only
plant what the members will harvest! I'll look forward to your responses.
Connie

Sent from my iPad
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Re: [Community_garden] (no subject)

2015-02-27 Thread Jama Crawford

This is an interesting question Diana.

Our summer garden is communal but our winter garden has individual plots. In
both cases I have seen people take things that belonged to others or belonged
to the garden. One of the things learned from a few rare confrontations is that
the person taking the item has a strong sense of justification for doing so.
For example we were told But she has much more produce than I do and She is
a friend and she wouldn't mind if I took it. I have also heard justifications
that blame the victim such as He is letting that food go to waste and She
isn't harvesting hard enough. If you harvest harder then more will grow back.
I have also heard I do so much for this garden I should be able to take
something without permission.

In short, your thief probably has a well constructed justification for taking
things and no amount of reminding or threatening is likely to stop the problem.

Shoplifters Anonymous claims that one in eleven adults compulsively steals.
Wow! I would never have guessed the number is so high. According to that source
the thief knows it is wrong but the compulsion is too strong. Shoplifters in
particular are often women and commonly religious with strong ethical
convictions, but they nurse a deep wound. They have an abiding sense of
deprivation which may be inconsistent with their financial standing. They feel
they have been done wrong or in some way short changed in life and stealing
makes them feel better. They are often deeply ashamed of their behavior
afterward but continue to steal compulsively and continue to run an internal
script justifying their actions.

The only thing I believe you can possibly do is to increase the social
interaction of your members as it is harder to steal from someone you know well
and like. But I don't think that will stop it. A camera system is a big
investment for most gardens but it may help.

I would also guess it is only one or two problem gardeners doing the mischief,
unless your entry is open to the public in which case the anonymous victim
makes thievery even easier for a passers-by.

Best wishes and my heartfelt compassion for having to deal with this.

Jama Crawford

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 27, 2015, at 1:05 PM, Diana Johnson dia...@cityofcampbell.com wrote:

Good Morning,

I manage a small community garden in Campbell California. We have
approximately 49 plots in our garden. For the most part, everyone does
pretty well and are actively gardening; however, from time to time I
will receive reports of items getting stolen from the plots. Items such
as vegetables, plants, garden decorations, etc.

I have sent out reminders that theft is immediate grounds for
termination of their garden memberships and we are considering the
installation of cameras.

Have any of you experienced this in the past? Or do you have any
suggestions of what else I can do to discourage this type of behavior?

Diana Johnson | Executive Assistant
City of Campbell | Public Works Maint.Div.
* 70. N. First Street | Campbell, CA 95008

( 408.866.2749 | 7 408.370-3304
: dia...@cityofcampbell.com

City Home http://www.cityofcampbell.com/ | Public Works Maintenance
http://www.cityofcampbell.com/207/Maintenance.htm

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Re: [Community_garden] Garden governance

2015-02-03 Thread Jama Crawford

 principles are these:


1. Don't believe everything you hear. There may be a reasonable alternative 
explanation.
2. Ask for what you want or need to know, and reserve judgment until you 
fully understand the situation.

3. Don't avoid a conflict. Avoided conflicts grow.
4. Assume that all conflicts can be successfully resolved, and in doing so 
will make the garden better and stronger.


I hope this is another point of view you may find helpful as you move 
forward.


Jama Crawford
Durango CO




- Original Message - 
From: Claudia Pine gardenersw...@yahoo.com
To: j...@growinggardensforlife.org; 
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org

Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2015 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Garden governance



Dear Jon,
Thanks for those words of reason! Yes, you would think so. However, we are 
in a certain Red State in which longtime residents, including members of 
other community organizations, keep telling us the state doesn't care much 
whether non-profits file their by-laws, let alone follow them. Since our 
state does have a pretty small bureaucracy, far away in a more important 
city, it may also be that they simply don't have time to spare looking 
into a situation that from their perspective seems like small potatoes. We 
certainly encountered this last year when our president-for-life arranged 
a donation of compost that turned out to cause severe problems for many 
people's vegetables. She was never willing to supply an analysis, just 
said people had misapplied it, and when someone called the state ag 
division, they were very disturbed to find out that a local business was 
producing something unsatisfactory and promised to come test it. But then 
they never came, and finally said that due to a change in management they 
were too short-staffed, and it was too late in the season anyway, etc., 
etc. So we're not sanguine that the state has any ability to ask that 
rules be followed.


But it does seem logical to me also that any organization's by-laws should 
have SOME kind of validity. So I will add that to our list of approaches. 
Maybe the IRS would care!


Thank you, and happy gardening!
Claudia


On Monday, February 2, 2015 10:23 PM, j...@growinggardensforlife.org 
j...@growinggardensforlife.org wrote:



To retain their 501 (c)3 status, I believe they do have to follow their 
bylaws.


Happy Hoeing for Him,Jon Jon Stevens, Executive DirectorGrowing Gardens 
For Life269 Russell RoadCamano Island, WA 
98282-8512www.growinggardensforlife.orgjon@growinggardensforlife.org1.425.330.0433



 Original Message 
Subject: [Community_garden] Garden governance
From: Claudia Pine gardenersw...@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, February 02, 2015 11:20 am
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org

Dear fellow community gardeners,

I am writing to ask for your input on improving garden organization. How 
do we put the voice of the community into community garden governance? 
More important, how do we get the voices of the garden renters heard, and 
considered, by a longtime board of directors that is no longer even 
elected, let alone responsive?


My city has a series of community gardens all started up, and run, by the 
same non-profit. We use city land and water and other resources, but there 
is no city voice on the tiny board that runs the gardens, and no 
member/gardener voice either.
I'm looking for reports or personal accounts that describe how often this 
happens... how often it leads to collapse of the gardens... or how (and by 
what means) such personality-driven garden groups change to become more 
democratic and inclusive. Or, become taken over by their local city 
(bureaucracy?!?) when it gets tired of the complaints...


Does this sound familiar to anyone?
- Our board is a small group of founding couples and close friends.

- They never step down.

- Even though the by-laws require annual general meetings, with annual 
elections by members, from a slate including active gardeners, to a board 
that is supposed to be mainly gardeners (as opposed to board members 
choosing other board members) ... we never have them.


- Decisions are usually made ad hoc without any review of records, or 
statistics, to see what the real problem might be.

- There aren't any records kept. Or shared.
- No financial reports. Where is the rent money going? Only some of it 
comes back to the gardens for maintenance and improvement.
- Volunteers are expected to step forward and manage each garden's 
orientation, annual rentals, training new gardeners, solving daily 
problems, repairs, improvements, etc. They have no vote on the board, 
however, and serve at the discretion of the board.


- Members, whether new or long-time, who ask tough questions, suffer 
retaliation, even threats to take away their garden space.


There are NO other community gardens in our city or even the surrounding 
area of the county for us to go

Re: [Community_garden] Rats in the garden

2014-09-18 Thread Jama Crawford


I got such a kick out of your email. Thank you Robin. You have a kind heart.

As someone who lives on a real farm, infestation, wild animal encounters, 
and rodent control are frequent challenges. A year ago I had to chase a 
mountain lion until she let go of one of our kid goats. I prevailed only 
because the big cat had selected the largest kid goat and could not leap the 
fence with the extra weight. A few weeks ago a family of four baby raccoons 
took up residence too, only 8 weeks of age and barely weaned if at all. 
Fearful that their mother had been killed by a car, I tried to feed them but 
they would not eat any solid food. The Division of Wildlife scolded me for 
that when I called for advice, telling me they will survive or won't but in 
any case a wild animal habituated to humans will certainly have an early 
death. Nevertheless, I had the same anxiety you are experiencing about the 
fate of motherless children.


We have a lot of rats, mice and gophers on our property which includes a 
large community garden (80 households). Rats breed at least 5 times a year 
with a gestation of 21 days, and young rats become reproductive when they 
are just five weeks old. By some estimates, perhaps exaggerated, a mother 
rat can have up to 2000 descendents in one year, if no one dies of the usual 
causes, including lack of food, disease, predators and human interventions. 
Fortunately 95% of rats don't survive their first year or we would be deep 
in rats.


If you truly don't want to have the lives of baby rats on your conscience, 
you can probably borrow a small live trap from your local animal control 
unit to catch the mother. Pick up the babies and transport the entire family 
to a rural area. Be careful where you release. You can be arrested and fined 
for releasing live animals - especially those considered pests - on private 
lands. The people who loan you the live trap are likely to have a good 
recommendation for where to release although they may be touched and amused 
by your efforts.


Our primary defense against rodents is a pair of barn cats. If you can keep 
a garden cat on the property, it will go a long ways toward minimizing 
rodent infestation. If you can't keep a cat but a neighboring 
establishment - residence or business - has a good hunter, then you will 
want to make sure the cat can climb a wooden fence pole to get in and out of 
the garden. Of course raccoons can get in that way too. But a good hunting 
cat is very useful because it can catch rodents and because its presence 
alone scares rodents away. Our barn cats are very popular with the 
gardeners, and the cats have learned the garden visitors often bring cat 
treats. But in some cities cats won't chase rats any more as they have 
learned the encounters can go badly. Not sure what you do about this, except 
perhaps look in the rural want ads for free barn cat as this cat may be 
less jaded about catching city rats. Most people say female cats are better 
mousers but we have a male cat that catches several rats, mice and gophers 
every day. Of course your garden cat will need the usual veterinary care to 
protect it from disease and to avoid disease transmission.


We also - but rarely - use rat traps - which can be purchased at any 
hardware store. It is just a big version of the familiar mouse trap. If you 
kill the mother, the humane thing to do is kill the offspring quickly. I can 
tell you won't like the sound of this, but we have had to use a hammer blow 
to the head once this summer, when a feral cat had been hit by a car and 
staggered into the garden with a partially crushed skull and nonstop 
convulsions. It was a horrible moment, but it was the humane thing to do for 
a wild animal that was sure to have a slow painful death.


We once used rat poison but I do not recommend it. Pack rats carry it away 
and hoarde it. Perhaps they die from it, but the relocated poison means you 
have no idea who will eat it. A small dose will kill a domestic dog.


I hope I have not offended the tender-hearted members of this list. Nothing 
is cuter than a baby wild animal and I want to live cooperatively with our 
wild neighbors. We have a deer that visits the garden often and she does so 
little harm that I don't try to keep her out. A bear also pops in each fall 
to feast on the apple trees, but for some reason leaves the compost and 
garden alone the entire year. So we are tolerant of wild visitors. But human 
and rodent conflicts have been around since the beginning of time, and the 
quiet removal of a pest by whatever means will be greatly appreciated by all 
of your garden members.


Jama Crawford
Durango Colorado


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Re: [Community_garden] Does a greenhouse overwhelm a community garden?

2014-04-29 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Gary.

We have a large, commercial-sized (30x72 ft) unheated greenhouse (also
called high tunnel) serving our community garden of 80 households. We love
it.

We raise tomatoes in the summer months and a wide variety of frost hardy
veggies all winter: onions, leeks, carrots, beets, chard, kale, lettuce,
spinach, parsley, dill .. etc. Not everyone wants to garden year round so we
have a smaller crowd in the winter. Our winter gardeners plant one big bed
of spring veggies in February to give away as a Welcome Back harvest to
the summer gardeners when they return in April.

Some people thought it would not be aesthetic, but everyone quickly adapted
to the commercial looking structure right in the middle of our community
garden. We feel more like farmers now, and several members have
actually gone off to start farming businesses. A greenhouse or high tunnel
creates a great learning opportunity too.

Our tunnel has very few automated features. I perform a lot of the daily
maintenance, and most of the year I have to find a substitute when I'm gone.

During fall, winter and spring, I close the structure on nights below 35
degree and open it up on sunny days warmer than 50 degrees. There is a long
spell from November to February when I don't open it at all, but during this
time I may need to lay down frost blankets on the coldest nights, and take
them up again the next morning. You won't need to concern yourself with cold
weather problems inside your heated structure ... unless the heating system
fails.

