Cohousing-L Mailing List: community gardening.

[Melanie Mindlin (sassetta]

At Ashland Cohousing we have about 4000 square feet set aside for the community 
garden. There are several fruit trees along one border and a large composting 
area, a small garden shed, a grape vine creating a shady spot with a table, an 
area with a gate into the parking lot where we can receive deliveries of 
compost, wood chips, etc, and 10 garden beds about 3’ wide by 20 ft. long. 
Sometimes we do yoga in the paths because it has a quiet, private feel.

When we started 17 years ago, I assumed that we would have a bed for each 
household that wanted one. We are a 13 home community, so this seemed 
reasonable. However, right from the start, folks wanted to have the garden be 
communal. The community has always paid for all garden expenses, including 
water (quite a substantial expense), seeds, amendments, tools, irrigation 
supplies. But not labor of course. 

The garden team members and energy varies, but really the responsibility and 
much of the work falls to me as the garden team leader and willing volunteer. 
Since I love to garden and have more time than many, this has mostly worked 
out. We have a workday once a month, and I ask for 2-4 helpers. We also do our 
own landscape maintenance and common house cleaning on workdays, along with 
occasional other tasks, so there is competition for workers. Fortunately, 
gardening is a popular workday assignment. The rest of the time I wheedle, 
remind and encourage folks to work in the garden. I can usually get someone to 
do the non-automated part of the watering while I’m away in the summer. There 
is usually someone I can talk into helping with harder or two person chores. 
Sometimes there is another community member who wants to spend extra time in 
the garden. Sometimes it’s a place to chat while tending to some weeding or 
other care. Thankfully, some younger folks have moved into our community 
recently, and they can kick out quite a lot of work on workdays. I just have to 
be organized and ready for the moment. Similar to another comment from a garden 
manager, I probably spend 20 hours/week there in planting season. 

Nobody gets paid to work and nobody pays for produce. However, I observe that 
the people doing more of the garden work are also doing more of the harvesting. 
It’s partly that they know what’s available, but it’s also people’s internal 
sense of what they “deserve.” This works out great much of the time, but when 
there is an abundance of beans, zucchini or cucumbers, we sometimes need to go 
door to door to get people to take it. If one has the time, this can be a fun 
socializing opportunity, but sometimes food goes to waste.

Did I mention, we prioritize food for community meals? If garden ingredients 
are part of the cook’s plan, they let everyone know by email not to harvest 
that item for a few days before the meal so there will be plenty. We often have 
lovely garden salads at dinner. Right now we are eating an abundance of miner’s 
lettuce, chickweed and mustard greens.

We’ve let people who want some personal garden space have a section, but these 
sections always suffer from neglect. I think you need a burning soul to have a 
successful community garden. But it is rewarding and a way to bring people 
together. We try to come up with things the kids can help with and get them out 
there too.

Good luck,
Melanie
Ashland Cohousing