The American Community Gardening Association’s

The Community Gardener

Volume IV Issue 1I May 2005

REGISTER TODAY
ACGA’S 26TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN THE TWIN CITIES
INSIDE THIS ISSUE School & Youth Gardening or Your Garden
Story through Fiberart.
1 ACGA Annual
Conference All conference participants are invited to go on
one of 12 Saturday afternoon tours to
2 Thanks & gardening and greening sites throughout
Recognitions Minneapolis and St. Paul, including sites such
as Minnehaha Falls, Farm in the City, Youth
3 Karl Linn Farm & Market Project, Green Institute’s Phil-
Remembered lips Eco-Enterprise Center, and have an
opportunity to meet gardeners and share the
uniqueness of numerous neighborhood
4 Stories from the community gardens.
Gardens The Program is set. The tours all arranged.
Register today — save $50 by registering Other offerings include a film festival; dinner
Bulletin Board before June 15. ACGA’s 26th Annual and auction; and post-conference kayaking
5
Conference is August 11-14 in Minneapolis down the Mississippi River. Special pre-
New Program: and St. Paul, Minnesota. conference events feature community building
and organizational development workshops
Teleconference What a Program! Join gardeners and from ACGA’s Growing Communities Curriculum
Workshop community activists from the United States, and a Public Policy skills workshop by the
6 10 Tools Canada, and around the world to engage with Community Food Security Coalition.
issues of gardening and greening. This 3 ½
day conference being held at the University of Camp ACGA! New at this conference will be
7 Pollinators Minnesota features over 50 hands-on 2 1/2 day program for children aged 7-12.
workshops that range from innovative Field trips, environmental explorations, and
gardening instruction to complex issues of creating a Memory Book are all part of the
8 Growing community and sustainability. Here is a very camp program.
Communities small sampling of the workshops:
Workshops
• Therapeutic Gardens—Reality & Perspective High quality, low-cost accommodations are
from Bosnia & Herzegovina available at the University’s Middlebrook Hall.
9 ACGA Board All levels of gardeners and community
• New York City Rainwater Harvesting in
Community Gardens builders—from novice to professional—are
warmly welcome and encouraged to attend.
• How to Ensure Schoolyard Gardens Remain Limited scholarships for the conference are
10 Volvo Hero for Life
an Asset to the School Community available with the application form found with
AHS Award • Creating Sustainable Landscapes the Conference Brochure.

11 Starting a
• Working with the Media
Garden : • Fertilizers & Soil Building.
10 Steps
And the Tours! Pre-conference tours include Register online at
bicycle and canoe trips, or a day-long visit to www.communitygarden.org
12 How Many Are We? the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. At the
Arboretum one can either explore
independently or as part of two workshops on
PAGE 2 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER
The Community Gardener is published by the
American Community Gardening Association.
The American Community Gardening Association
(ACGA) is a nonprofit membership organization of
professionals, volunteers and supporters of community
greening in urban and rural communities. The
Association recognizes that community gardening
improves the quality of life for people by providing a
catalyst for neighborhood and community development,
stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance,
beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food,
reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and
creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy
and education.
ACGA is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization
American Community Gardening Association, Inc.
c/o Council on the Environment of New York City
51 Chambers Street, Suite 228
New York, New York 10007
Toll-free: 877-ASK-ACGA (877-275-2242)
www.communitygarden.org
Newsletter: Betsy Johnson, Interim Executive Director,
and the ACGA Communications Committee.
ACGA Board recognizes Marti Ross Bjornson
for her service on the board, her yearly help
with the Annual Report, and leadership with
the 2003 annual conference in Chicago.
There is always complexity to our
actions, and there's always uncertainty
and unknowing about the future. The
only thing I or anyone else can do is to
create possibilities that support
aliveness. --Karl Linn
MA Y 20 05
Let Us Give Thanks
By Max Coot
Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting,
and though they grow like weeds
and the wind too soon blows them away,
may they forgive us our cultivation
and remember fondly where their roots are.
Let us give thanks:
For generous friends . . . with hearts as big as Hubbards
and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants
and as elegant as a row of corn,
and then others, as plain as potatoes and as good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussel sprouts
and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
and serious friends as complex as cauliflowers
and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages,
as subtle as summer squash,
as persistent as parsley,
as delightful as dill,
as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips,
can be counted on to see you through the winter;
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils
and hold us, despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And, finally, for those friends now gone,
like gardens past that have been harvested,
but who fed us in their times that we might have life
thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.
(Poem read by former Board member Marti Ross Bjornson at the
February 2005 meeting.)
Sally McCabe also receives thanks for her
many, many years of service to ACGA from
interim executive director Betsy Johnson at
the February 2005 board meeting.
PAGE 3 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