In the summer, I have to religiously open and close the tunnel on a daily
basis, at least until the nights are warmer than 55 degrees. We don't get
many warm nights in our mountain location. And the tunnel must be opened the
next morning by 9 am or it will rapidly overheat. You could get around this
problem by having a very good ventilation system with fan, thermostatically
controlled to blow out the excess heat. We also use a 30% shade cloth on top
of the structure and have wax operated vents but no fans. These aren't
adequate to vent out the extreme heat build up that is possibly on a warm
sunny day.

The tunnel is on the same drip irrigation that serves the community garden.
Watering is automated in the summer but during freezing weather I have to
wait for a warm spell. From late Nov through February our watering system is
simply two or three 40 gallon drums filled by a hose from a
distant hydrant, after which the hose is drained. Our members dip into these
with watering cans to sprinkle their beds. The beds need very little water
in winter. If the 40 gallon drums are frozen solid, then the plants don't
need water either. If your structure has running water that is protected by
your heat source, you won't have this challenge either.

Our tunnel is hardly a money pit. The market value of the vegetables it can
raise in just one year would have paid of its entire startup cost.
Greenhouses our size have often produced $20,000 in winter income and
$15,000 or more in summer.

HOpe this helps

jama crawford
Durango





- Original Message - 
From: Gary Dent gcd...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 7:58 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] Does a greenhouse overwhelm a community garden?



Our master gardener organization is being offered a greenhouse located on
an old landfill site. Methane from the landfill is used to heat the
greenhouse during the winter.  The Master Gardener group oversees two
community gardens and has 80+ people on the membership roles.  I would
like
to know the experience of others with a greenhouse?  How is it used?  What
are the benefits?  Drawbacks?   What duties and responsibilities have to
be
fulfilled?  Is it a money pit or something that yields  a good return on
investment?  Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
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Re: [Community_garden] greenhouse/workshop combo?

2014-03-10 Thread Jama Crawford

If you plan to heat the tunnel the double layer plastic is advised as it will
reduce heating expenses. A tunnel heated just above freezing can grow a much
wider variety in winter than without.

But if you dont plan to heat then the second layer is not very beneficial. The
two layers reduce light emission during the day resulting is less solar heating
and the risk of spindly plants. If you choose to not heat you can plant about
30 or so varieties of winter veggies mostly of the leafy green type. Many of
these plants are so cold hardy the few degrees you get from double layering or
frost blankets is insignificant. Some veggies are vastly superior in winter
compared to a summer planting. Spinach, parsley, cilantro, dill, lead and loose
head lettuce (especially red lettuces but the Batavian green and buttercrunch
lettuces are particularly hardy), scallions, kale, chard, arugula, tatsoi, pak
choi, mizuna, mustard, dill, chamomile, beet greens, claytonia, and corn mache
all will flourish under single poly tunnel and extreme cold. Unfortunately the
aphids that feast on some of these veggies will flourish too. One tip for
success is to avoid dense plantings. The plants need some ro
ot room to take up soil salts which they use as antifreeze.

I realize that this list serv will change soon and I seem to be squeezing out
the very last bit before it transitions to a cost based service. My best to all!
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Re: [Community_garden] composting manure, spread thin or pile it high?

2014-03-08 Thread Jama Crawford

a
complete list of problem chemicals.

If you do not take this precaution you are likely to run into a
problem visiting tens of thousands of U.S. gardens - contaminated soil
that won't raise tomatoes, beans, peppers, and other vegetables
sensitive to trace amounts (even 1 part per billion) of the herbicide
which survives the gut of the horse. The horse owner is responsible
for finding out the chemical burden in the manure before disposing of
it at your organic garden site.

In the organic commercial world, a contamination of this sort would
cause the organic farmer to lose his/her organic status for 3 years.
It has become a widespread problem and deserves effort to investigate,
and to educate both the farmer and the horse owner about the
downstream effect of herbicides when manure is disposed of.

Hope this helps. We've been thru the contamination problem and had to
scrape out and remove 8 of rich top soil. The problem will persist
for 6 or more years without soil removal.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Garden
Durango CO

Quoting John Hintz johnhi...@gmail.com:

Hi Folks,
We have someone dropping off a pickup-bed-load of horse manure to our
community garden. We want to get it to compost this spring as quickly as
possible. Is it better to pile it high, like in one section of a
pallet-compost-bin, or to spread it thin over a 20x24 plot in the garden?
Thanks
John
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Re: [Community_garden] fave part of being in community garden?

2013-06-12 Thread Jama Crawford

Colorado State University reported a few benefits of gardening that would 
apply to community gardens. In terms of life satisfaction, accessibility to 
nature was scored second only to a good marriage. The most frequent 
benefit reported by gardeners was stress reduction. 



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Re: [Community_garden] groundhog

2013-05-22 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Lynn

I might be branded as the tough guy on this list. Earlier this week I 
suggested how to expel an overly friendly fellow gardener. Now I'm on the 
subject of expelling overly active furry brown-eyed rodents. I really do 
love my fellow gardeners and the wild animals we live with. But, diving in 
once again ...


For a groundhog problem, it would be best to contact a Wildlife Control or 
Wildlife Rescue agency in your city. If you can't locate one, start with the 
Humane Society. A County Extension Office could provide guidance too. They 
will offer good advice for your specific situation or will identify a better 
agency to help you. There are surely pest control businesses in your 
community too, and you might end up there, but I would ask an information 
provider first since you have some very specific parameters (children, 
organic garden, and a public image to deal with regarding wildlife 
management).


For a large animal like a groundhog or raccoon, we use a Havaheart live 
trap. We used to borrow one from our local Humane Society for $5 a day but 
finally purchased one for $54. Havaheart has animal control strategies for 
lots of different garden pests.


http://www.havahart.com/advice/critter-library/groundhog-control

The next issue is how to bait the trap to lure the animal inside. Our 
problem was raccoons. For years we used pet food as we knew raccoons love to 
raid pet food bowls, but in the morning we often found a miserable captured 
cat. We switched to marshmallows and this proved to be a perfect bait as 
cats aren't interested and raccoons cannot turn down marshmallows.


For a groundhog, Havaheart recommends ripe canteloupe, strawberries, fresh 
lettuce, cucumbers, and vanilla extract (among others) as aromatic foods to 
lure a groundhog. You might catch birds and smaller rodents with such bait. 
Be sure to show up early in the morning so the creature (groundhog or other) 
is not trapped out in the sun for hours.


Once you trap the animal you have to take it to an appropriate habitat to 
release it. This can be tricky in both urban and rural environments. My 
husband was once fined for letting a raccoon go on an uninhabited section of 
river on an exceedingly large parcel of rural government property. It seemed 
like a safe bet but it wasn't. Again, ask the Wildlife Control or Wildlife 
Rescue agency in your community for release instructions so that your 
release doesn't cause you or the property owner additional problems.


It often happens that you are dealing with more than one animal, and thus 
must run the trap several nights in a row until the entire family is 
removed.


There are a variety of chemical and mechanical repellants for groundhogs and 
other garden rodents. I am not sure if the chemical repellants would be safe 
inside an organic garden. We have never used them. The mechanical repellants 
(typically a high spray sprinkler or loud noises/flashing lights) wouldn't 
be appropriate in a small garden either. Finally, there are dog clubs that 
specialize in urban rodent defense. None of these sound better than a live 
trap to me.


Hope this helps. Best wishes for your wildlife management.

Jama Crawford
Durango CO




- Original Message - 
From: Lynn Gregor lmg3...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:49 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] groundhog



Hello,

Being more of an urban gardener, I have not had much experience with
groundhogs.  But I am working with a pre-school program that has 2 raised
beds (3'x8') that definitely has a groundhog living in the area the garden
is located.

Any suggestions as to how to keep it from eating the plants in the garden?
Low-cost ways are preferred, but all suggestions are welcome!

Thank you,
Lynn Gregor
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Re: [Community_garden] Question/Advise

2013-05-20 Thread Jama Crawford

.


Again, your best guidance is likely to be found in a set of policies defined 
by the property owner.


Anyway this is my 2-cents.

We have never evicted a person for the reasons you describe, but have over 
other concers. We find that it soothes the situation if you offer to return 
their annual dues. Don't just automatically send it. Give them a chance to 
say Yes, return my dues. This way they feel they got something out of the 
departure negotiations too.


Good luck!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Garden
Durango CO


- Original Message - 
From: Diana Johnson dia...@cityofcampbell.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 10:53 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] Question/Advise




Good Morning,

My name is Diana Johnson and I manage a community garden here in
Campbell California.

I wanted to get your feedback on an unusual situation that is occurring
in our community garden.  I would also like advise if you have ever had
to terminate a community garden member from a garden.

I have a community garden member, who has become over friendly with the
others to the point of him making them feel uncomfortable.  He has also
taken the liberty of planting his plants in other garden plots.

This is a sensitive situation and I want to be sure that I handle it
correctly and address everyone's concerns.

Diana Johnson







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Re: [Community_garden] CG on private property

2013-04-12 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi John

It would be useful to find out how many claims have ever been filed against 
community gardens, wouldn't it? I searched for a news report on line and 
didn't find a singl eone. If there is one, it is buried under a kazillion 
forms people are asked to sign to limit the garden's liabilitiy.


We are a private property owner with a community garden (70 households). We 
carry a $2 million rider on our homeowners' insurance. We don't happen to 
charge the garden for that additional coverage but we could. It doesn't cost 
that much. We don't even have people sign anything - as we treat them, from 
a liability perspective, as guests to our property. In thirteen years of 
community gardening we haven't had a single claim, not even a hint of a 
claim, although there have been a few injuries that required medical 
attention. Farms and gardens are inherently risky environments with 
livestock, motorized equipment, barn lofts, electrical shock, tripping 
hazards, ponds, etc.


Will our insurance cover us? Who can tell? Insurance companies have 
attorneys too.


There are many gratifying reasons for a private property owner to have a 
community garden on his/her property. These include a positive community 
image, frequent positive publicity, a wider circle of nice friends and 
acquaintence, opportunity to share in the food production, greater public 
safety and improved property values in the vicinity, and some small amount 
of income to support, for example, electrical or water service to the site. 
I hope your prospect won't be scared off by the shadowy fears of litigation.


Best wishes, John!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO

- Original Message - 
From: John Sigurjonsson j...@cycleck.ca

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 8:25 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] CG on private property






My CG is working on arrangements for our first garden on private property. 
The owner is a real estate developer. We have obtained a liability 
insurance contract to protect that firm and will get liability waivers 
signed by all participants, but the owner and his lawyer are still 
questioning our ability to defend legal suits |(i.e. are the pockets deep 
enough).


Have other CGs in similar circumstance faced the same issue? Any advice 
would be appreciated.



Regards
John Sigurjonsson
519-352-0883







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Re: [Community_garden] CG on private property

2013-04-12 Thread Jama Crawford

Friends

I did end up finding one website that suggested a claim or two against a 
community garden may have been filed or settled. Because the description lacks 
any detail to validate it, and because this is a marketing piece trying to sell 
general liability insurance to community gardens, it is not clear if these are 
true examples of things that DID happen, or examples of the things that MIGHT 
happen in the world of possibilities. 

http://www.brunswickcompanies.com/ci-community-garden-insurance.html

According to the CDC the injuries most likely to happen in an agricultural 
setting are:
(Source http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-137/)

Youth fatalities
23% due to machinery including tractors
19% due to motorized vehicles including ATVs
16% due to drowning

Adult fatalities 
40% occur with adults over 65 years
Most adult fatalities attributed to tractor overturns, runovers, vehicle 
collisions, and caught in equipment

Injuries
75% of agricultural injuries happen to adults
Most common injuries are sprains, strains, torn ligaments (22%), fractures 
(15%), and cuts (10%)
Most common sources of injury were animals (16%), falling to the ground 
(16%), and tractors (5%)
Tractors, while less common than other injuries, produced the greatest 
number of fatalities (36%)
5% of injuries are permanent
   
In turn community garden owners and managers can mitigate risks by several 
pratices, such as:
  a.. Don't use a tractor or ATV
  b.. Only allow trained operators to use tillers, mowers, or other motorized 
equipment
  c.. If present, fence off ponds and livestock
  d.. Analyze and mitigate falling risks (ladders, hay stacks, trees, 
structures, play equipment)
  e.. Analyze and mitigage electrical shock risks
  f.. Keep dead branches trimmed, dead trees removed
  g.. Don't allow stakes that might impale someone who falls (rebar comes to 
mind)
  h.. Remove or anchor loose wires, especially those at eye level
  i.. Keep a good, well-stocked first aid kit on hand
It would be nice if someone made a good video on how to stay healthy and fit in 
the garden. We do see people get strains especially in the spring when their 
bodies aren't used to the physical labor. 

