Welcome to Tom's Garden
We fund and support community gardening in Charlottesville, Virginia, Albemarle County and the surrounding communities.
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Amy Bender Webb
Martha Campbell
Deborah Rutter
Toms Garden
Charlottesville Open Garden Project
The Charlottesville Open Garden Project's mission is to connect local gardeners, in order to share resources, experience, knowledge, and passion. We conduct monthly tours of productive gardens in neighborhoods around Charlottesville. On our email list-serv, we ask questions of each other, offer shared resources, relate tales of garden trials and successes, and more.
Edible garden taken to a whole new level – Eatocracy - CNN.com Blogs
There's always a time and place for gardening...and a garden.
Community Gardening Resources: a Great List from Tricycle Gardens in Richmond
As the global community comes together, we need to leverage the collective power of the social web to make our world a more equitable place. We have gathered a number links and resources which we feel are vital to cause.
Community Gardening and Urban Farming in Richmond; about Tricycle Gardens phenomenal program!!
Three architects founded Tricycle Gardens (501(c)3) in 2002 while living in Church Hill–a neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia that juxtaposes meticulously renovated historic homes with high-density public housing; stunning vistas of the James River with abandoned, overgrown lots. The founders believed community gardens and the simple act of growing food were the fastest ways to improve the health of their community–both for the residents and the environment. What started with the city’s first community garden on a vacant lot owned by The Better Housing Coalition, has grown into four Community Gardens, three Learning Gardens, a green house, and now an urban farm.
Start a Garden via Kansas City Community Gardens
HOW TO START A COMMUNITY GARDEN
Starting a community garden involves several steps including: 1) identifying goals, 2) deciding on the group garden structure, 3) selecting a site, 4) developing the site, 5) and creating a budget. The following section provides some basic questions to help you begin thinking through each of these steps.
Step 1: Identifying Goals of the Garden
What is the primary goal of the garden and who will it serve? For example:
- Your group wants to make use of a vacant lot to grow tasty fuits and vegetables to be shared among the gardeners
- Families that are needing to lower food costs
- Church or businesses growing food for the hungry
- Neighbors wanting a healthy alternative to junk food for their families.
What other goals do you have for the garden?
- Educational
- Beautification
- Community building and Socialization
- Therapy
Step 2: Identify the Group Garden Structure
- Garden plots/beds serving individual gardeners vs. community plots or a combination of individual and community
- Will there be children's plots?
- How large should plots be?
- How will plots be assigned (by family member, by residency, etc.,)?
Step 3: Site Selection - Picking the BEST Site
- Find land and determine who owns it.
- Consider the location of the land and its proximity to the gardeners
- What was the previous use of the land?
- Is there existing vegetation on the land and can you identify what it is?
- Consider the sun exposure. Make sure the site gets at least 6 hours of sunlight daily
- Consider soil conditions. Do a soil test for nutrients and heavy metals.
- Consider the drainage and slope of the land.
- Consider availability and source for water.
Step 4: Make a Garden Development Plan
- Identify garden type. Will the garden be organic? What will you grow?
- Determine requirements for soil preparation. How will plowing be done?
- What are the watering requirements?
- Is fencing needed to mark plots or to protect plants from animals such as rabits and deer?
- What tools will be needed and will these be shared among gardeners?
- Consider planting flowers or shrubs around the visible perimeter to create a more aesthetically pleasing garden.
Step 5: Create a Budget
- What are your start-up costs - soil preparation, plants, tools, etc.,?
- Account for you on-going, operational costs such as tilling, seeds, fertilizer, mulch, water, etc.,
The Edible Schoolyard
The Edible Schoolyard (ESY), a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation, is a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom for urban public school students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. At ESY, students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce.