Thank you Karl Linn

Karl Linn, a prominent landscape designer who created opulent
spaces for some of the country’s best-known architects but
abandoned the work to spend the rest of his career building
community gardens in devastated urban neighborhoods, died on
Feb. 3 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 81.
So starts Karl’s obituary in the New York Times. A long
time friend of the ACGA, Mr. Linn was a keynote
speaker at our 2002 annual conference in New York
and also at the 2001 annual conference in Salt Lake
City, two days before the September 11 attacks.
I view the destruction of community gardens that is
happening in New York City as the final enclosure of the
commons; following the enclosure of neighborhood
streets by the automobile. This crisis dramatizes the
fragile hold gardens have on public land leased to them
on a temporary basis by city governments. If every vacant
lot is developed for in-fill housing, even for affordable
housing, the growth of neighborhood community will be
jeopardized. In a city, it takes a neighborhood block to
raise a child. With the creation of community gardens,
neighborhood blocks can become arenas for a new kind
of extended family living not based on blood relationships,
but on friendships, mutual aid and intergenerational
support among neighbors.
In Berkeley, California, developing a successful track
record in building and managing community gardens and
conducting a public debate that alleviated apprehension
about them, created a climate of goodwill and support.
Inspired by the City of Seattle, Washington, to secure
land for community gardening, Berkeley finally
incorporated supportive guidelines for community
gardens in its General Plan. The city of Berkeley also
provides insurance for plot-holders and features a
mushrooming school garden program.

During the last eight years, I have engaged residents,

students, Americorps teams, volunteers, city agencies,
and local businesses in the building of three unique
community gardens in which works of art mingle with lush
vegetation. The gardens feature networks of wheelchair-
accessible pathways, common spaces, and
Below are the introductory remarks to his slide demonstrations of eco-friendly technologies, which will
presentation. shown in a slide presentation.

