# How to Start A Community Garden in Your Backyard By Tiferet, eHow Member



## PatriotSurvivalist (Mar 16, 2010)

As the economy worsens, those who have the desire to save money by vegetable gardening can elicit the help of their neighbors to start a community garden right in their own backyard. This not only will lighten your food bill but build community at the same time.

Things You'll Need:

* Land that gets 4 hours of sunlight
* Gardening tools
* A computer
* Seeds and plant starts
* Compost
* Compost bin and/or worm bin
* Muscle

Step 1

Assess whether you have at least 4 hours of sunshine in your yard (back or front) to enable you to produce an abundant crop. Some vegetables will need less sun, but most will need at least this much. If you live in a Southern climate you have little to worry about unless there are many shade trees. In the Northern climates, this will be much more of an issue in starting a community garden.

Step 2

There are many resources out there to help you get started. Most communities will have Cooperative Extension programs that are run by the state that offer great classes if you don't already know about organic gardening. Call your local Chamber of Commerce, health department, gardening clubs, etc. They may also be able to help you find the resources that you need to get started.

Step 3

Call a community meeting for the community garden by producing a flyer and send around to your neighbors or use Evite if you know their e-mail addresses. At that meeting find out what their particular needs are, their gardening expertise, gardening tools, etc. You may be pleasantly surprised how many people will be interested. It would be helpful to find someone who has carpentry expertise. Building raised beds can be quite helpful in keeping things nice and orderly. You can also use that persons ability to build open compost bins.

Step 4

If you have no one to build a compost bin you can purchase one. If you use open bins you'll can only compost grass and plant clippings. A closed bin or worm bin can compost food scraps also. You can also purchase compost. Compost is important for enriching the soil so that your vegetables will grow faster and be healthier.

Step 5

Hold a getting started day. This will likely entail renting a sod cutter to get rid of your grass (there are other methods but this is the fastest). Then add your compost to enrich the soil. Map out your garden to determine what vegetables will go where. Plant according to season. You can either have a Master Gardener help you with your community garden or for those who would rather read or take a class those are also available.

Step 6

Set up work parties throughout the summer and a schedule for watering so that you don't have to do it all yourself. Different vegetables will produce at different times. Hold group dinners to sample all the wonderful harvest you've produced. You will be well on your way to eating healthier, saving money, and creating community.

How to Start A Community Garden in Your Backyard | eHow.com

EHOW is a great place to find Videos and Articles on just about anything you want to find out.
Give it a try the next time you take on a project .. You may be pleasantly surprised..


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Very cool! :melikey:


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