Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community Gardens Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 240, Issue 22

[Karolyn/Richard Mangeot (richard.mangeot]

1. Re: Community Gardens (Lauren) Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 240, Issue 22

At Elderberry Cohousing (18 homes) over the past 8 or 9 years we have tried
several options.  What we have now is a large "community garden" (14 vegetable
beds, 4 X 50 feet each, plus asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
& blackberries, all inside deer fencing).  This is shared by whatever
gardeners want to participate that season.  E.g. this winter we have 8
gardeners tending three beds of greens, etc.  We often have more for the
summer beds, but if we don't have enough people to tend the whole garden, we
leave some beds fallow. We share the cost (seeds, etc.), the produce and the
work (dependably in the summer we are there MWF for 2-4+ hours each but there
is no requirement).  Extra produce is given to the rest of Elderberry or to
our local food pantry.

Other options at Elderberry include a fenced area with several raised
in-ground beds.  This is currently under review by the community because the 2
or 3 people who worked there found that they were not able to maintain it. 
The other option is small private beds in our front or back yards, which 4 or
5 people do.

The current gardeners pay for all the infrastructure (fencing repair, bed
covers, mulch, etc.) and I'm fairly certain the first community gardeners also
split those costs with other members of the community who bought a CSA share. 
The initial labor of tilling, shoveling manure, putting up fences, planting
berries, etc. was done by gardeners with help from other community members.
After that, repairs to the garden shed, building a garden sink and benches
were done by the gardeners who shared those costs.  We tried growing
blackberries outside the fence for the community to pick - but the deer ate
them to the ground!

Karolyn Mangeot
richard.mangeot [at] usa.net
https://www.elderberrycohousing.com/


 

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Community Gardens (Lauren)
   2. Posts from CAI Advocacy Blog for 01/24/2024 (Sharon Villines)


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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:47:19 -0800
From: Lauren <laurenlake161 [at] gmail.com>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Cc: Maryanne Stubbs <mjstubbs00 [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Community Gardens
Message-ID: <0676ffca-a8dc-4802-a513-a77ed498877c@Canary>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Here at Green Grove Cohousing (9 homes on 5 acres in Forest Grove, Oregon) we
have a large main garden that we tend together. We also have apple orchards
and blueberry and strawberry patches. Some residents grow extra veggies or
berries on smaller plots or pots near their homes.

For the main garden:

Annual costs for seed, starts, compost, fertilizer, mulch, etc. are an
optional expense. Residents can buy a share and this entitles them to harvest
from the garden. Most (all?) residents opt in.

Major improvements like installing a garden shed or improving the fencing come
from our regular budget and are voted on by the community.

Caring for the garden:

planting, weeding, harvesting, or watering counts as community work hours
(each resident must do 6 hours of work participation each month, and working
in the garden is one option).

work parties are scheduled for bigger projects like getting ready for spring
planting or putting the garden to bed.

Our garden leader would be happy to chat with you via Zoom. Let me know if
you?d like me to help set that up.

Lauren

> On Monday, Jan 22, 2024 at 7:33 AM, Joel Bartlett
<altairecovillage [at] gmail.com (mailto:altairecovillage [at] gmail.com)> 
wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> We at Altair are looking at the different aspects of Cohousing Community
> Gardens. We are interested in connecting with you regarding your garden and
> how you got started. Some questions are: What were your parameters and
> starting questions? Are you able to accommodate all interested gardeners?
> Do you have individual plots for each gardener or do residents work
> together on a common plot? Raised beds or in ground plots? How do you go
> about maintenance? Would you be interested in a phone or Zoom call to help
> us further?
>
> Yours, Joel
> www.altairecovillage.org
> 610-220-6172
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>
>
>


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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 17:47:06 -0500
From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: [C-L]_ Posts from CAI Advocacy Blog for 01/24/2024
Message-ID: <65F02113-3F55-448E-8B8F-3C8743C17C3A [at] sharonvillines.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

The Community Association Institute publishes a monthly newsletter to update
associations on the decisions their legislators are making that affect
homeowner associations. The newsletter format doesn?t fare well when being
funneled through text-only media so I just cut and pasted the parts related to
this topic.

One of the reasons to read the whole list is that legislation often moves from
one state to the next. If Colorado is deciding something that means it is in
the air and may be adopted by another state.

Sharon


2024 State Legislative Season: Processes and topics at play

By Phoebe E. Neseth, Esq. on Jan 24, 2024

It?s a new year, and 46 states, as well as the District of Columbia, started
their 2024 legislative sessions. Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas only
meet every other year. As usual, volunteers in CAI?s state legislative action
committees (LACs) are hard at work advocating on behalf of the more than 75.5
million Americans living in community associations. By monitoring state
legislation and educating lawmakers, LACs protect the interests of the
community association housing model.

The length of each state?s legislative session varies. Florida and Virginia
meet 30 to 60 days a year, while Massachusetts and Michigan meet year-round.
While some states will introduce legislation once their sessions begin, bills
in many state legislatures are pre-filed in the weeks leading up to their
session being formally convened. This streamlines the legislative process by
allowing more time to draft bills and consider which committee they will be
referred to, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Once a bill is introduced, it is heard in its committee and chamber of
introduction. According to Statescape, a number of states have codified a
crossover deadline, meaning a bill must pass from one chamber to another for
it to continue to be viable for consideration during a given year?s session.
CAI?s LACs track these crossover deadlines to ensure legislation impacting
community associations is moving forward and legislation they are opposing is
being held. Each state also has a bill signing or vetoing deadline that gives
a due date of when a governor must take action on legislation.

More than 30 states convened their legislative sessions for 2024. Here are
highlights of bill topics introduced to date in a selection of states
impacting community associations:

    ? Alaska: regulating alterations of planned community units
    ? Arizona: flagpole and flag regulations; annual meeting procedures
    ? Colorado: community association manager licensing; landscaping
practices
    ? Florida: association fining process; association database; estoppel
certificates
    ? Georgia: land transactions in community associations; community
association study committee
    ? Hawaii: dispute resolution; board rules and regulations
    ? Illinois: parking regulations
    ? Indiana: beekeeping regulations
    ? Kentucky: Planned Community Act updates
    ? Maryland: reserve study and funding regulations; solar regulations;
manager licensing
    ? Missouri: homeowner bills of rights; Association chicken regulations
    ? Mississippi: covenant amendment processes
    ? Nebraska: solar regulations; political sign regulations
    ? New Hampshire: condo board meeting procedures; special assessments in
condos; condo assessment liens
    ? New Mexico: condo owner-occupied percentage requirements
    ? New York: association ombudsman office; building inspections; taxation
of associations
    ? Oklahoma: association document retention
    ? South Carolina: short-term rentals; amateur radio
    ? South Dakota: firearm regulations in associations
    ? Utah: solar regulations; short-term rentals
    ? Virginia: resale disclosures; reserve studies and funding; conservative
landscaping
    ? Washington: amending and updating the Washington Common Interest
Ownership Act




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