COMMUNITY GARDENS BECOMING In a Spring 2002 Community Gardener article, Anna

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMONS Wasescha describes: At the end of Karl Linn’s talk, the
audience stood to applaud and then we all left to take
Witnessing the impressive growth and effectiveness of home the message that community gardens build
the ACGA since its founding has been inspiring and
encouraging. Throughout the years I have reconnected
community. We need community and therefore, as the
with its founding members such as Tessa Huxley, Sally ACGA members these days say, we need “More
McCabe, Andrew Stone, and Libby Goldstein to name a Gardens!” Linn had said it all: they are necessary,
few. Meetings with them were rewarding experiences that critical, indispensable, actually key to the survival of
give sustaining continuity to my experience of life that the human race.
only friendships of long duration can generate. To give a
better understanding of my concerns and hopes, and
what motivated me to do my work, I will share in my One of his gardens, the Peralta Community Peace
address some benchmark experiences in my life. Garden in Berkeley is the subject of Rick Bacigalupi’s
award winning film: A Lot in Common, which is
Community gardens have become accessible, vital available from Bullfrog Films
neighborhood meeting places, extensions of home http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/lot.html.
territory where people can interact casually, as part of Visit (www.alotincommon.com.)
their daily routine.
PAGE 4 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER
Stories From the Garden
Patchwork
Stories of gardens and community in
Burlington, Vermont
Community gardeners everywhere will recognize them-
selves among the gardeners Beret Halverson and Jim Flint
introduce in their newly published book about community
gardening in Vermont’s unique environment. But you
don’t have to be from Vermont to enjoy and benefit from
reading these stories.
The reader not only meets and gets to know a cast of
gardening characters, but also gets to enjoy rich and
enriching photographs and poetry. The words of wisdom
offered in the “Editor’s Journal” section at the end of each
profile binds together the common threads of community
gardening, just as each story becomes a “patch” in
Burlington’s garden “quilt.” These notes, offered by life-
time gardener and long-time community gardener Jim
Flint, provide insight into the relevant details of each
gardener’s story. They also identify the universal aspects of
community gardening with which most readers will
identify.
Jim’s poetry provides insight into the hard work of
gardening and the thought-provoking beauty that most
gardeners discover as they work the soil. His “Ode to the
gardeners” is a simple gift:
hands
of many
ages
colors
experiences
sowing seeds
making patterns
on the earth
finding
in our diversity
a common thread
of community
Copyright by Friends of Burlington Gardens, Patchwork
was written in memory of Tommy Thompson,
Burlington’s leader of Gardens for All, the grassroots non-
profit organization that organically grew into the National
Gardening Association.
The book ends with acknowledgments, resources, and two
succinct pages that describe the “Benefits of community
gardening” and “Pathways to action,” which reveal some
seeds and roots of community gardening and the paths to
growing both gardens and community, based upon the
successes and failures the Patchwork gardeners themselves
lived (and from which they and we all learn).
Marti Ross Bjornson
MA Y 20 05
Cultivating Common Ground
Another collection of stories, recipes and garden wisdom is
Cultivating Common Ground published in 2002 by ACGA
Greening Review editor, Don Boekelheide. Together with
project manager June Blotnick, they engaged teenagers to
“harvest” stories from the Wilmore Community Garden in
Charlotte, North Carolina. As described in the resulting
80-page book, “Cultivating Common Ground worked directly
to strengthen bonds of friendship and respect between
generations.” In addition to story recording sessions, the
youth and seniors got together for three cooking nights, as
well as garden workdays.
The book includes Aaron Collins’ interview of Willie
Coleman and Carry Gaddy’s interview of Jamel
Funderburk, as well as eight other interviews and
photographs taken by the teens. The extra treats are the
recipes: cantaloupe pie, sweet potato casserole, cabbage
rolls, squash pickles, and more.
Patchwork: Community Works Press, P.O. Box 2251, S.
Burlington, VT 05407, www.vermontcommunityworks.org
Cultivating Common Ground: June Blotnick, 1930
Mecklenburg Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28205,
seablotnick@bellsouth.net
A Story From Salina, Kansas
The impact of a community garden cannot be measured in pounds of
produce or number of participants. In fact, the real impact may never
be known and if it is known, is not measurable. Occasionally one
does catch a glimpse, “ says Ted Zerger, new ACGA board member
from Salina, Kansas. For future newsletters, he invites others to
submit stories from their gardens. Here is one of Ted’s stories:
Jonathan lived with his grandparents across the street from
the garden. Jonathan was large for his nine years of age.
He was given a label and placed in special classes in school.
He did not know how to read. He said he was not good.
He loved to come to the garden to talk and to eat carrots
and peas from the garden. Jonathan tended to be physically
aggressive. When I asked him why he beat up one of the
other children he said, "because he gets to see his mom
and I don't get to see mine". What he didn't know is that
his mother, who lived several blocks away, had no interest
in seeing him. One very hot August day, Jonathan came to
the garden and asked what happened to roses in the winter
time. I explained that they go dormant and in the Spring
get new leaves and flowers. He then asked if he could
(Continued on page 12)
PAGE 5 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

THE COMMUNITY GARDENER

BULLETIN BOARD

Plant A Row for the Hungry

ACGA encourages community gardeners to participate
in the Plant A Row for the Hungry, (PAR) a program of the
Garden Writers Association. Gardeners are encouraged
to plant an extra row and donate the produce to local
soup kitchens and food banks. For more information
call 877-492-2727 or email PAR@gardenwriters.org.