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden


  - Original Message - 
  From: Fred Conrad 
  To: Jama Crawford 
  Cc: ACGA List Serve ; John Sigurjonsson 
  Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 9:30 AM
  Subject: Re: [Community_garden] CG on private property


  If they are allowing use of the land without financial gain it would be nice 
if Good Samaritan laws protected them.  I can't sat if they do or not but it 
would be nice.

  On Apr 12, 2013 11:22 AM, Jama Crawford j...@frontier.net wrote:

Hi John

It would be useful to find out how many claims have ever been filed against 
community gardens, wouldn't it? I searched for a news report on line and didn't 
find a singl eone. If there is one, it is buried under a kazillion forms people 
are asked to sign to limit the garden's liabilitiy.

We are a private property owner with a community garden (70 households). We 
carry a $2 million rider on our homeowners' insurance. We don't happen to 
charge the garden for that additional coverage but we could. It doesn't cost 
that much. We don't even have people sign anything - as we treat them, from a 
liability perspective, as guests to our property. In thirteen years of 
community gardening we haven't had a single claim, not even a hint of a claim, 
although there have been a few injuries that required medical attention. Farms 
and gardens are inherently risky environments with livestock, motorized 
equipment, barn lofts, electrical shock, tripping hazards, ponds, etc.

Will our insurance cover us? Who can tell? Insurance companies have 
attorneys too.

There are many gratifying reasons for a private property owner to have a 
community garden on his/her property. These include a positive community image, 
frequent positive publicity, a wider circle of nice friends and acquaintence, 
opportunity to share in the food production, greater public safety and improved 
property values in the vicinity, and some small amount of income to support, 
for example, electrical or water service to the site. I hope your prospect 
won't be scared off by the shadowy fears of litigation.

Best wishes, John!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO

- Original Message - From: John Sigurjonsson j...@cycleck.ca
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 8:25 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] CG on private property






  My CG is working on arrangements for our first garden on private 
property. The owner is a real estate developer. We have obtained a liability 
insurance contract to protect that firm and will get liability waivers signed 
by all participants, but the owner and his lawyer are still questioning our 
ability

Re: [Community_garden] community garden collaborations with backyard gardeners

2013-02-21 Thread Jama Crawford

Thank you everyone. These are exciting models of outreach.

On the one hand, I hate to add work to our operation by supporting other
efforts.

On the other hand, this year we bought a lot of seed in bulk and sold some
of the surplus at cost to backyard gardens. It amazed us all when someone
walked out with $100 retail value in seed for only $15. It turns out the
colorful little package is almost 90% of the seed cost. At the very least, I
thought there should be more seed buying cooperatives.

Our one acre garden feeds 70 families and then some - we donate food to
charity and sell excess produce to raise garden funds. But what about a
backyard garden behind the home of an elder who can no longer mow her grass?
That garden might feed 5 households, including the elder.

I'm happy to hear the models are out there and look forward to reading up on
them. Our community is having a conference this week on the problem of local
food security. Our grocery shelves carry only 3 days of food, but the
participants will wring the same cloth that there isn't enough community
garden space and try to get the city, again, to sponsor more space.

I think we have to look at that problem differently.

A community garden might operate in a dozen backyards with willing property
owners. The members might share infrastructure costs - tiller, tools, seeds,
transplants, even the occasional group of community voluteers who want to
help. The property owner needs some incentives too, and reimbursement for
water useage, but a share of the fresh food itself is a powerful incentive.
At least, that's why my husband and I have a community garden on our
property - good people, good food!

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[Community_garden] community garden collaborations with backyard gardeners

2013-02-20 Thread Jama Crawford


Friends

I continue to mull the disappointing news that 87% of Chicago's registered 
community gardens did not produce any food. The bright side of this dull 
penny was that a great deal more food production took place in backyards 
than was imagined, particularly in poor neighborhoods where fresh food was 
otherwise scarce and expensive.


So it seems to me that a good model of urban community gardening would 
somehow support and advance backyard gardening too, perhaps in bulk 
purchases of seed, transplants, organic fertilizers and pest control, 
sharing knowledge gleaned from years of experience, or perhaps scheduling 
volunteers to assist elder backyard gardeners.


Are there any community gardens out there with a backyard garden outreach 
program? I may want to borrow ideas  to expand our own garden's benefit to 
the community ... without expanding the physical operation within our garden 
fenceline!


Jama Crawford
Durango CO



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[Community_garden] prior email re: urban backyard plot area in U.S. city

2013-02-04 Thread Jama Crawford


Friends

I accidentally deleted the great email regarding urban backyard plots in low
income neighborhoods, a project that used aerial or satellite images to
determine what percentage of an urban community had backyard gardens, and
then followed up with some ground truthing to confirm the identified plots
were actually in food production.

This thread also addressed a problem that many community gardens don't raise
food at all.

If someone could point me back to that research I would be grateful. The
subject has come up on another list.

Jama Crawford
Durango CO 



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Re: [Community_garden] good Garden Construction Book wanted

2012-12-12 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi John

I cannot recommend a book that covers this range of needs - garden layout 
with tool shed, fence, and other structural features, compost area, high 
tunnel, and heated greenhouse.


Depending on the grant funding available you can go very low or very high.

For example, raised beds don't need any lumber at all. You can just pile the 
dirt upward. Or you can build lumber side walls with concrete paths in 
between for wheelchair access. One solution is very cheap and the other tens 
of thousands of dollars. You can have a pile of compost that sits on a layer 
of branches for a couple years and is never turned. Or you can purchase a 
$30K tractor with front end loader to turn your compost and produce a fresh 
batch each season.


You can build a single unheated high tunnel and then, using sheets of 
suspended plastics, isolate one region you plan to heat from the larger 
unheated space (about $11K with heater). Or you can build two separate 
structures - an unheated high tunnel and a glass or hard poly heated 
greenhouse for at least $30K.


Your hoop house can be permanently located on one plot of ground, or you can 
buy the more expensive moveable models ($15K) and move the hoop house from 
one location to another, an ideal solution for long term pest and disease 
conditions that can build up inside a hoop house that receives no natural 
precipitation, and to serve crop rotation.


Don't forget your irrigation system which won't be terribly expensive but 
should be a budget item.


Basically you are constructing a small farm operation and your best source 
of information is probably one of your rural neighbors whose irrigated 
tunnel and field operations are commercially viable. You might also go to 
your County Extension office for some ideas.


Best wishes

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Garden
Durango CO








- Original Message - 
From: John Hintz johnhi...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 10:08 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] good Garden Construction Book wanted



Hello,
We are looking to build a working garden and composting site on our 
college

campus. We want to use raised beds, but also have a seed-starting
greenhouse and a hoop-house for extended-season vegetables.
We have to full spec out the site in the grant proposal. Can anyone
r*ecommend
a good book on garden bed/building construction* I could purchase to
assemble a list of the equipment we'll need for this undertaking?

Thanks
John Hintz
Bloomsburg, PA

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM, 
community_garden-requ...@list.communitygarden.org wrote:


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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than Re: Contents of Community_garden digest...


Today's Topics:

   1. Sow It Forward: New Funding Source for Community  Gardens
  (Roger Doiron)
   2. organic, no-till gardening (Ken Hargesheimer)
   3. Re: organic, no-till gardening (Linda Mullins)


--

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:27:38 -0500
From: Roger Doiron ro...@kitchengardeners.org
To: ACGA Listserv community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] Sow It Forward: New Funding Source for
Community   Gardens
Message-ID:

cag-9j6cbm88tsbgrpfqehsn0sdpm7j+oa5myo2z2bx9korc...@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

The Maine nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI) is pleased to
announce that it is accepting applications for its new Sow It Forward
program. Sow it Forward is a grants and partnership program offering $600
grants of cash, seeds, supplies, books and online garden planning 
software
to groups wishing to start a new food garden project or sustain an 
existing

one. Applicants will include schools, food pantries, community gardens,
retirement homes and other nonprofit groups interested in healthy foods,
sustainability and resilient communities. Applications are due by 11
January 2013 and can be submitted online at: SowItForward.org
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 07:54:55 -0600
From: Ken Hargesheimer minifa...@gmail.com
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] organic, no-till gardening
Message-ID

Re: [Community_garden] Selling produce to restaurants

2012-08-27 Thread Jama Crawford


Hello Patty

States (and even counties) vary in their ordinances regarding commercial 
food production, therefore you should go to your county level USDA and/or 
State Extension office for initial guidance. Interstate commerce will 
undoubtedly involve both federal law and the laws of the states involved. 
Our County Extension Office, for example, provides training in start up food 
production operations, and yours might also.


You may also want to investigate if your region has a Food Policy Council. 
This is a nationwide movement that monitors local food production 
regulations and attempts to clear unnecessary regulation out of the way of 
entrepreneur agriculturalists. However, you can expect to submit to some 
regulations to protect public safety and to help track food sources 
implicated in food poisonings.


Unfortunately this listserv cannot answer exactly what you should legally 
do, even though you may hear helpful stories about what others did. This is 
a case where you must do your own homework, tailored to your own region, 
customers, and business plan.


Jama Crawford


- Original Message - 
From: freshbakedc...@mindspring.com

To: tee...@aol.com; community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 5:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Selling produce to restaurants


Directly related to your question, I have asked these specific questions 
and cannot get consistent, accurate answers: http://www.mintforgood.com/


If anyone has the answers of exactly what one needs to do to legally sell 
herbs or other produce from a garden to a restaurant, please let us know!


Learning as I grow,
Pattie Baker
www.foodshedplanet.com
Local action. Global traction.


-Original Message-

From: tee...@aol.com
Sent: Aug 27, 2012 5:11 PM
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] Selling produce to restaurants


We are a community garden within an HOA. The HOA is a registered
non-profit, though not a charitable non-profit. We have an opportunity to 
sell  small

amounts of produce to a local restaurant, which seems like a win-win. The
money from this would go directly back into our garden account for use 
only

on  things the garden needs. Does anyone know if there are financial
obligations  attached to money raised this way or by any other type of 
fundraiser

(e.g., IRS  reporting, taxes)? Thanks.
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[Community_garden] hoop house installation

2012-07-09 Thread Jama Crawford

Dear fellow gardeners

I thought you might enjoy our little video on the installation of a high
tunnel (hoop house) at our community garden.

http://youtu.be/HaOeJsUAvCE

The high tunnel grant funding is from NRCS, a division of USDA. It is only
available to registered farms and not to nonprofits, but for those community
gardens operating on private property, an NRCS grant is an option. This high
tunnel cost $9,330 after all materials and supplies were included, and the
grant award was for $5,674.

My husband and I advanced the funds to the garden and hope to be paid back
over a 2 year period. If we don't get paid back in 2 years, we will commit
some of the space to a cash crop. But fundraising is going well and we are
ahead of schedule so that doesn't seem likely to happen.

In a hot summer, a high tunnel doesn't make as much sense, but we will
really enjoy the benefits in the other 3 seasons, when we start plants in
the spring and can hold them deeper into the fall, and then raise winter
greens.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO

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Re: [Community_garden] flooded community garden soil test

2012-04-02 Thread Jama Crawford


My 2 cents.

