Thinking of starting a community garden, and eyeing that public park nearby, or tired of being on a waiting list at the only community garden in your city? You’re not alone. Community gardens are flourishing nationwide as a terrific way for citizens to grow healthy food as well as community bonds, but there are currently not enough of them to meet the demand.

Many community gardens are formed on public land such as public parks. Public parks are wonderful gathering places with some valuable features that typically include restroom facilities, security, visibility, parking, and a convenient location as well as other recreational options to enjoy before or after gardening. Community gardens are particularly good at bringing people to a part of the park that might be currently underutilized, improving the environmental attributes of the land itself and the park in general, and creating a positive energy that is known to have community-improving ripple effects throughout the park and beyond.

Cities and counties nationwide are beginning to recognize the benefits of community gardens and encourage citizen groups to start community gardens on public land. They are coming up with different procedures specific to their jurisdictions that will help position each community garden for optimal success.

To submit a proposal to start a community garden in a city or county park in your community, I’d recommend you follow the guidelines of the American Community Gardening Association, with these additional tips learned from the formation of the Dunwoody Community Garden in Brook Run.

1. Form a planning committee. This could be a group of friends or neighbors, but I recommend throwing a wider net to bring in passionate people with specific skills that may not be present in your current social network. Skills needed include: organizing, negotiating, communicating, building, fundraising and yes, of course, gardening. If your group is already a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, or you can organize under the umbrella of an existing non-profit organization, you will be able to apply for grants and accept donations that will be tax-deductible to donors.

2. Choose a site. You may have a “perfect spot” in mind, but give it a fresh look to be sure it has 6-8 hours of direct sunlight a day (consider what the spot will look like when the trees are full of leaves if you are viewing it at another time of the year), a gentle slope for drainage, ample and convenient parking, room for the number of garden beds you propose as well as compost bins, a cistern, wood chip piles, a shady spot for picnic tables and other possible future enhancements to the garden. Check to see if there is an available water supply. If not, your county may be able to help you through Administration and Watershed Management to explore the possibility of using an existing meter or tapping a new water line. Also, if the park in which you are considering starting a community garden has a master plan, see if the site you have in mind is designated as green space or if there is already another site indicated for a community garden.

3. Prepare a Request for Approval for a Community Garden in a County Park from your county’s Parks and Recreation Department. If no form currently exists in your county, prepare your own and list the names of the planning committee, describe the site, attach a diagram of the proposed community garden, and indicate any 501(c)3 associations you have or are pursuing. This is a good time to secure and outline any social justice relationships you want to be integral parts of the garden (such as designating a certain number of plots to be used by families in need, or donating a set portion of the produce to the nearest food bank or other needy organization). These relationships help the garden to achieve additional objectives, and serve as a strong role model for the community.


4. Organize your garden leadership and operating methods. Establish your board of directors; write by-laws, rules and regulations; and prepare a waiver for garden members to sign. This sounds overwhelming at first. However, the American Community Garden Association has comprehensive online examples and resources for you to use to do this. You can tailor what they have for your specific location and intended membership. See www.dunwoodygarden.org for the bylaws, rules and regulations, and waiver developed by the Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run. The more you discuss and establish at the beginning, the simpler things will be as you move forward. However, remember that a community garden is a living, breathing science experiment, and there will no doubt be need for adjustments as your garden develops. Be thorough, but open-minded. There are many paths to the same destination.

5. Involve the public. Once you receive approval from your county as a letter on official letterhead, you’re ready to prepare a press release with details about the community garden and how the public can sign up for a plot or get involved otherwise and submit it to your local newspaper. You may also want to start a website and/or a social networking site at this time so that people have a place to go for more information and to leave comments or connect with others to help make this garden a reality. It is also helpful to put a sign at the garden site and an info box with a friendly note explaining about the garden and how to get involved.

6. Prepare and develop the site. It’s time for work days! Those who signed up for garden plots are currently enthusiastic to get going, and there’s no better way to channel that energy than to have a couple workdays and move some mulch. Have your garden design ready. Stake out the main paths beforehand. Have free mulch delivered from tree removal companies. And then get people out there, pounding stakes to mark plots and moving mulch. The Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run got its entire foundation established in two 4-hour workdays.

7. Have an official opening. You’ve worked hard. You’ve created community excitement. And you’ve achieved the start of something really special. Commemorate and celebrate. Keep it simple. Have a little music, say a few words, issue lots of thanks, and then have a bring-your-own picnic lunch or share a celebratory cake. Take lots of pictures and video because every single day from this moment on the garden will change and you will want to look back on when it was nothing but dirt and dreams. Follow your dedication ceremony with a garden member meeting. Consider asking the police department to give a short overview of safety suggestions for community gardening (such as “garden with a buddy” and “call 911 if you see anything suspicious”). Require payment and signed waivers before allowing anyone to start working on their plots.

8. Connect with other community gardens in your area.  Learn from each other. To fence or not to fence? Are you experiencing any vandalism? How do you handle water? Are you offering classes to plot holders? What are your fees? Do you have a source for free seeds or tools? Have you applied for any grants? Do you have a shared tool shed or a bulletin board? Are you involving area schoolchildren? The list is endless. This social networking site was set up to help facilitate the sharing of information like this among community gardens in the metro Atlanta area. Take advantage of it, contribute to it, and help metro Atlanta grow!  Not in Atlanta?  Start one for your metro area.  Took me about twenty minutes.

At any step of this journey, feel free to reach out and ask for advice or encouragement. Just about anything you are considering doing has probably been done somewhere else in the Atlanta metro area (did you know there are more than 150 community gardens in the metro area?!) or somewhere else in the United States or world.

If you are the first community garden on public land in your county, you may have a bit of a hill to climb getting approval and getting started. But stick with it. You are doing something positive, and your county will most likely applaud your vision and your perseverance and want to help you make your community garden a true success. It may be limited in resources but boundless in respect for what you are trying to achieve to help your community "grow" safer, closer and more food-secure.

For more details and resources, please see the American Community Gardening Association website.