Patronize
ACGA’s
American Express volunteers help Council on the
Sponsors Environment of New York City with community
Check Out Organic Gardening garden Earth Day project

Rodale’s Organic Gardening magazine features a

community garden in every issue. In the April-May 2005
issue, the spotlight is on community gardening in
Boston Community Gardeners
general. Author and ACGA board member Zazel Lovel Annual Spring Gathering
gives special recognition to gardens in Cleveland, San Celebrates 30 Years!
Francisco, Seattle, and East Harlem New York. Thanks
Rodale for being an ACGA sponsor.

ACGA’s First Teleconference

Workshop on June 30
Free for Members

ACGA will be starting a new educational program for

members on Thursday, June 30 (3 PM eastern, 2 PM
central, 1 PM mountain, noon pacific). The session will
run 90 minutes. The topic will be Starting a Community
Garden, and include discussion of the insurance issue!
The workshop is an opportunity to learn and exchange
useful ideas from around the US and Canada via
telephone conferencing. Every 6-8 weeks, there will be
another teleconference call that will feature an expert or
experts speaking for 20 minutes on a relevant topic
followed by an hour of dialog and questions and
answers from participants.
Pre-registration is required by June 24. Call-in number,
workshop materials, and participant list are then
provided.
Sign-up by email to:
betsyjohnson@communitygarden.org
Gardeners get plants at Brooklyn GreenBridge
or call 877-275-2242. 24th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom
PAGE 6 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

Ten Tools Every Community Gardener & Garden Needs

Courtesy of Toronto FoodShare

Gardeners may not agree on the best mulch or the 5. Watering can A watering can creates a fine even
perfect fertilizer, but there's one thing that every stream of water that delivers with a gentleness that
gardener agrees on: when it comes time to purchase won't wash seedlings or sprouting seeds out of their
soil.
tools, buy the best. Quality garden tools are an
investment that yield dividends over time. Here are the
top 10 gardening tools every community garden should 6. Fork You can't dig and divide
own. perennials without a heavy-duty fork (and some
dividing methods even suggest you own two!).

1. Trowel A well-made trowel

is your most important tool. From container gardening
to large beds, a trowel will help you get your plants
into the soil. Essential for everyone. 7. Shovels & Spades
There are several different types and shapes of shovels
and spades, each with their own purpose. There are
also different types of hand holds for either—a “D”
2. Hand Fork or Claw or Cultivator A hand shape, a “T” shape, or none at all. They are a requisite
fork helps cultivate soil, chop up clumps, and work tool for planting large perennials, shrubs, and trees,
amendments into the soil. A hand fork is necessary for breaking ground, moving soil, leaves, just about
cultivating in closely planted beds. anything. The sharper the blade, the better.

8. Wheelbarrow Wheelbarrows
come in all different sizes (and prices). They are
3. Hoe A long- handled hoe is a indispensable for hauling soil, compost, plants, mulch,
gardener's best friend. Keeping weeds at bay is the hoses, tools...everything you’ll need to garden.
purpose of this useful tool. Hoe heads come in all
different shapes and sizes and every gardener swears
by a different one.
9. Gloves Unless you want to wear
your favorite hobby under your nails, use gloves.
Leather gloves hold up best. If you have roses, get a
pair that resist thorn pricks.