E coli, though famously dangerous, is short-lived. This is why you can apply 
manure up to 4 months before harvest. Even under ideal circumstances it is 
not known to live beyond 100 days outside of its host animal. Furthermore, a 
good cleaning of your vegetables will remove pathogens of this type, as well 
as any new e-coli introduced by the gardeners themselves (which is an 
unfortunately common source of contamination). You should stress the 
importance of washing all fresh produce, flood or no flood.


Mercury, uranium, metals, and other chemicals CAN be taken up by plants and 
then consumed. A good washing won't help these and soil testing is a very 
good idea. Your extension office or health department can help with these 
and the other concerns for industrial chemicals on your list.


As for fracking, if you don't know what the fracking chemicals are (and in 
most cases you don't), you can't test for them. In this case, you should ask 
your health department or water treatment plant if there is any evidence 
that such a concern exists (such as a true report of a chemical spill or 
flood site where fracking chemicals were known to enter public water ways). 
Fracking chemicals are typically thousands of feet under ground and don't 
mix with the water table or surface water, but contamination by one means or 
another is possible, flood or no flood.


If you over-wintered a crop such as chard, spinach, etc., that crop should 
not be eaten. A flooded crop is too contaminated for consumption.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango CO



- Original Message - 
From: John Hintz johnhi...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 11:25 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] flooded community garden soil test



Greetings,

I live in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and am on the board of our 2 acre
community garden. The garden is right in the floodplain of the Susquehanna
River and sat under Susquehanna River floodwater for a couple of days
during last September's record floods. I have called several soil labs, ag
extension offices, and soil conservation districts to ask what (if
anything) we should have the soil tested for. Several gardeners have
(reasonably) expressed concern that the river water in the Susquehanna is
very polluted, that there are several municipal water treatment plants
upstream from the garden that were flooded during this event, and a few 
are

even worried about possible contaminants from the fracking activity in the
area.

The only person we have talked to who have offered any advice suggests we
test for:

  - Heavy metals
  - PCBs
  - Salmonella
  - E coli
  - Clostridium pathogens

The nearby lab can do the first three, but had no experience with e coli 
or

clostridium tests (or requests for tests for those pathogens). So I guess
we will go ahead and get the soil tested for lead, arsenic, and mercury
(probably a good idea anyway since we don't know the history of the site
the garden is on) and PCBs and salmonella as well, and take it from there
depending on what results come in.

My questions for the list are: Does anyone out there have any advice as to
whether this is a good strategy? Are there other things we should be
testing for? Are there labs that will test for clostridium?

More generally, anyone else out there gardening in areas that were 
flooded?

If so, what, if anything, are you doing?

Thanks a bunch

John Hintz
Bloomsburg PA
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[Community_garden] Fw: Black list Scotts Miracle Grow

2012-03-20 Thread Jama Crawford


Scotts is owned by Monsanto and is the commercial vendor of Roundup.

Monsanto also owns a lot of old-favorite seed varieties from a 2005 
acquisition of a major U.S. backyard gardener's seed company. For a list of 
seed varieities now owned by Monsanto please go to 
http://us.seminis.com/products/hg_products.asp. Most of our favorite vendors 
now carry these seeds. Fortunately, most vendors have signed a pledge or 
independently pledged to not knowingly carry or sell GMO modified seed.


The purpose of GMO is to create plants that are resistant to herbicides. 
That is, you can spray the crop with an herbicide and it won't die, but the
weeds around it will die. It is not a clearly regulated practice, as GMO 
seeds are considered the equivalent of any other seed.


I apologize if I have supplied some misinformation here, but welcome any 
input from others who know more. This is my best understanding of Monsanto's 
new role in backyard food production, genetic modifications of seeds, and 
ownership.


- Original Message - 
From: becky stinson riverhe...@earthlink.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Black list Scotts Miracle Grow


thanks for this Karen..please know that Scott's now 'owns' a huge 
majority of garden care products geared towards homeowners. Including 
Ortho, and Whitney Farms..they are busy buying up 'green' companies 
or at least the patents on certain products, I believe, including Round 
Up. Please do the research, they are trying to look green while taking 
over the world of garden care productstheir mission and ethics may 
not really be in sync with what we all do growing food organically and 
promoting safe clean habitat for plants and animals we share the planet 
with...buy local or make your own, know who you are really giving your 
money to...

Thanks for all you all are doing.
~Becky Stinson

Guemes Island, Wa.

On Mar 20, 2012, at 11:28 AM, Karen Jones wrote:

I guess I am cynical enough to not be surprised that Scotts Miracle Grow 
people actually sold poison bird seed, knowingly.
I recommend that the ACGa urge all members and all gardeners and 
certainly anyone who loves our fine feathered friends to blacklist 
Scotts Miracle Grow.  Put them out of business.  Now.


The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything 
else.  Barry Commoner

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Re: [Community_garden] snails

2012-02-09 Thread Jama Crawford

Well if you consumed the equivalent as the poor Snail (and some do try) then 
some is harm done. Must say one of the nice things about our community garden 
is we do sometimes imbibe. We might work slower but we stay longer.
-Original Message-
From: Guy Serbin guy.ser...@gmail.com
Sender: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 15:40:53 
To: Diann Dirksdidi...@comcast.net
Cc: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] snails

I have heard, but not tested, a hypothesis that beer will work to attract
and kill slugs.  That said, I know for a fact that beer also attracts other
animals that aren't harmed by it.

Best regards,
Guy

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 12:20 AM, Diann Dirks didi...@comcast.net wrote:

 Thanks Ken,
 Glad to help.
 Diann
 - Original Message - From: Richard Menn rtm...@verizon.net
 To: gardenapplese...@aol.com
 Cc: Diann Dirks didi...@comcast.net; community_garden@list.**
 communitygarden.org community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 6:41 PM
 Subject: Re: [Community_garden] snails

  Diann is right--as was Ken in his earlier post recommending the Dirt
 Doctor's web site (the slug and snail entry from the archives does list
 iron phosphate remedies in addition to natural controls, although it
 takes a little patience to find them): products like Sluggo and
 Escar-Go--bite-size iron phosphate pellets in a yummy yeasty wrap--are safe
 for the environment, safe around pets, death to snails and slugs, and, by
 the way, a godsend to those of us who use low tunnels to grow vegetables
 during the winter months and who can't, or don't, check our beds regularly
 for signs of damage.

 I enjoyed seeing this thread juxtaposed to Ken and Diann's comments about
 sheet composting earlier today. Some of us in Zone 6B-going-on-7 who swear
 by the no-till approach can hear the slugs chuckling about how cosy it is
 under that organic blanket, especially in cooler weather, and therefore
 have even more reason to appreciate the availability of iron phosphate
 pellets.

 Diann Dirks wrote:

  Sluggo - Amazon has it 2.5 lbs. for about $16 + sh.
 Diann
 - Original Message - From: gardenapplese...@aol.com
 To: 
 community_garden@list.**communitygarden.orgcommunity_garden@list.communitygarden.org

 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:15 PM
 Subject: [Community_garden] snails

  any helpful hints on how to handle snails and slugs without destroying
 the
 environment ?

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[Community_garden] high altitude seed varieties

2012-02-06 Thread Jama Crawford


Hello friends

I am putting together a list of seed varieties that perform well at high 
altitude. That translates as both short season and relatively shallow 
soil since there is quite a bit of wind and water erosion in high 
elevations that reduce soil quality. If you meet either of these criteria, I 
hope you will get in touch


1. Garden location is 6,000 ft or higher
2. Garden location is 4,500 ft or higher and has a frost free season  90 
days


If you participate, you will mark your seed variety favorites using a list 
already created. In exchange you will receive a list of seeds other gardens 
with similar circumstance found favorable. The list also contains as 
assemblage of seed vendor recommendations for high altitude gardens.


If interested, please respond off list. You must have Excel to participate.

Thanks,

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO



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Re: [Community_garden] high altitude seed varieties

2012-02-06 Thread Jama Crawford

Thanks for the lead. 

I am looking specifically for varieties, so I appreciate your help. We've been 
growing for more than a decade so we have a lot of our own favorites, but want 
to build out that list for a group of novice farmers taking an Ag Extension 
program. Mountain gardening has many of the same variables of high latitude 
gardening, but we add wildly fluctuating temperature extremes, dry winds, a 
scorching sun, and a sudden transition from winter to summer into the mix. So 
it helps to have seed varieties that have been vetted in another mountain 
location. 



- Original Message - 
  From: Robyn Harvey 
  To: Diann Dirks 
  Cc: Kim Delaneyoganic farmer ; Jama Crawford ; 
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org 
  Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 1:34 PM
  Subject: Re: [Community_garden] high altitude seed varieties


  Hi Diann and Jama,
  I heard a talk by Kim Delaney of Hawthorn Farms. She Talked about friends who 
are high altitude farmers and who have been working on acclimatizing varieties 
of many things. Try asking her how to get a hold of those seed varieties lists 
and distributers or perhaps she has them. ~ robyn
  http://www.hawthornfarm.ca/


  From: Diann Dirks didi...@comcast.net
  To: Jama Crawford j...@frontier.net; 
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org 
  Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 3:07:21 PM
  Subject: Re: [Community_garden] high altitude seed varieties


  Here are some tips:
  The list would have to include the zone and which seasons you plan on 
gardening.

  I would say any seeds that say 'early' and cool weather would work well. 
Lettuces would probably do fine. Root varieties also would work well - 
especially beets, turnips, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and if it's warm 
enough, sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes - these are the easiest to grow 
and pretty hearty. You can start many of them indoors early and transplant when 
the weather warms up - or succession plant.

  Most cole crops would also do well (brassicus) especially if you tented them 
in really cold weather. I grow things even in the snow with plastic covers. 
Start your seeds early and put them under some kind of protective covering like 
a bell cloches or cold frames.

  Clear plastic storage containers also work fine if you can keep them from 
blowing over.

  Harden them off if it's still spring weather but you need more upper room for 
them.

  Summer planting would work well as long as the days are long enough. In 
Alaska because the season is so short but the days are so long, you can't 
really go off of regular computations.

  I would imagine that would work in your area also if you get good sun 
exposure in your warmer weather. Make sure you are positions to catch every ray 
of sun during the day. And if it's partially in the shade part of the time, you 
can use reflective panels to catch and direct sunlight to add the time for 
daylight exposure. Even putting mylar on a big wooden frame and prop it up so 
it will adjust easily during the time of day you want to add more light. 
Survival blankets work well - the kind made of mylar, very light weight and 
large.

  I would put in raised beds with deeper soil as that will handle the wind and 
water erosion aspect with reduced soil quality. 4'x8' beds are ideal - large 
enough to grow a lot, small enough to fit into odd spaces or limited exposure 
spaces, and you can easily walk around them and reach all parts of the bed 
easily.

  Hearty plans such as collards, broccoli, mustard greens, cabbage, spinach, 
turnip greens, beet greens, and most kinds of kale tend to handle a LOT of cold 
without even the need of coverings unless it gets really cold.

  I would image the hardest thing to grow would be things that require a lot of 
heat for a long season like tomatoes. Those you would have to put in containers 
indoors till you know you are out of frost danger, then put outside, and bring 
in during autumn if it's going to frost. Same goes for peppers though if you 
take care to keep them warm enough not to kill them in the winter, they are 
perennial and will grow for years. They are heartier than tomatoes and longer 
lived. In that case you want varieties that can handle being grown in limited 
continer root space.

  Hope that helps.
  Diann Dirks
  Certified Permaculture Designer
  NE Georgia (yes, we get really cold weather in the foothills of the Blueridge 
Mountains)


  - Original Message - From: Jama Crawford j...@frontier.net
  To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
  Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 12:26 PM
  Subject: [Community_garden] high altitude seed varieties


   Hello friends
   
   I am putting together a list of seed varieties that perform well at high 
altitude. That translates as both short season and relatively shallow soil 
since there is quite a bit of wind and water erosion in high elevations that 
reduce soil quality. If you meet either of these criteria, I hope you will get

Re: [Community_garden] Garden Plot Numbering Labels?

