Many people want to start a garden for the first time, but don’t know where to begin. Why not start with a community garden? A group of gardeners lighten the work load and share knowledge with each other. If there is no community garden in the area, then start one.
Why Start a Community Garden?
- To produce high-quality, nutritious food – Agricultural soils worldwide are depleted. These depleted soils produce food which is lacking in essential nutrients and taste. Garden-grown food is higher in nutrients and full of flavor.
- To create rich, biologically active soils – No till gardening creates rich organic soils in which beneficial microbes, fungi, and insects thrive. These soils are able to produce incredibly high yields in small amounts of space.
- To create space for heirloom varieties of seeds to be produced, cultivated, and saved -Mass produced, hybrid varieties of fruits and vegetables are usually sterile. That is, if they contain seed, the seed is not viable. Locally adapted varieties of fruits and vegetables are important for the long term sustainability of agriculture world wide.
- To increase community interaction – In a world in which people are becoming more isolated, community gardens are a great way to bring people together for a common purpose. And let’s face it, gardening is not as volatile as politics.
- To teach us where food comes from – Many of us don’t know where our food comes from, how it grows, and what is necessary to produce it. Reclaiming knowledge of food and how to produce it is a benefit to us all.
- To reduce the amount of money spent on groceries – The better tasting, and more nutritious fruits and vegetables are those that are organically grown. Organic in the grocery store is almost always more expensive. Organic gardening is no more expensive than non-organic gardening. Growing food in a community garden can reduce grocery bills.
- To create opportunities to create income – Community gardens that really get going can create extra income for participants from the sale of crops, compost, and other garden amendments.
- To reduce heat from urban asphalt – In urban areas, roads and parking lots create heat islands. Community gardens create islands of cooler green space.
- To create green space – Cities invest in parks and planted medians to increase green space. Green space breaks up the urban landscape, creating peaceful, human scale space.
- To improve quality of life – The combination of producing high-quality food, improving soil, reducing grocery bills, working together, and creating economic opportunities for a neighborhood improve the quality of life for all who live there.
With all the reasons to start a community garden, why not start now? Call a friend and get going. For some ways to get started, read The Beginner’s Vegetable Garden, and visit the American Community Gardening Association site.