4. Secateurs (aka Hand pruners) Invest in a

pair of quality pruners, such as Felco, which is clearly a .
cut above. There are different types and sizes 10. Hose. This is the fastest way to transport lots of
depending upon the type and size of the job. Secateurs water. Consider using drip irrigation hoses or tape.
are for cutting small diameters, up to the thickness of
your little finger ;-). Anything larger and you need
loppers.
PAGE 7 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

Pollinators – Let’s Join the Effort to Help

Betsy Johnson, ACGA Interim Executive Director

Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or Learn about the North American Pollinator Protection
carried from one flower to another of the same species by Campaign: www.nappc.org.
birds, bees, bats and other animals, or by the wind. This
transfer of pollen in and among flowers of the same species The Clinton Community Garden, West 48th Street, New
leads to fertilization and successful seed and fruit York City, has had a beehive for over 15 years. The CCG
production for the plant. Pollination ensures that a plant beehive is populated with thousands of Italian Caucasian
will produce full-bodied fruit and a set of fertile seeds, Honey Bees. In the fall the garden harvests approximately
capable of germinating. 80 to 100 lbs of Hell's Kitchen Honey which is sold at
their Oktoberfest.
Why should I care
about pollinators? Steps we all can take, to help
Eighty percent of the food pollinators, right in our own Other community garden and
plants species worldwide
depend on pollination by
backyards and community gardens urban agriculture programs
with beehives and beekeeping
animals, almost all of which • Plant wildflowers and native plants and use education programs include:
are insects. Worldwide, fewer hybrid flowers which don’t provide
approximately 1,000 of the • Lehman Herb Garden,
pollen or nectar for native pollinators Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood
estimated 1,330 crop plants
grown for food, beverages, of Boston, Massachusetts
• Avoid using pesticides and herbicides, or if
fibers, condiments, spices, and • Southwark/Queen Village
used, apply them at night. Garden, South Philadelphia
medicines are pollinated by
animals. Products of • Make a home for pollinators: build bee • FoodShare Toronto – roof
pollination by honey bees and condos, create bat boxes and preserve dead of the Field-To-Table
other insects are worth $40 branches and dead trees. warehouse.
billion annually by the U.S.

What is the problem with pollinators?

In reports from around the world, many pollinators have
populations in dire decline. Their decline means we could
be facing problems with food security and stability in the
coming years.

What should be done about this problem?

Public education and outreach are critical. So is
appropriate
assessment
of the status
of
pollinators
With funding from Heifer International,
in North Gardeners in Community Development,
America. Dallas, Texas, inspect bees for the new hives at
There is a their Our Savior Community Garden
critical need
for more
funding for Additional pollinator information is available at the
on-the- following websites:
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/nativebee.html#websites
Beekeeping at City Natives Nursery ground
http://pollinator.com/alt_pollinators.htm
Kennedy Community Garden, conservation http://jacobyproduction.com/beegarden/
Mattapan (Boston) and research.
PAGE 8 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

Growing Communities Workshops Around the Country

The Growing Communities Workshops were described in the
February 2005 newsletter, but since
that time ACGA conducted four
more — in Des Moines, Iowa;
Cornelius, North Carolina; Fresno,
California; and New Haven,
Connecticut. ACGA thanks the
United States Department of
Agriculture’s Community Food
Project Grants programs for
underwriting the training. Equally
important, ACGA thanks the local
host organizations: City of Des
Moines Parks & Recreation
Department; Mecklenburg County
Waste Reduction, Town of
Cornelius, and Garden Renaissance
in the South; Fresno Metro Ministry
and Fresno
Community
Garden Coalition;
City of New
Haven
Department of
Parks, Recreation
& Trees, New
Haven Ecology
Project, New
Haven Urban
Resources Initiative, and New Haven Land Trust.

