Planning

Before you actually start building your garden, it's important take some time to make a plan. The next few pages of the guide will discuss building your team, setting an objective, creating a budget, and setting up a schedule for managing and celebrating your garden. Here's a list of a few general tips to get you thinking:

  1. START SLOW: Building a garden takes time. In fact, it could take months before your garden is fully operational. If you're building planter boxes, give yourself enough time to build them before it's planting season. You may want to spend some time growing your seedlings indoor before it's time to transplant to speed up the growing process. The bottom line is not to rush the process, take your time, and do things right the first time.
  2. PROCESS OVER RESULTS: While you and your team will surely be dreaming about your future juicy, plump tomatoes, big leafy greens, and bountiful multicolored vegetables, it's important to keep in mind that the greatest fruits of your labor may be the actual process of community gardening - spending time outdoors and spending time getting to know your neighbors. While every gardener hopes for rich crops, when it comes to community gardening, growing "organic citizens" should be your ultimate goal.
  3. EXPECT TO HIT SNAGS ALONG THE WAY. As with any group project, there will be unexpected challenges. Anticipate some people not carrying their share of the workload sometimes, or that bad weather will affect your crops, or that furry friends somehow manage to sneak in and scoop your beautiful new crop of tomatoes. Understand that all of that is normal and ok, and you'll still manage to have a great garden that produces amazing plants and vegetables. Don't sweat the little stuff.
  4. COMMUNICATION IS KEY. As with anything that involves collaboration and teamwork, open and clear communication must be a priority. Make it easy for the group members to communicate with each other, and with the community. Some groups like to set up a Facebook group, or a monthly newsletter. Figure out what works best for your group, and do that.