2011-12-06 Thread Jama Crawford

This is very low tech, but it is our best and most durable label yet. Paint 
one end of a 4-foot wooden stake white. When it dries, use a wide point 
black permanent marker to print the information you need. This stake stands 
up above the foliage all season long and is visible from a good distance. It 
doesn't fade. We use a narrow piece of lathe about 2.5 inches wide and 1/4 
inch thick.




- Original Message - 
From: Ronald J. Woodhead, Director CRPR rwoodh...@crcog.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 9:36 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] Garden Plot Numbering Labels?



Hello, community garden leaders.
We're looking for a way to improve the plot number label system at each 
of

our 108 plots.
We use re-bars with a plastic safety protector atop each one - but the
marked plot number quickly fades off the plastic.
What durable  inexpensive suggestions have you used to define corners and
numbers for each plot in your gardens?
Thanks in advance.
RON
Centre Region Parks  Recreation
State College, PA 16801
Visit  http://www.crpr.org/ http://www.crpr.org

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Re: [Community_garden] garden membership software

2011-11-30 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Mary Beth

We use FileMaker. It isn't terribly expensive and you can often buy a 
license that is a version or two old at a greatly discounted price. A 
version 9 or 10 would work nearly as well as the current Version 11.


Furthermore, I would be happy to send you a blank copy of the file we 
deployed, if it is an approximate fit to your garden organization, or if it 
can be easily modified to fit your program. Access could be used for a 
similar result but I'm terribly fond of FileMaker. Apparently Microsoft came 
out with a new, free database product this year but I haven't seen it yet.


I am not sure if this will make sense to you, but we use the following 
tables. It will make sense to someone who develops databases. Each table is 
equivalent to one spreadsheet in Excel. You may not need some of these 
tables, as it reflects our style of organization using teams to raise 
specific crop varieties.


HOUSEHOLDS - this unit pays dues each year, includes household name, 
address, phones
MEMBERS - the individual people who belong to the households, includes 
individual names, emails.
DUES - records of annual payments, e.g. amount paid, date, balance due, 
check no, deposit date, etc.
TEAMS - this unit works specific crops, includes a team number 4, name 
Tomatoes, and year 2011

TEAM ASSIGNMENTS - this links 5 to 8 members to one team
ROWS - the specific, fixed plots in our garden, which we call rows
CROPS - the crops we raise, includes crop name, variety, and seed source
TEAM-ROW-CROP - connects one team to two to four rows and one to six crops 
in a given season
EMAILS - this is a log of all emails sent, some of which we reuse in later 
years


Our database cuts administration time at least in half. It makes for rapid 
communication, a quick deposit sheet, and an accumulation of valuable data 
we use to communicate our project to others each year.


Best wishes for a successful data management effort!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO

- Original Message - 
From: Mary Beth Pudup pu...@ucsc.edu

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 10:06 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] garden membership software


Hi-- I am wondering if anyone has experience/can recommend a software 
program useful for managing membership in a community garden (other than 
excel, that is).


Thank you.

Mary Beth Pudup
SF, CA

--
Mary Beth Pudup, Associate Professor
Department of Community Studies
210 Oakes College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA   95064
831 459 2003 (office)
831 459 4979 (fax)


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[Community_garden] cost of hoop house

2011-10-23 Thread Jama Crawford

Dear Colleagues

We are considering installing a high hoop house (approx 12' wide, 7' tall, 90' 
long) for raising bedding plants, lettuce, and tomatoes. We typically have a 
very short season although this fall was extraordinarily generous with its 
frost free days. 

Our garden has $650 left at the end of the season. Unheard of. We are always 
broke at the end of the season. So a hoop house is highest on the list of how 
to invest that money in future operations. We spend about $3,000 raising 
bedding plants at a commercial greenhouse each year, so reducing that cost 
could pay for the hoop house (as soon as we master the greenhouse operations - 
we can't pretend to know this piece of it yet).  

I've looked up the cost of parts in catalogs and on line and have a basic idea 
of the cost, which exceeds this small budget, but I'm not sure if a clever and 
frugal group of gardeners has come up with a good hoop house for less. The 
house must shed snow, of course, so I'm especially interested in the 
experiences of gardeners from northern latitudes who must also deal with a lot 
of winter snow. 

Thanks for your input!!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango, CO
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Re: [Community_garden] Bees Dying

2011-09-27 Thread Jama Crawford


Friends

We had incredible bees this year. Our garden devoted a considerable amount 
of space to flowers, along the exterior fence and at the heads and tails of 
row crops, and along bridges and paths that connected the interior of the 
garden. Every little blossom had one, two, or more bees in it. I found 
squash blossoms with four bees at once. Although we don't have a hive, the 
county extension office said we could have. We also allowed several plants 
to bolt and flower, whereas in the past we would had nipped that in the bud, 
literally. These included broccoli, cilantro, tatsoi, bok choi, and a few of 
last year's root crops which escaped harvest, such as carrots and parsnips. 
I expect we had the highest concentration of flowers for 5 miles around. In 
turn, we had almost no aphids, even though we were bracing for the worst 
year ever, and many other local gardens reported a very bad year of them. We 
used some neem oil early in the season, and some garlic spray later on, but 
it is also possible that the flowers attracted the right predators, as 
several people on this list said they would when I asked for aphid advice in 
late spring.


Anyway, I just wanted to offer a more hopeful picture of bee life, and the 
potential role of community gardens to support it.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango Colorado



- Original Message - 
From: jhain...@comcast.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 4:45 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] Bees Dying





A good report but, like most others, it focuses on commercial beekeepers. 
Neighborhood beekeepers are having better luck with their bees, especially 
those, like me, who use no chemicals whatsoever. There's an interesting 
group in California called The Backwards Beekeepers who believe in only 
getting their swarms through capture and the use of no chemicals. They've 
done some very entertaining and informative videos on youtube.




Judy in Michigan
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Re: [Community_garden] water usage - Excel spreadsheet

2011-07-26 Thread Jama Crawford

I thought these two fellows provided great answers, and to support their 
time and effort, I created an Excel spreadsheet to do the math for you by 
inserting your local conditions. I am going to try to attach it to this 
email (not sure if the list serv will strip attachments). If you don't get 
an attachment, please contact me off the list serv and I will send it to you 
privately.


I entered our own garden's local values in the yellow boxes as an example. 
You should replace those values with your own.


Extreme heat and drying winds would naturally affect the results.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO


- Original Message - 
From: Richard Menn rtm...@verizon.net

To: Cocke, Abby abby.co...@baltimorecity.gov
Cc: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] water usage


Guy Serbin's advice is right on target. If you need to come up with a 
quick estimate of total water usage for planning or reporting purposes, 
try this:


Calculate the amount of water needed to cover an area the size of the 
garden to the depth of 1.5 inches once a week for 26 weeks. A gallon 
contains 231 cubic inches of water. Therefore, one inch of rainfall or 
irrigation for each square foot of garden would equal 0.62 gallon, and 1.5 
inches would make it a bit less than a whole gallon. So let's say that a 
well-mulched garden of 1,000 square feet would require, at most, some 900 
gallons of water per week from some combination of rainfall and 
supplemental irrigation. (If these figures leave you scratching your head, 
I'll be happy to talk further off-list.)


Assuming that an inch or more of rain will fall on the garden each week 
during April and May, as is usual for your area, then you will probably 
need to do little additional watering in the spring beyond what's required 
to get seedlings and new transplants established. Just follow Guy's 
recommendations for calculating your supplemental water needs for the rest 
of the season (primarily mid-June to mid-September).


Summing up: estimate your total water consumption for 26 weeks, subtract 
the rainfall, and you'll have a rough idea of what you'll need to supply 
via irrigation over the course of the season. Of course, deep, infrequent 
watering (preferably early in the day) and thick mulches of chopped fall 
leaves, dried grass clippings and/or straw are essential ingredients in 
the whole process.


Guy Serbin wrote:


Abby,

That would vary based upon climate, crop, gardener experience,
irrigation technology, maintenance, etc.  As such, I wouldn't use
irrigation data from anywhere outside of your area unless it had a
comparable climate.  A first start would be to put in place water
meters on any irrigation systems and then keep a log of irrigation
usage at regular intervals.  As for precipitation, you'd need to use
weather station data or NEXRAD precipitation data to estimate that
unless the farms have on-site stations.  Some of the larger community
farms in the Baltimore area may have some data on that, e.g., the
Kayam Farm at the Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD, but I don't
know if the smaller ones, e.g., the Whitelock Community Farm in
Reservoir Hill, does.

Sincerely,
Guy Serbin

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Cocke, Abby
abby.co...@baltimorecity.gov wrote:


I was wondering if anyone had any figures on how much water their garden
uses... per quarter, per year, anything like that?



Thanks!



Abby Cocke

Environmental Planner, Office of Sustainability

Baltimore City Department of Planning

417 East Fayette Street, 8th Floor

Baltimore, Maryland 21202

410-396-1670 Phone

410-244-7358 Fax

abby.co...@baltimorecity.gov mailto:beth.strom...@baltimorecity.gov







Please consider the environment prior to printing.



www.baltimoresustainability.org http://www.baltimoresustainability.org


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Re: [Community_garden] List Serv of Value to Farmers Irrigating From Degrading River Source?

2011-06-28 Thread Jama Crawford

A friend who has been in charge of superfund cleanup sites (including 
surface water and stream contamination) recommended resources from EPA.


Ground and Surface Water remediation http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/gwerd/

Groundwater remediation http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/gwerd/gw/index.html

Groundwater technical support center 
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/gwerd/tsc/tsc.html. The last site names two 
contacts who might lead an interested party to a list of professionals 
engaged in this effort, perhaps they can lead to a list serv. It is a very 
technical section of EPA, and their responsibility is to the U.S. rather 
than to abroad, but perhaps they would agree this is a global issue and 
engage good minds in distant places.


Best wishes and here's hope new generations will solve more problems than 
create problems.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango CO


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Re: [Community_garden] Distance Gardens

2011-06-22 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Mary

Last fall we surveyed members and found the average one-way commute to our 
garden was 7.1 miles, no surprise since the garden is also 7 miles from the 
target community of 14,000. It works fine. Some of our employees work nearby 
and they stop at the garden on the way to and from work. Some live even 
further out of town than the garden, so the garden is on their way to town. 
Most live on this side of town. Many carpool, ride bikes, or motor scooters.


Finally, the furthest gardener lives 20 miles away. She is here twice a 
week, but the garden is near her daily commute.


Hope this helps.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Communtiy Garden
Durango CO


- Original Message - 
From: Mary Reilly-Kliss mar...@charter.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:58 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] Distance Gardens



All-
Am working with someone who has an idea to start a community garden in an 
area 3-5 miles removed from the 11,000 people who would be the target 
community for plot rentals.


Do any you have successful/unsuccessful gardens in similar situations?

Thanks,
Mary
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Re: [Community_garden] failure to thrive question for suburban CG

2011-06-21 Thread Jama Crawford


Hello Gina

Take heart. It takes time to grow a garden!

Our garden is 11 years old and going strong, but it had its moments when it 
seemed as if it might break apart because too much work was piled on too few 
people. Since the landowner (my husband) was overburdened too, it threatened 
the actual garden site. I can't provide answers, because every situation is 
different, but here are some of my observations about the glue that holds 
gardens together.


1. There is a healthy interaction between experienced gardeners and new 
gardeners. New gardeners don't know how to garden well, don't put in as much 
work as needed all season long, and don't feel satisfied with the results. 
They drop out because it is simply easier to buy food, and we have to admit 
it is. An experienced gardener can convey some degree of passion and 
confidence to inspire new gardeners. We use master gardeners and gardeners 
with many years of experience to work with newbies. It also helps to have 
some sort of communal spring crop people can eat right away, as an instant 
reward.