Clockwise: Carlos leads the Fundraising

workshop at the Garden in the Sun in Fresno;
Gerard Lordahl tours a New Haven Land Trust
garden; the exhausted, but energized
participants in Dearborn, Michigan last August;
Pedro and Karen engage participants in the
Leadership workshop; Rodney Bender & Trish
Hildinger, co-facilitators along with Betsy
Johnson relax after the Portland, Oregon
workshop in February; lively discussion during a
small group session in Dearborn; Fresno
Hmong gardeners have a problem-solving
session during the Community Organizing
workshop; and New Haven workshop
participants successfully engage fellow
For more information or to discuss hosting a training, contact 877-275-2242. participants in the Meeting Facilitation
To order a copy of the Growing Communities Curriculum, visit the ACGA website at workshop.
www.communitygarden.org.
PAGE 9 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MA Y 20 05

ACGA Board of Directors

Photographs by Don Lambert during February 2005 Board Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri

Kate Chura, Treasurer Jason O’ Brien

Horticultural Society of New York, MOBY Community Group
New York, NY USA Vancouver, BC Canada

Rory Klick
Lake Villa, IL USA Anna Wasescha, Vice President
Farm in the City
St. Paul, MN USA

Martha Egnal Teague Weybright

Silver City Community Los Angeles Conservation Corps
Garden Los Angeles, CA USA
Pinos Altos, NM USA
Rebecca Ferguson
Green Guerillas
New York, NY USA James Kuhns
Daily Bread Food Bank
Toronto, ON Canada
Daniel Winterbottom
University of Washington
Department of Landscape
Architecture
Seattle, WA USA

Amanda Maria Edmonds Ted Zerger

Peace Community
Growing Hope
Don Lambert Garden
Ypsilanti, MI USA
Gardeners in Community Development Salina, KS USA
Richardson, TX USA
Gwenne Hayes-Stewart,
Secretary
Gateway Greening Zazel Loven
St. Louis, MO USA Rodale’s Organic
Gardening Corrie Zoll
New York, NY, Greenspace Partners Program,
USA The Green Institute
Minneapolis, MN USA

Bernadette Longo
University of Minnesota, Department of
Rhetoric
NOT PICTURED
St. Paul, MN USA Laura Berman
FoodShare Toronto
Toronto, ON Canada
Ellen Kirby Solomon Boyé
Gerard Lordahl, President City of Toronto Parks and Recreation
Brooklyn GreenBridge Toronto, ON, Canada
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Council on the Environment of NYC
New York, NY USA Rodger Cooley
Brooklyn, NY USA Heifer International
York, NY USA
Chicago IL USA
Wm. Sizwe Herring
Earth Matters Tennessee
Bill Maynard Nashville, TN USA
David King Sacramento Area Carrie Young
The Learning Garden, Community Community Garden Society of Inuvik
Venice High School Garden Coalition Inuvik, NT Canada
Los Angeles, CA USA Sacramento, CA USA
PAGE 10 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MAY 2005

Bill Maynard
Sacramento, California

In April 2005, one of ACGA’s own, board member Bill Maynard was names as a Volvo for Life Hero — “Ordinary
people doing extraordinary things.” Feted in a New York Times Square ceremony, Bill is a great stand bearer for all
community garden activists. A portion of Bill’s $25,000 award will go towards for underwriting new ACGA memberships
in California. Congratulations and thank you.

From the Volvo website comes the following write-up.

One of Bill Maynard’s favorite mottos is M. Gandhi’s, ” To forget the soil is to forget ourselves.” Bill strives to ensure
that his fellow citizens remember themselves and each other through public garden works. Bill helps those in low-income
areas enjoy gardening as a way to beautify their urban landscape while supplementing their diet with the fresh produce
grown. This year, Bill used his civil engineering skills to help design, plan, and plant a food-producing landscape initiative
within an existing low-income housing project. The initiative introduced 80 citrus and fruit trees, as well as various herbs,
into the existing project landscaping.

By working with the Parks and Recreation Commission, Bill ensured that future parks would include community gardens.
He championed the idea that citywide recreation master plans for updating parks include community gardens just as they
would softball fields, soccer fields, and horseshoe pits. Currently, Bill works on a committee to rewrite the city’s
frontyard landscaping code. The goal is for future codes to allow for food-producing gardens of trees, shrubs, and
flowers to beautify and help nourish hard-pressed neighborhoods.

