Get Organized

Organize Your Garden Team

We’ve already said it and we’ll say it again: don’t go it alone! The following tips will help you think about who to involve, how to involve them, and how you’re going to work together.

• Building Your Garden Leadership Team
• Leadership Planning Worksheet
• Building & Maintaining Your Group for the Long Haul, from Toxics Action Network
• Community Leadership in Action: A Vermont Guide to Community Engagement, Project Development, & Resources, from Vermont Council on Rural Development
• Leadership: 21 Tips, from “Community Garden Management Toolkit,” Springfield Food Policy Council, MA
• Making the Most of Meetings, from “Community Garden Management Toolkit,” Springfield Food Policy Council, MA

Support Your Gardeners

As a garden leader, you know better than anybody that community and school gardens are as much about garden community as they are about gardens. Here-in lies your role as an organizer–how do you organize the people in your garden? Developing resources such as agreed-upon guidelines and a gardener handbook goes a long way in to promote buy-in and keep people informed.

• Community Garden Guidelines Tips
  • Sample Garden Rules, American Community Gardening Association
  • Sample Garden Expectations, Fresh Start Community Farm, Newport, VT
  • Sample Community Garden Guidelines, Burlington, VT
  • Sample Collective Garden Guidelines, The Garden at 485 Elm
  • Sample Avenue Apartments Garden Contract, Champlain Housing Trust, Burlington, VT
  • Sample Community Agreements, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
• Sample Neighborhood Gardening Handbook, from Grow Team ONE, Burlington, VT, 2010

Develop Your Garden Organization

Whatever it’s size, your garden group will likely have organizational needs such as handling funds, use of land, and working agreements.

• Four Stages & Four Challenges: Organizational Development, Institute for Conservation Leadership
• Handling Money, Partnerships for Parks Technical Assistance Program
• Sample Land Use Agreement, American Community Gardening Association
• Sample Community Garden Lease, Archibald Neighborhood Garden, Burlington, VT, 2007

Sample Forms

• Sample Garden Plot Registration, American Community Gardening Association
• Sample Collective Garden Registration, The Garden at 485 Elm
• Sample Harrington Village Resident Survey, Champlain Housing Trust, Shelburne, VT
• Sample Windsor Garden Survey, Windsor Community Garden, Windsor, VT

For more resources and tips on starting a garden and leading its development, return to Organizing in the Garden.