| From American Community Gardens/Plot size |
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| Written by Mary Ann West | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 06 December 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This was a recent comment about plot sizes from the American Community Garden list serve. Considering our need to have each gardener in a half plot, it seems a reasonable goal. The suggestion of having experienced gardeners helping the less experienced seems like a wonderful idea, let me know what your thoughts are about this and anything else.
At 10:56 AM -0500 12/4/06,
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wrote: >...What size plot seems to work the best in your area? What do you find > to be a good size for first time gardeners? What do you think >is the ideal size for experienced gardeners? > >Also, just for perspective what are the largest and smallest plots? The >largest ones I have been able to find are 30 feet by 90-92 feet. The >smallest so far is 10x20. Do you know of any larger or smaller ones? response: I think a lot depends on how well the garden is managed and how much support or community is in place. Are the gardens kept weeded and planted? In a year-round climate, do the gardens look presentable year-round? Are gardeners who don't maintain their plots weeded out? Are people around enough that new gardeners can ask questions about what grows well there, what's easy and successful, what to do about pests and diseases? Do they do all their gardening here, or just a few summer vegetables? I'd guess that the better managed the garden, the more assistance new gardeners get, and the more community is valued, the smaller the plots can be in a successful community garden. The community garden where I garden has plots from 100-200 sf to about 1000-1200 sf. Average size is around 300-400 sf (square feet). I know of a couple other gardens where the size is something like 4 x 16. Rather than experienced and less experienced, I think the important distinction is how much time they will devote to the garden. Can they make the time to stop by the garden at least once a week, and to participate in regular garden work days? Or can they do more? Although we have about 150 garden plots, every time I go to the garden, I see the same 5 or 10 people, who have plots of varying sizes. Upkeep is a real problem; the small garden plot next to mine has been abandoned from Sept. to May the past couple years, with tomatoes rotting on the vine. The small plot on the other side is kept up in the summer, but lush weeds grow all winter. People who are threatened with eviction show up once to do a quick cleanup, then disappear again. Personally, I like having as large a plot as possible, both for experimenting with a range of vegetables, berries, herbs, and flowers, and for making lots and lots of compost. Since my plot is near the entrance to the garden, I end up chatting with many gardeners as well as passers-by and dogwalkers. Another idea for experienced gardeners is to have demonstration plots, with seating areas. We have two: one for shade plants (showing what grows well or can grow in part shade) and one for native plants (for pollinators). Some gardeners have also informally adopted the area outside the garden fence, blocking off as much as a 6-8 ft. wide swath to grow flowers. See also: my other article. Mary Ann West Senior Program Coordinator International Meetings & Science, a division of GreyHealthcare 1010 Washington Blvd, 7th Fl Stamford, CT 06901
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