Bill volunteers his time to assist the Sacramento City School District to
encourage learning experiences through the creation of school gardens.
He involves students from area high schools, giving them hands-on
experience in designing and creating school gardens. Students have
researched native plants, designed native plant areas, installed
drip irrigation, and even painted murals as the backdrop for the gardens.
Additionally, Bill helped the Hmong immigrant community relocate
their gardens from toxic drainage sites to 4 specially designated
community gardens. The Hmong community now has safe gardening
areas on which the elders can teach their farming culture to future
generations. Each winter and early spring, Bill’s green van serves as a
mobile greenhouse, in which he sprouts and starts seeds to deliver to
schools, community gardens, and attendees at various neighborhood meetings.

Bill raises a family and works full-time at a civil engineering office, designing subdivisions and streets. But his passion for
helping others and his love for gardening have led him to use his skills not only to beautify urban areas, but also to create
a stronger, more united sense of community. Bill lives by following Gandhi’s motto: “We must be the change that we
wish to see in the world.”
For more information about the Volvo for Life Heroes Award, visit www.volvoforlifeawards.com.

St. Louis Gateway Greening

Also Receives Award
Gateway Greening received the 2005 Urban Beautification Award from
the American Horticultural Society. This award is given for outstanding
contribution to an organization or individual for significant contribu-
tions to urban horticulture. Since 1984 Gateway Greening has helped
transform vacant or abandoned land into food producing gardens or
safe places to gather in the St. Louis urban core. Gateway now supports
more than 160 neighborhood greening projects. Gateway also offers
school programs in classrooms in more than 150 area schools. Its mis- Arabella Dane, Chair, American Horticultural
sion is to provide resources and training to groups who believe in Society, Gwenne Hayes-Stewart, Executive
their communities and want to reclaim them from urban decay. Director Gateway Greening, and Katy Moss
PAGE 11 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MAY 2005

10 STEPS TO STARTING A COMMUNITY GARDEN*

The following steps are adapted from the American Community Garden Association's guidelines
for launching a successful community garden in your neighborhood.
1. ORGANIZE A MEETING OF INTERESTED PEOPLE
Determine whether a garden is really needed and wanted, what kind it should be (vegetable, flower, both, or-
ganic?), whom it will involve and who benefits. Invite neighbors, tenants, community organizations, gardening
and horticultural societies, building superintendents (if it is at an apartment building)—in other words, anyone
who is likely to be interested.
2. FORM A PLANNING COMMITTEE
This group can be comprised of people who feel committed to the creation of the garden and have the time to
devote to it, at least at this initial stage. Choose well-organized persons as garden coordinators Form commit-
tees to tackle specific tasks: funding and partnerships, youth activities, construction and communication.
3. IDENTIFY ALL YOUR RESOURCES
Do a community asset assessment. What skills and resources already exist in the community that can aid in the
garden’s creation? Contact local municipal planners about possible sites, as well as horticultural societies and
other local sources of information and assistance. Look within your community for people with experience in
landscaping and gardening. In Toronto contact the Toronto Community Garden Network.
4. APPROACH A SPONSOR
Some gardens "self-support" through membership dues, but for many, a sponsor is essential for donations of
tools, seeds or money. Churches, schools, private businesses or parks and recreation departments are all possi-
ble supporters. One garden raised money by selling "square inches" at $5 each to hundreds of sponsors.
5. CHOOSE A SITE
Consider the amount of daily sunshine (vegetables need at least six hours a day), availability of water, and soil
testing for possible pollutants. Find out who owns the land. Can the gardeners get a lease agreement for at least
three years? Will public liability insurance be necessary?
6. PREPARE AND DEVELOP THE SITE
In most cases, the land will need considerable preparation for planting. Organize volunteer work crews to clean
it, gather materials and decide on the design and plot arrangement.
7. ORGANIZE THE GARDEN
Members must decide how many plots are available and how they will be assigned. Allow space for storing
tools, making compost and don’t forget the pathways between plots! Plant flowers or shrubs around the
garden's edges to promote good will with non-gardening neighbors, passersby and municipal authorities.
8. PLAN FOR CHILDREN
Consider creating a special garden just for kids--including them is essential. Children are not as interested in the
size of the harvest but rather in the process of gardening. A separate area set aside for them allows them to
explore the garden at their own speed.
9. DETERMINE RULES AND PUT THEM IN WRITING
The gardeners themselves devise the best ground rules. We are more willing to comply with rules that we have
had a hand in creating. Ground rules help gardeners to know what is expected of them. Think of it as a code of
behavior. Some examples of issues that are best dealt with by agreed upon rules are: dues, how will the money
be used? . How are plots assigned? Will gardeners share tools, meet regularly, handle basic maintenance?
10. HELP MEMBERS KEEP IN TOUCH WITH EACH OTHER
Good communication ensures a strong community garden with active participation by all. Some ways to do this
are: form a telephone tree, create an email list; install a rainproof bulletin board in the garden; have regular
celebrations. Community gardens are all about creating and strengthening communities.
* the most common advice sought from ACGA, also visit http://www.communitygarden.org/starting.php
PAGE 12 PAGE 12 T H E C O MMU NI T Y GA RDE NER MAY 2005

