Community Gardens: General Maintenance and Upkeep

You are prepared to start your community garden and maybe you have read in my prior articles about how to find the right location, how to evaluate that location, and questions to ask yourself in regards to putting together the garden organization. In this article we will discuss assigning tasks and what your community garden will require.

To start, lets look at the amount of work required when starting your community garden.

One doesn't realize how much goes into having and tending a garden, so making a list of must-dos helps at the onset. Having a list reminds anyone who wants to be involved with the community garden, what they are really in for.

To start, there are the necessities in gardening that include general maintenance and upkeep, fertilizing, pest control, watering, weed control, winterizing, and harvesting.

Other chores include:

• Collection of any litter or yard debris (branches, twigs, etc)
• Sweeping or raking up stray leaves on walkways/paths
• Trimming/mowing any areas of turf
• Keeping walkway edges clean
• Raking gravel paths
• Upkeep of sheds, fences, sheds, etc. through the occasional coat of fresh paint
• Clearing moss from stone or brick walkways, which could become slippery
• Maintaining any water features

Before you can even tend to your garden, you will have site pre-cleaning to do. Other pre-gardening chores include: deciding on the size of plots and marking them clearly with the gardener's names, including pre-design plans for a storage area for tools and other equipment, and designating a compost area.

Now for the second stage of starting your community garden. Assigning work. This is often the most difficult part for those who start community gardens. Never assume that people will volunteer to take care of the details - these details have to be decided upon before you get your garden started.

Since your garden is about collective work soliciting help from community members and organizations is a rewarding way to get garden work done. You can set up workdays that can include putting up your gardening shed or doing a mass planting. You can try to solicit help from local schools, libraries, clubs or organizations. The more people you can pull together, the less work that will fall on anyone in particular.

You will also want to capitalize on various individuals' skills. Everyone has something that they are best at - and that their most valuable skills may have nothing to do with gardening. Perhaps an outgoing member of your group loves to talk to new people - she may also be one the best persons to gather new members and donations. Perhaps someone else likes to write and would love to write seasonal newsletters, or another person is good with their hands and will be able to lead in construction projects and repairs. Community gardening is about much more than growing produce, and it is important to find out who in your group will be well suited for the numerous 'non-gardening' tasks that will help keep your garden diverse and thriving.

Remember that a community garden is also an ongoing project with ongoing tasks. To stay on top of these tasks, make sure you stay organized. If you are working with a team of gardeners, it is a good idea to rely on written records and logs that are kept in a common area, either in your garden shed, classroom, community center, or some other accessible location. If the members of your gardening group have access to the Internet, an online blog or website may be a good option to assure that the lines of communication remain clear.

Planning in advance is another key to staying organized. Try creating a weekly or monthly maintenance calendar. Gardeners can sign up for different tasks, and then cross them off once they are completed.

If you are still interested in putting together a community garden, stay tuned for further installations on designing your garden and maintaining it.

About the Author: Pamela Ravenwood is a freelance writer, journalist, and writing coach who lives in the desert. In addition to spending her days writing, she also loves to tend to her organic garden where she grows as much of her own food as possible. In this, she counts on her cord reel to keep her hoses from drying out from the desert heat.