2. The community is structured in such a way that maximizes social 
interaction. The more people work and sweat and eat together, the more 
intimate they become, and the more often they come to the garden for the 
social, relaxing aspects.


3. Underlying conflicts are addressed and resolved with the conviction we 
are going to work it out and stick together on this.


4. Family support. Family support can be very slow to develop. At first, dad 
doesn't really appreciate all mom's time at the garden. We have seen 
husbands drive up to the garden to yell at their wives to get home. Now. I 
suppose it could go the opposite way with moms yelling at dads, but this is 
what we've observed. But this changes over time as family members come to 
not only love the food from the garden, but realize they can't get that 
special food any other way. It becomes part of their family culture to enjoy 
that food. We've also seen fathers on their hands in knees in the garden 
well after dark before the first frost feeling their way through the 
tomatillo patch to pick every last fruit, because they can't imagine a 
winter without enough of their wife's special recipe tomatillo salsa.


5. A growing confidence there is a direct relation between effort and 
production. The garden is a perfect example of delayed gratification. First 
it takes at least one season to get your reward, and if you bomb a crop it 
might take several seasons before you figure it out. But eventually the 
gratification is there, and gardeners come to trust their effort will pay 
off.  Until gardeners are rewarded for a few seasons, they doubt their hard 
work will yield enough. We ask gardeners to pay $70 in dues (includes seeds, 
plants and all infrastructure) and two to three hours of work a week. In 
return they can count on $600 worth of fresh, organic produce. If they did 
the math and realized they were paid minimum wage, they might not be so gung 
ho, but they don't and the reward is in place.


6. Opportunities to taste food expertly prepared from the garden. We use 
potlucks and we are lucky to have a number of professional cooks in our 
group. This helps new gardeners realize the food fresh from the garden is 
infinitely more tasty than purchased food. This leads to an exchange of 
recipes, etc.


7. Weather. Some weather sucks, and this can drive people out of the garden. 
No solutions here!


8. Never forget what the ultimate reward is: food. Getting too fancy or too 
off track from this simple concept will only detract from the reason you 
come together. Make sure your gardeners and your volunteers feel rewarded 
with an abundance of food. In our garden, the workers get first pick of all 
the produce before we give to charity.


When the garden is cohesive and productive and reliable, then people step up 
to keep it running. No one wants it to fail.  My 2-cents!!!


Good luck

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango CO





- Original Message - 
From: Gina Faber faberm...@fastmail.fm

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 4:01 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] failure to thrive question for suburban CG



Hello all,
   We started up a community garden in a suburban/rural town in  Western 
Loudoun County, VA 3 years ago.   This ACGA mailing list has  been a great 
resource for our team of community volunteers who set up  and manage 18 
plots on town-owned land   (www.roundhillgarden.org).


   The first 2 years went great--lots of community involvement,  full 
tenancy in the garden, though not a huge waiting list.   But this  year, 
we only rented 12 of the 18 plots.And our team of  volunteers who 
keep the garden running has dribbled down to 3 or 4. Each year,  we 
send a flyer out through the local Elementary school,put multiple 
articles in the 3 local papers. Our garden,  while  central,  is not 
visible from the main road,  so

[Community_garden] central garden leader

2011-05-27 Thread Jama Crawford

Dear friends

Our communal garden has operated for 11 seasons and it does better each year
as we have worked away from a centralized organizer. I believe a centralized
organizer is very useful at the start up but as time goes on, you can
decentralize as your gardeners attain more skill, experience, interest, and
a willingness to solve problems. We overly relied on a wonderful, central
leader for years, but when she retired, we were pleasantly surprised that we
did not need so much central support and members would step up.

A new gardener, just like a new garden, hasn't yet experienced the reliable
reward of a good harvest. Yes, it's fun to play in the dirt and watch the
little plants grow, but the harvest is the hook. Even one year's harvest
isn't enough to hook most gardeners. It takes several seasons, as the
gardener learns how to raise crops, comes to expect a good harvest, and
learns how to use or preserve that bounty. There comes a tipping point when
our gardeners not only feel successful and genuinely enjoy gardening, but
begin to believe they cannot easily obtain such delicious food anywhere
else. Then the person is hooked, and will begin to take ownership. That's
when the motivation is intrinsic, and too much organization from the center
can be annoying.

I haven't announced this video before because the audio was so
disappointing, but if you have a headset or external speakers, or if you are
operating a computer newer than XP, then you might enjoy watching and
hearing how we organize our communal garden. It is a 10 minute flick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuJvp1y_WJY

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest, Durango CO

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Re: [Community_garden] community gardeners/business owners

2011-04-05 Thread Jama Crawford

We found ourselves deluged with can you pass this on? type requests. Our 
solution was to have one or two free classified ads emails per season 
where people could announce anything they have to offer, primarily items or 
services for sale. That way you are not promoting just one person, but the 
entire community's interests. And our members are curious about each other 
and like to know what other people do.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest, Durango CO
-

- Original Message - 
From: Karen Hunsberger karenhunsber...@msn.com

To: eapo...@ag.ncat.edu; community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] community gardeners/business owners




If you see community gardens as having a greater value than just fresh 
local produce, you can create a way for gardeners to share their talents, 
businesses, etc with each other. Maybe even the willingness to pass this 
on, not with the message that you are endorsing anything, but just as a 
way of helping your community members communicate with each other. i've 
seen newsletters where there is a small section listing services, 
businesses, etc. that are helpful to everyone with no specific 
endorsement.



Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2011 11:17:13 -0400
From: eapo...@ag.ncat.edu
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] community gardeners/business owners

Let's say there is a community gardener who is also an entrepreneur
that runs a food/nutrition related business. This person naturally wants 
to
share information about their business and classes they offer with the 
other
gardeners. Should the garden coordinator circulate this information for 
the

entreprenuer? Or should this person send it out themself? Is this even
appropriate?

--- In our case this rural garden is managed by a parttime coordinator 
who

plans meetings and sends out all garden related information. Through our
project we're trying to help participants increase their knowledge of
nutrition, so this information about food/nutrition classes is very 
relevant

and useful from our perspective.  But I also want to be careful about not
promoting specific interests/businesses. ---

 Thoughts?
--
Lisa Poser
CYFAR Community Garden Project Coordinator
Extension Associate
NC Cooperative Extension
NC AT State University
PO Box 21928
Greensboro, NC  27420
eapo...@ncat.edu
336.285.4622 (phone)
www.nccommunitygardens.blogspot.com
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ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and 
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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@list.communitygarden.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
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Re: [Community_garden] re Interns for community garden projects

2011-03-25 Thread Jama Crawford

This is a belated follow up to the discussion of interns, and I hope I'm not 
repeating someone else's advice.


You can also register your garden on Wwoofers - a website that matches 
volunteer workers with organic gardens. The catch is you must provide the 
volunteer with food and housing, which is a pretty big commitment from the 
garden.


http://www.wwoof.org

This is a fun site to poke around on ... and this video is very informative 
about what makes for a good internship.


http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/2/_a8b9ekHSaA

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango Colorado 



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The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
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[Community_garden] aphids and ants

2011-03-25 Thread Jama Crawford


Hello friends

We aren't gardening yet here in the Rockies, but we are already bracing for 
another season of aphids.


I read up on aphids this winter - including their cozy association with 
ants. We have a lot of ants too, so I believe the two have ganged up on us, 
and their numbers are swelling.


There are a zillion ideas about how to deter aphids and ants, and some ideas 
might help, but others simply aren't practical at our scale. We plant 2,000 
broccoli and it isn't possible to rub or spray each leaf, for example.


What I haven't seen nearly enough of is discussion of soil condition.  If we 
amend the soil, we need to do it before planting. I did read an overly 
nitrogen rich soil is part of the problem, but I hope a nitrogen starved 
soil is not the aphid solution.


I welcome your expert opinions.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango, CO 



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Re: [Community_garden] Community Gardening on Private Citizen's Property

2011-03-07 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Mary

Our garden is on private land. My husband and I are the land owners, and 63 
other households (and their dogs and children) come to the garden once or 
twice a week from April through October. The farm is 37 acres, but the 
community garden is just one acre plus a few buildings and parking. It takes 
up only a small part of the farm, but it is a high-energy area, so it always 
feels bigger than it is!


After discussing the garden program with our insurance company, we added an 
additional $1 million rider to our homeowner's policy, and our garden 
members are considered personal guests. Leasing the land would have 
triggered another type of insurance policy requirement - but I think your 
friend should look into the cost, as it might not be as bad as feared, and 
it might help him achieve agricultural status.


If someone ever finds an insurance company willing to insure a community 
garden, please share!


We once hoped the garden would earn us agricultural status, but the county 
determined it did not since we did not sell produce. The gardne's annual 
dues strictly support the garden's operations, plus a small share of the 
electric bill running the water pump, but none of it goes to our personal 
account. We achieved ag status with small hay and livestock operations, but 
last year we had excess garden produce. Selling that produce made more than 
our hay operation! We sold the produce as a farm product, then we donated 
the proceeds to the garden. So that sale did indeed document our ag status.


It then occurred to us we might have created one or two beds of cash crop 
and our members could take turns working them. I don't know for sure, but 
raising a cash crop in a community garden may have satisfied both the 
insurance company and the county assessor.


We do take liability seriously, especially after someone has a minor 
accident and the risk seems glaring. Accidents over a ten year period 
include one broken wrist and two barn cat scratches. There was never even a 
hint of a liability issue. But I'm still well aware that a more serious 
injury could happen. We openly identify certain farm hazards in our new 
member handbook, which some would say increases our liability, but we really 
do want our guests to know about the electric fences, pond, river, and 
livestock concerns. Bottom line, we are counting on that homeowner's policy 
rider as coverage.


Although we don't receive rental income from the garden, there are many 
other benefits a private land owner like us can enjoy:


1. An abundance and a diversity of fresh food, much more than we would raise 
on our own.
2. Friends and support people who care about us and are willing to give us a 
hand.
3. People who want to purchase the beef we raise. That concept could expand 
to chickens, eggs, fruit, and other farm products.

4. Local recognition, newspaper articles, and public praise.
5. Gifts of prepared foods (such as canned or baked goods). Last summer 
garden members went overboard and gave us more than $400 in gift 
certificates.
6. Nice people. The garden is about a half block from our house, so it is 
not at all intrusive, but we also feel we can go out and say hi if we want 
to chat.
7. Garden education. When I moved to 7,000 feet, I killed everything I put 
in the ground for two years. Now I garden alongside local experts.
8. Garden tours. We don't charge for this but some local farm operations do, 
so your friend might consider it.


When you read a list like that, you may understand why we feel very 
committed to the longevity of our garden. No lease. No liability release 
forms. No corporation. No profit. No tax forms. Just good friends getting 
together to grow food for families and favorite charities.


Tell your friend he can get in touch with us!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO


- Original Message - 
From: Mary Reilly-Kliss mar...@charter.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 7:26 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] Community Gardening on Private Citizen's 
Property




All-
Lots of local interest here for community gardens, but out of usable 
publicly-owned spaces in the area.  A private citizen is interested in 
renting plots to gardeners.  Initially, I discouraged him due to legal 
risks, but am wondering if I need to re-think that.


Any experiences/recommendations pro/con?

Awaiting your thoughts and a snow melt!

Mary Reilly-Kliss
Coordinator, Washington County Community Garden
West Bend, WI
mar...@charter.net
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Re: [Community_garden] Average garden size leads?

2011-03-04 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Taylar

I tried to undertake something similar - trying to find out whether our 
communally-operated community garden was large for its type. I soon found 
that figure is very hard to get, since it depends a lot on how you measure.


You can count the number of people served.
You can count the number of plots leased or household memberships.
You can measure the area of the irrigated, cultivated space.
You can measure the area of the cultivated space, compost space, and the 
access paths/roads (everything within the fence).
You can measure the area of the garden and any associated buildings, parking 
areas, greenspace, utility spaces, etc.
You can measure the area of the property according to municipal records 
(which might include easements)


Not trying to make matters difficult, but just letting you know I ran into 
the same apples to oranges dilemma.


