How to Start a Community Garden

Maybe you’ve been blessed with a large yard or property that gets plenty of sunlight and has no drainage issues. Maybe this yard or property is currently covered in grass and starting to seem like it could be put to more productive use. Maybe it’s time to think about starting a community garden.

On the flip side, maybe you’re tired of having to buy flavourless supermarket tomatoes all summer. Maybe you want to get your hands in some soil but don’t have the land. Maybe it’s time to think about starting a community garden.

What is a Community Garden?


A community garden is a shared garden space where neighbours come together to grow food or flowers or to create a natural space. Typically a community garden will be organized by a collective whose membership shares the resources of the garden and the responsibility of tending to it.

What they look like in practice is varied, which reflects the grassroots nature of these projects. They might be designed for anything from beauty to maximum agricultural productivity, and they might be designed for anyone from seniors to families with young children. They might be in a park, on someone’s lawn, on brownfield land, at the back of an apartment building or even in a parking lot.

Who Uses a Community Garden?


Community gardens tend draw people interested both in food and in community interaction. Some groups are simply made up of people without garden space of their own who just want to grow their own food. Some are made up of people interested in increasing the number of accessible green spaces in their neighbourhood.

They might also be more intentionally political or therapeutic, however. Some gardens work as bases for urban food programs or food justice initiatives. Others are geared towards those struggling with mental or physical health issues. Programs that use horticultural therapy or interpersonal psychotherapy might make use of a community garden, as might programs for seniors or for people with developmental disabilities.

How Do They Work?


two sets of hands around a bowl of tomatoes - how to start a communal garden

Successful community gardens pair a strong community group and a workable garden site. Groups might be loose in structure, or they might be highly organized, with a central co-ordinator, a planning committee and a variety of task groups.

The most successful groups will have a great deal of buy-in from the community. There might be months of public discussions and community consultation about the project before any ground is broken.

The community group typically does the labour of getting the site ready to garden. Members share ongoing agricultural tasks like watering, tending to compost and cleaning up for winter. They also share in site maintenance like building raised boxes and mending fences, as well as non-gardening tasks like schedule coordination and communications. How all that work is distributed is up to the individual group.

Each gardener might have their own plot within the garden, like an allotment garden. There might be communal plots where the labour and the fruits of it are shared equally, or there might be a mix of both.

Many community gardens collect membership dues that pay for ongoing costs related to site maintenance. Others rely entirely on donation, either from local businesses or from the members themselves.

Is My Land Suitable for a Community Garden?


If you’re interested in letting your land be used by your community, consider whether the land is suitable for growing. Does it get 6-8 hours of full sun per day? Is it free from drainage issues? Do you know for certain it hasn’t been used for industrial purposes? Are you willing to do a soil test to ensure there are no heavy metals or contaminants?

Think about the logistics of the garden. Where will gardeners get water from? Is there space for a community tool shed? A compost? How accessible is your garden? How will you control foot traffic? Are there neighbours you need to be mindful of?

Last but not least, think about the legalities. Will your insurance cover a community garden? Are there any bylaws you need to work with or around? Do you need any permits to garden where you’re hoping to garden?

How Do I Start One?


If you’re a landowner, talk to your municipality or to a local horticultural organization and identify yourself as someone with a garden site. There might be an organization or a group of neighbours already looking for a site.

If you’re hoping to start a garden, it’s time to organize a committee to spearhead this project and get it off the ground. Get on social media, reach out to other neighbourhood groups and other community organizations, and find some like-minded individuals. Get input from many sectors of the community to build community support for the garden.

Organizing the Details

Once you have your core committee, your group can decide what it wants to grow and how. Will it be a food garden? A flower garden? A mix? Will you grow organic food or will you permit chemical fertilizers?

Any rules, policies, fee structures and administrative details should be discussed in advance. Members will have to decide how they’ll divide the various workloads, how any monies raised will be used, what tools and supplies will be shared, what times of day gardeners will be allowed on the site (if it’s private), and so on. Once your group has decided on its organizational structure and processes and found a site, you can begin to approach additional members, if you need them.

What you will definitely need are some funds to get this started. Some communities will seek out local businesses and institutions to sponsor the project. Check with local community organizations to see if there are any grants that might be applied for.

Organizing the Site

Plan the layout of the garden. The committee will need to figure out if it makes more sense to create communal or individual plots. Number and size of plots, as well as a system to assign them, will all have to be determined. Pathways, any space for children and any buffer plantings like shrubs will need to be considered, too.

Then get ready to dig! A community garden is a great demonstration that we can do much more together than we can ever do alone. Good luck and happy gardening!

Feature image: NeONBRAND; Image 1: Elaine Casap

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Mary Read is an editor and writer for Green Home Gnome and Green Building Canada. She has a background in ecocriticism and now lives in Toronto, Canada, where she teaches writing and grows a small urban garden in a small urban yard. Her interests include environmental justice, sustainable cities, community energy and the just energy transition.

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