How Many Are We?

ACGA gets asked frequently for the number of community gardens. We know this is a constantly
changing number. By some estimates there are 6,000, by others there are 18,000 — so please return the
survey below so we can provide a more accurate answer. Thank you.

American Community Gardening Association’s Community Garden Survey 2005

City Information Source:
Name:_______________________________________ Organization/Agency:____________________________________
Address:_____________________________________ City/Province, State, Postal Code___________________________
Phone _______________________________________ Email _______________________________________________
Website(s) for lists of gardens in your area and of individual gardens ____________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Number of different types of Community Gardens in Your City or Area
(For the purpose of this survey, a community garden is defined as land set aside for community members to grow edible or
ornamental plants. The land may also include active or passive recreation space or other amenities.) Complete as best you can.

Breadth of Geographic area (i.e., neighborhood, city(ies), metro region, state, etc.) ________________________________

__________Neighborhood Gardens __________Senior Center/Housing Gardens _________ Public Housing Gardens

__________ “Farm” sites with plots __________ Community Supported Ag. _________ Therapeutic Gardens
__________ Youth Empowerment __________ School Gardens __________ Job Training
__________Other:_________________________________________________________________________________

__________Total _________ Number on privately owned land, if known

Site Permanency: Is site permanency considered an important issue in this city?___________

Explain:_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Number of gardens established within the past 5 years:____________
Comparing the past 5 years to previous years, the rate of new sites has increased or decreased? _______________________
Please return this survey by July 15, 2005 to the American Community Gardening Association
c/o Council on the Environment of New York City 51 Chambers St., Rm.228 New York, New York 10007 or
Email the responses to Betsyjohnson@communitygarden.org

(Continued from page 4)

JOIN OR RENEW WITH ACGA
Send memberships to:
ACGA, 51 Chambers St. Room 228
New York, NY 10007
MEMBERS ARE ACGA’S STRENGTH
RECRUIT A NEW
MEMBER TODAY
www.communitygarden.org/join.php
plant some roses in the Peace Garden. I explained that there were already
several rose bushes in the garden but he insisted. He said he had some at
home that he wanted to plant. It turns out that he had dug up part of a rose
bush along their back fence and had several pieces in a bucket, covered with
some very dry soil. When I asked him why he dug it up, he said," I was
afraid it would die in the winter." Amazingly enough, a couple of the pieces
had a few roots, so we planted them. Even more amazingly, Jonathan would
come to the garden to check on his roses and water them. One day he told
me he was moving to Georgia with his grandparents.
I asked him, "what will happen to your roses if you move away?" He said,
"you can take care of them. That way you'll have something to remember
me by."
Ted Zerger