Re: Questions re setting up a garden or orchard as a coop or club
From: Fred H Olson (fholsoncohousing.org)
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 04:36:09 -0800 (PST)
Randa Johnson <cohoranda [at] yahoo.com>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
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Our garden group is one of 4 affinity groups that take care of the
common house and grounds.  We have ended up using both community and
personal funds for the garden: if a gardener wants something and the
community isn't up to paying for it or doesn't have the cash, some
gardeners and some other community members have chipped in. Some of
the trees in our mini orchard we bought by me, and others by whatever
members of the community were willing to chip in at the time.  The
garden produce is primarily for common meals, and goes to individuals
if there is too much or the cooks don't want it.  Our garden work
hours count towards the 4 hours a month we all owe, and once a year we
do a community work party for the garden.

Our veggie garden space is small for divvying up into individual
plots, so those of us who wanted to garden decided to make it for the
community.  We get community input on what to plant, but have final
say.  When we asked about fruit trees a fair number of people voted
for types of fruit that were not suitable for the climate, or that
they had never tasted and had no idea if they liked, so the garden
group veto has been useful.  Most of the community strongly supports
the garden both because of the produce, and because it has been a
selling point when new people are looking at the community.  We have
one vocal community member who would like to see community funds
reserved for only the typical items you would see at a condo complex.
There is always more work that the 4 of us in garden group can do, but
we have managed to slowly expand our growing space by building raised
bed, theoretically gopher proof the veggie garden, and improve the
soil.  We do have to chase down the cooks to offer them produce, and
only a few community members are brave enough to do their own
harvesting, but for the most part our system has worked pretty well.

Randa Johnson
New Brighton Cohousing
Aptos, CA


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