Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Garden Plans

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA, so far we have a fenced garden 
area down in the flat bottom of the central commons field. The fence, 
with draped ropes up to about 8 feet high, is necessary to keep our local 
deer from eating everything. 

The garden area was sized so that everyone who said they wanted garden 
space got 200 or 400 square feet, as requested. About 10 of the 15 
families currently living on site are gardening. The plots are the work 
spaces of individuals, or families, but quite a bit of what's produced 
gets shared informally, either with other individuals (Help yourself if 
you want some chard..." ) or in dishes which get made for our weekly 
community potlucks.

The community paid for the fencing and rototilling. Gardeners who wanted 
trucked-in compost shared the cost. Ditto for whatever plants or 
fertilizer etc that people used in their own plots. We just recently 
paid, as a community, to have the major paths in the garden fixed up-- 
scraped and removed grass, rototilled, spread thick bark mulch. 

There was some fuss last year about whether gardening should be entirely 
funded by the gardeners, but we concluded that it had something to do 
with a community value, and that we wanted not to nickel and dime about 
who paid for what, lest it get into kid stuff, common house stuff, etc. 
It can get into a fair amount of money, if you start buying and 
maintaining various sorts of mowers, a small tractor, a shed, etc. Adding 
new garden areas. This year's operating budget has about $1000 for 
equipment purchase (second hand from a member) and another thousand for 
repairs and maintenance, and another thousand for installation of a 
fenced orchard area for 24 young apple trees we have. 

The gardens produce some amount of food, but it is more a supplement, and 
a gesture towards bio-consciousness, than any major dent in our food 
supply. (There is abundant local organic produce available year round, 
nearby in town, including Community Supported Agriculture "subscriptions" 
to fresh produce.)  

In our climate, we can do  greens, broccoli, chard, spinach, some peas, 
garlic and onions, potatoes, token bits of corn, squash, tomatoes and 
cucumbers only if the weather cooperates (hardly any this cool summer), 
carrots, parsley, cabbage. One gardener grew nothing but dahlias. Some 
strawberrries, and raspberries. 

Over time, we may evolve more communal food growing, but the current 
system works ok. 

The work parties we've had for garden and landscape stuff have been well 
attended, and enjoyable. (Building the pump house for our 
garden-and-landscape-specific well, building a small kit shed for our 
power mowers and such tools, fencing, trenching and putting in irrigation 
spigots in various locations, planting trees.) 

I find the best aspect of the garden to be the social one. When I see 
someone out in the garden, which is in plain view of most of us, I know I 
can go out and talk with them. It also gives me the idea of going down 
and checking on my own plot, at the same time, since I'll have company. 
It's also fun to see the different approaches people take to arranging 
and tending their plots. 

Lynn Nadeau