Our communal garden has 20,000 sq ft of irrigated, cultivated rows and 
serves 62 households, for an average of 323 square feet (4x80) per 
household. The fenced area (including paths, compost areas, a bathroom, and 
some unusable space under trees), is one acre. Outside of the fenced garden 
are a hand tool shed, an equipment shed, a small unheated office, a small 
picnic ground, storage for compost materials, and parking. We don't have a 
measure of that space.


From what I found, it appears the irrigated, cultivated space inside a 
community gardens typically involves about 30 plots of 4x8 (32sf) or 4x12 
(48sf). If the two sizes are evenly available, this would represent 1,200 sq 
ft (or 40' x 30').


This isn't quality research on my part - I just looked up a couple dozen 
gardens to see how ours measured up.


- Original Message - 
From: taylar foster tef...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 7:31 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] Average garden size leads?



Hi all,

I'm doing research on gardening (backyard and community) and I need a 
little

help finding some measurements. I'm looking for reliable figures for the
average size of a home garden and the average size of a community garden.

Also, does anyone think these numbers are drastically different based on
region?

Any leads/ figures would be greatly appreciated!

In solidarity,

Taylar Foster
Madison, WI
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Re: [Community_garden] Brownfields

2011-03-04 Thread Jama Crawford


Jessica and others

There is a fascinating field of research called phytoremediation. While it 
isn't something your garden wants to take on, members of your community who 
are patient and committed to cleaning up the community might be willing. 
Grass roots cleanup campaigns are fairly common, and I was part of one 
involved with PAH (a byproduct of combustion), asbestos, mercury, lead, and 
uranium. The cleanup successfully converted the site to a children's museum 
and outdoor play area. Although we did not use the phytoremediation method, 
which takes years, it is an important new cleanup strategy.


Basically, the site is planted with species known as hyperaccumulators. 
These plants exceed other plants in their uptake of heavy metals and/or the 
conversion of large toxic molecules to smaller harmless molecules, such as 
CO2, H20 and NH4. Plants used include sunflower, amaranthus, ragweed, 
poplar, brassicas, sugar beets, barley and other grasses and grains, and 
many more. You raise the plants, cut them down, and take the plant material 
to the land fill for disposal. The plants can't be burned or you would just 
return the toxin the local environment. Plants can clean up about 15% of the 
toxins in 3 years ... so you can see 100% cleanup is several years down the 
road (over a dozen). Also, plants can't clean up deep soils (below their 
roots).


A long list of phytoremediating plants can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoremediation,_Hyperaccumulators

This email is probably off subject, but the point I'm trying to make is the 
ability of plants to uptake toxins means you can't immediately raise a 
vegetable garden on a toxic site, but the same capacity of plants can be 
used for nondestructive environmental cleanup by a patient group of 
environmental stewards.


I would recommend you find out what you are truly dealing with by taking 
multiple samples of soil across the site, mix them thoroughly together in a 
bucket, put a couple spoonfuls in a plastic bag, and deliver the sample to 
an environmental analysis lab. Each toxin you test has its own charge, so 
you should inquire about the prices first. Also I was able to borrow a 
geiger counter from the county health department since we suspected uranium 
(and were correct). I found the state and county health departments to be 
great allies in the cleanup effort.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango Colorado

- Original Message - 
From: Jessica Katz bklyn.nighth...@gmail.com

Cc: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 5:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Brownfields


In New York City, many, if not most of the community gardens are located 
on
sites of buildings that have either burned down or been torn down.  A 
major

soil contaminant, here, is residual lead that came from lead paint in the
building debris that filtered into the soil.  There has been a major
initiative among the various community gardening entities - New York City
GreenThumb, The Trust for Public Land and New York Restoration Project - 
to

test the soil in the community gardens for lead and other heavy metals (as
well as general pH and nutrients, etc.).  Gardeners are encouraged to
remediate any problem areas with heavy applications of compost and/or 
avoid

planting edible crops on contaminated soils.  Traditionally, community
gardens on City-owned property were required to plant only in raised beds
with fresh soil/compost to try to avoid contact with potentially
lead-contaminated soil.

Jess

On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 7:23 AM, karen jones krjo...@mts.net wrote:

Last year the ACGA partnered with the food movement people for a 
telephone

conference on Brownfields. I just listened to it last night. Ann Carroll
from the EPA (wish we had an EPA in Canada) talked about gardens on urban
soils and the suites of contaminants which might possibly be in urban 
soils.
There are lots of them.  But any of you who haven't thought about the use 
of

the land you garden on before you started your garden, please think about
that. We know that air is polluted and that water is polluted too, why 
don't
we think that soil could be polluted as well...   I have contacted Ann 
and
asked her to provide me with a list of chemicals as well as the other 
stuff
that could be in soils.  I will share these when I recieve a reply from 
her.
Gardening has become a big venue for the poverty industry here in 
Manitoba

and it is managed by people who have degrees in people management. They
understand very little, if anything about science, and chemistry, botany 
etc

scare them alot, so they are sticking their heads in the sand about
contaminated soils. They broadcast far and wide about how they are 
helping
poor people with nutrition, but do not want to even consider the 
possibility

that they are poisioning people with veg grown in toxic soils.
I know that in a few jurisdictions governments are aware of this and have
tried to educate gardeners

Re: [Community_garden] starting a community garden

2011-01-05 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Suzy

We started with 36 families in Year 1, and moved up to 60 families in Year 
2. We live in a fairly rural population area (50,000 people in the entire 
County). Our recruitment method was to post flyers in the libary, two 
natural food stores, and in a brewery. The county extension agent also wrote 
an article about the new garden in the newspaper. We have a free monthly 
listing under Clubs and Associations in the newspaper but the main 
strategy was to recruit friends, and then ask friends to recruit their 
friends.


Subsequently our garden members spun off two other neighborhood gardens in 
this community.


We charge $70 a year, but use the income to collectively purchase seed, 
bedding plants, materials, tools, and supplies. The garden doesn't generate 
a profit. It may help your members make a commitment if they have to pay 
something.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango CO 81301



- Original Message - 
From: Suzy Stelmaszek s...@tmarchitects.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 8:58 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] starting a community garden



Hello,



We started a community garden two years ago in Norfolk, VA. We received
a small grant and were able to develop about 30 family plots, which we
offer to interested families for free, in exchange for working 2-3
volunteer hours per week.  However, we have not had much luck generating
interest in the community, and after two years only have six families!
We have knocked on doors, gone to local civic league meetings, written
articles in the local online paper, and put up flyers at the farmer's
market. My question is, what have you done to promote your community
garden?



Thank you,



Suzy Stelmaszek  LEED AP

TYMOFF+ MOSS ARCHITECTS

512 Botetourt Street

Norfolk, VA  23510

757.627.0013 x 16

757.319.7105 mobile

www.tmarchitects.com http://www.tmarchitects.com



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Re: [Community_garden] so sorry to reopen can of worms

2010-12-16 Thread Jama Crawford

Oh, I love story problems, so will take a stab. We just ran a post-season 
survey so many assumptions have evidence.


INCOME
Dues are $60 per household x 60 households = $3,600
We netted $350 at Farmer's Market + $350 sales to members' friends = $700
Total Income = $4,300

EXPENSES
We stopped selling produce when we broke even, so our garden expenses were 
$4,300

Total Expenses = $4,300

YIELD PER HOUSEHOLD
100% of members ate fresh produce for 86 days x $5/day = $430
100% of members took home enough storage vegetables for 20 days x $5 day = 
$100

85% of members froze enough vegetables for 30 days x $4/day x 85% = $102
45% of members canned or dried enough vegetables for 6 days x $4/day x 45% = 
$11

We sold $700 at Farmer's Market and to member friends / 60 households = $12
We donated 100 lb to charity x $2.50 lb / 60 households = $4
We wasted at least as much as we donated  = $4
Total yield per household = $663 per household x 60 households = $39,780

COST PER HOUSEHOLD
Dues = $60 per household - but would have been $71 if we hadn't sold produce
Average mileage cost per season = $55
Total cost per household = $71 (without mileage) or $126 (with mileage)

MEMBER BENEFIT/COST RATION THIS YEAR
Benefits are 9.3 times the cost if mileage is excluded ($663/$71)
Benefits are 5.3 times the cost if mileage is included ($663/$126)

Of course if you count farm labor as an additional cost at 3 hours x $7 x 28 
weeks = $588, then you are about even.
But if you count mental health as an additional benefit at 3 hours x $100 x 
28 weekly mental health sessions = $8,400, then you are thousands of dollars 
ahead


-- Jama Crawford ... just messing around again 



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Re: [Community_garden] Question about Expected Yield of a CommunityGarden

2010-11-19 Thread Jama Crawford


Good morning Gardeners! On this beautiful frosty morning in the mountains!

I felt these various projections were a bit high, especially for a new 
garden with many novice gardeners, and a community garden to boot, which may 
have more and wider paths than a commercial garden. While there may be some 
benefit to the garden's promotion if you project high yield, it is also nice 
to measure how the garden's productivity improves over the years as the 
community becomes more skilled and the soil building methods improve.


This is our 10th year of operation, and it is the first year the Extension 
Office confirmed our garden was as productive as a commercial garden. We 
have a short growing season (this year a blessed 120 days, but usually just 
90), so in our area a commercial garden is at a disadvantage as well. A 
nearby commercial organic garden yields $40,000 in sales per acre, and that, 
for now, is our productivity goal.


Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango, Colorado



- Original Message - 
From: K. Rashid Nuri ad...@trulylivingwell.com
To: Pattie Baker freshbakedc...@mindspring.com; Fosselius, Kati 
fossel...@allentowncity.org; community_garden@list.communitygarden.org

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Question about Expected Yield of a 
CommunityGarden



i agree with Pattie. $5 per square foot is a grand objective. note however, 
that
the $ value will decrease with size. you should not expect to earn 
$220,000 per

acre, but $100,000 is not unrealistic

K. Rashid Nuri

Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms
P.O. Box 90841
East Point GA 30364
Phone: 404 520 8331
www.trulylivingwell.com

It is simply service that measures success. - George Washington Carver






From: Pattie Baker freshbakedc...@mindspring.com
To: Fosselius, Kati fossel...@allentowncity.org;
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 9:47:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Question about Expected Yield of a 
Community

Garden

We aim for 2 pounds per square foot per year, so a 4 x 8 bed should yield
about 65 pounds per year.  At an extremely conservative food value of $5 
per
pound, considering the variety of prices for organic produce from cut 
greens

to herbs to heirloom tomatoes,  that's a food value of $325 for a 4 x 8'
bed.  Not bad!  Much more is possible, of course, but this is realistic.
Oh, we are in Atlanta, so that takes into account our long growing 
seasons.




From: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
Fosselius, Kati
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 9:37 AM
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] Question about Expected Yield of a Community
Garden



Hello!



I'm working on a grant proposal that is due this afternoon, and one
component of the proposal relates to creating more community gardens in
our City.



I've been advised to include an outcome related to expected yield of
these gardens, which will vary greatly in size. I'm not a gardener so
would greatly appreciate some guidance ... what's a reasonable number to
use (perhaps in pounds / square foot or something similar)?



Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Kati





Kati Fosselius, MS, RD, LDN

Public Health Dietitian

Nutrition and Physical Activity Program

Allentown Health Bureau

610.437.7581

www.allentownpa.govhttp://www.allentownpa.gov



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Re: [Community_garden] Community Gardens + the Ethics of Hunger

2010-09-07 Thread Jama Crawford


Hello Christopher

These are excellent thoughts and questions. I hope I can do them some 
justice from this rural, community garden perspective.


Our rural garden is operated communally. Communal gardens are generally more 
productive than plot gardens, but they seem to grapple with more social 
conflicts. It turns people are very good about justifying their own behavior 
in a way that doesn't seem ethical to others. This year we even proposed 
setting up an Elders Group to settle matters fairly, according to our 
community principles! We don't have our principles clearly articulated (we 
should) but they are basically these:


The garden's produce is to benefit dues paying, working member households. 
It is not to be sold or given away to others.
Any EXCESS produce not needed by the member households is given to three 
charities: soup kitchen, homeless shelter, and women's safe house.
Community matters. Members should get to know, like, and help others, and 
try to solve social problems before rifts take hold.
If you join our community but decide to quit gardening, you are always 
welcome back for social events (but you can't harvest).


The three most common problems are he/she isn't working enough, he/she is 
picking more than a fair share, and a nonmember is harvesting. These all 
support your thesis of how important community is. In a healthy community 
everyone pitches in to the level of their abilities, shares the produce as 
fairly as possible, and believes the fruits of their labors have value and 
are not free to outsiders. All humans understand these things.


I believe your garden is suffering from a lack of clarity about what to do 
with excess. This would be a normal crisis for a new garden. What's happened 
is someone in your garden has told someone else The food is going to waste 
if it isn't harvested. You ought to come get some. That someone has told 
others and so forth, resulting in a box-bearing horde expecting free stuff. 
They don't know how much work you've put into the garden, how much is 
actually excess to your community's needs, whether there is a cost of any 
type, or how much they can take, if any. They are prepared for the best, and 
they need you to tell them. Without that clarity, your harvest and community 
will be ransacked.


While it may be too late to salvage the situation this year, before the next 
season define what is excess, then decide how and to whom excess will be 
distributed. Some of this you will need to do on the fly. We once had so 
much spinach only the sheep growers would take it. But start with a clear 
distribution plan, then make deviations when the plan is not adequate to 
deal with the excess. If there are a lot of competing ideas, you can even 
decide to alternate among them over the years.


Best wishes on building your community!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango Colorado






- Original Message - 
From: Christopher Bedford chrisbedf...@charter.net

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Cc: Christopher Bedford chrisbedf...@charter.net
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 8:35 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] Community Gardens + the Ethics of Hunger



All,

In Muskegon, Michigan -- an old industrial city on the West Coast of the 
state with high unemployment and higher rates of obesity and diabetes --  
our community gardening movement has come to a kind of crossroads.


A number of true community gardens were established this year. By true I 
mean they came organically from the community and were not the projects of 
outside non-profits. These gardens have flourished as individual gardeners 
have taken up roles of responsibility. They have strengthened the 
community where they exist and spread positive energy throughout our 
entire community. People work in them to grow food for themselves and 
their neighborhoods, church members, extended families.


Now, as these gardens overflow with fruits and vegetables an issue has 
emerged -- one I am sure others on this list have dealt with.


Recently, conflicts have arisen as community members who have NOT 
participated in the work of the gardens have stopped by without prior 
notice -- often with numbers of boxes -- to harvest food.


The community gardeners -- who to a person had not truly thought through 
their response to this foreseeable situation -- have insisted that the 
food of the garden belonged to the people who worked the garden. They were 
willing to share what they grew, but they wanted to be asked -- not ripped 
off.


This situation is complicated by the existence in our community of a 
number of church-based gardens, established and operated by parishioners, 
who grow food and give it away -- often on unattended tables -- as part of 
their Christian duty. These gardeners are, for the most part, NOT involved 
with the community of hunger in meaningful ways. For them, the act of 
growing food and giving it away is akin to aid for Haiti or Pakistan

Re: [Community_garden] Keeping Up Morale, Boosting Morale, Motivating

2010-08-31 Thread Jama Crawford


Hi Donna

I don't know how old your garden is, but over time I believe you will see 
increasing levels of expertise, professionalism, and pride. I believe it is 
normal for a young garden to have more problems with neglect than a garden 
that has survived many seasons, when the community has learned the 
relationship between effort and productivity, and when a little good natured 
competition among gardeners takes hold.  It also helps to have a few really 
good gardeners who wring exceptional produce out of the same soil, water, 
and seeds, and opportunities for novice gardeners to talk to those experts.


Nothing beats direct confrontation These weeds have to go. They are going 
to seed, and that will create problems for everyone. You can start with a 
general email, but a face-to-face discussion may be necessary. We have a 
master gardener who provides general commentary on the state of the garden. 
She doesn't shy away from identifying specific beds in various states of 
neglect. That usually gets us moving!


Finally, unless you are writing from Australia, you are asking a question 
about behavior at the end of the season, when everyone is focused on 
harvest, done with harvest, or has given up. Weeds just don't seem very 
important now. In a case like that, you might urge the gardener to weed a 
small section to see if it makes a difference in the yield of that 
particular late season crop. Once you start weeding it is hard to stop!


The intrinsic reward here is the beautiful organic food. So try to use the 
reward of more food to train your gardeners.


My two cents! Best wishes for a happy weed-free end of season!

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest
Durango Colorado






- Original Message - 
From: Donna Wende zerodecondu...@gmail.com

To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:04 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] Keeping Up Morale, Boosting Morale, Motivating



Hi Everyone! :)

I am wondering how morale and motivation is maintained at your Community
Garden?

When the soil is water logged or the plants are taken over by pest, 
disease,

theft what is done at your Community Garden to keep gardeners motivated?

Thank you,
Donna
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Re: [Community_garden] Location-Location: Good vs Bad Locations for ACommunity Garden

2010-07-28 Thread Jama Crawford

My 2 cents!

I agree the best location is close enough to walk - but other locations can
work very well and attract enough participants for a viable garden.

Our garden - on a farm 10 miles outside town - was the first in this region
by several years. After learning the ropes here, our alums became extremely
active and successful in getting urban gardens established. Now the city's
parks and recreation department sponsors gardens. You might want to look
into your parks and rec dept for land and water.

Still there are some advantages to the farm site.

First, there is probably level, tillable land without a burden of rocks. The
farm probably had a well or may have irrigation water rights. A farm will
likely have old outbuildings that can be used to lock up tools. It may have
a few remnant and possibly heriloom fruit trees. It may have some fencing.
There may be space to to lease to horses so your garden has access to
manure. There may be room for expansion, and you may be able to secure a
long term lease.

Second, many urban dwellers long for a bit of country, and enjoy the quiet
and natural surroundings on the farm. That is the most frequent comment we
get. People relax in this setting.

Third, a farm garden tends to attract commuters - people who live in
suburban areas or who are driving by the farm to and from work. Most of our
urban resident gardeners live on this side of the town.

That's my input! Best wishes!

Jama Crawford

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Re: [Community_garden] garden rules for children

2010-07-27 Thread Jama Crawford

Thanks for the feedback on the garden rules for kids. We have operated the 
garden 9 years without many rules, but this weekend suffered several hundred 
dollars in damage. Our garden is also located on a working farm, so there 
are many additional hazards not found in an urban garden. So I am turning to 
some of the farm safety lists as well.


However I wanted to share our solution. The children themselves are now 
responsible for writing and illustrating a rule book. This is their penance 
for being destructive. Their set of rules (which we will edit or elaborate 
upon) applies to the mobile children, not toddlers who stick close to their 
parents, but the 5 to 11 year old kids who are a little bored and have 
considerably more freedom than the tots, but lack the experience or judgment 
of a teen.


I asked them yesterday if you throw, you go was a good rule, and they 
agreed it was an excellent one that ought to go into the book. So this is 
how we are proceeding.


Sorry to stir up any bad feelings regarding organic garlic spray. It doesn't 
kill the bugs, it just deters them. I am not sure about how well it works on 
various insects, but it definitely works on our primary problem: aphids.


Best to all, and thanks.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango CO




- Original Message - 
From: Lisa Duchene l...@ecowriting.com

To: faurest.kris...@chello.hu; community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] garden rules for children



I appreciate this.
But please keep in mind that our ground rules are for a completely 
different
animal: a community children's garden where we're trying to attract 
children

and families, and use the garden to engage children with nature.
I could absolutely see a situtation ripe for challenging conflict when you
have people who are renting and tending their plots with an expectation
that children will not be allowed to tromp through their beds of squash,
etc. I wouldn't want little ones tromping on the soil in my veggie beds.
Among the flower beds, they have some stepping stones. (Although I've
learned that some kids will tromp on a plant in order to better see the
colorful shiny pieces in the stepping stone beside it!)

Two thoughts:
- The problem in that situation, I think, is the parents. A condition of
gardeners keeping their plot, I would think, is to show respect for other
people's plots and that means not allowing their children free reign.
- I think it's good if there is some area where kids can do what they 
want,
perhaps even plant and tend what they want Maybe if there's extra 
space

and leftover seeds they can do their own thing in some designated space?

We're operating on the theory that if children have a hand in creating a
space they will take ownership and care for it. So far it's working pretty
well. (Actually, ironically, our biggest problem is that our garden is
under-used by children!) But again, that's a theory and it sounds great on
paper ... Who knows what tomorrow's reality will bring!!!


-Original Message-
From: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
Kristin Faurest
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 2:19 AM
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] garden rules for children





I really like the way Lisa's garden's rules are written. Lori's garden's
rules, with the reference to 'expulsion from the garden,' are a little too
Old Testament for my taste. :)







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Re: [Community_garden] And yet another question

2010-07-26 Thread Jama Crawford

Hello Michele

We once planted brussel sprouts as a sacrifice plant - if the aphids and
moths ate the brussel sprouts we hoped they would leave the broccoli alone.
This pretty much worked as they preferred the sprouts. Then we discovered
garlic spray. Now we plant our brussel sprouts and eat them too.

We make our own garlic spray from garlic scapes which we have in abundance
in early summer. We probably use a higher garlic concentration than other
recipes. There are lots of recipes on line and they generally use garlic
cloves, chopped garlic, or garlic powder. This recipe makes 5 gallons -
which is enough to spray all our vulnerable crops on an acre-plus garden in
one afternoon.

INGREDIENTS
One bundle of garlic scapes (about the size of a volleyball) - OR - 1 cup
chopped garlic from a jar

2 Tablespoons mineral oil
1 Tablespoon liquid dish soap

Chop the scapes into one-inch pieces and put half of them in the blender.
Fill with water and blend to a slurry. Pour into a 5 gallon bucket. Repeat
with the rest of the scapes. If you use chopped garlic, it probably helps to
blend them too. Fill the bucket half full with water, cover it, and set
outdoors for 2 to 3 days to ferment. After fermenting, strain the water into
another 5 gallon bucket. We use a fine-mesh colander and a paint filter or
disposable old rag as a strainer. Add 2 Tablespoons of mineral oil and 1
Tablespoon of liquid dish soap to the strained liquid. Finally top off the
bucket with water to make 5 gallons.

We apply with a 2 gallon sprayer. We usually triple this recipe and freeze
the slurry for use later in the summer.

Finally we have sprinkled white egg shells around the soil of our
brassicas - not sure if it works but the folklore is that the white moth
sees the white shell, assumes the shell is another moth who beat her to that
particular plant, and moves on to a less crowded spot to lay her eggs. For
whatever reason the cabbage moth is not a problem here.

Jama Crawford
Shared Harvest Community Garden
Durango Colorado

On 26-Jul-10, at 7:09 AM, Michele Israel wrote:

Hello again...the responses have been amazing to my other
questions...so, of
course, I have another plant issue (I know it sounds as if our school
garden
is failing, but things are growing...there are just some trouble spots
here

and there).

Brussels sprouts: these were doing fine until the cabbage moth laid her
eggs
and the lovely larvae have been devouring leaves (they decimated my
kale,

unless that was something else). So, probably in too much earnestness, I
began cutting off the leaves, but now I read that the larger leaves
should

stay on to feed the plant that will eventually bear fruit.

I want to know how to get rid of the pests that are there in order to
prevent additional damage. I did buy a screen that I could lay over the
plants, but what is the best natural method in the interim to curb the
harm?

Aargh...gardening...the toughest job you will ever love (I can say
that...I

was a Peace Corps volunteer!!!)

Best and thanks,
Michele
www.micheleisrael.com
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