Acquiring a garden site & site factors to consider

Acquiring a site

Step 1

As a starting point, look for empty parcels of land within your neighbourhood. If none exists, look for businesses with large lots that are under utilized or a school, hospital, nursing home, or senior’s residence that is interested in sharing the garden, or for possible sites within a municipal park. If you are in a rural area, perhaps there is a farm or market garden nearby that would be willing to rent your group some land.

Once you have identified a potential site, you must now find out who owns it and come to an agreement about the use of the site. Ownership can be determined by checking records in your municipality’s Land Registrar office, if it is privately owned, or if it is public, by checking with the municipality’s Buildings Department for the zoning and permitted usage.

If there are zoning problems, the next step is to contact the Planning Department to see if a community garden can be accommodated or if the zoning can be changed.

Tips:
1. Some municipalities are willing to accommodate community gardens within their parks.

2. It’s also good idea to enlist the help of your local Councillor or alderman and the residents’ association in the neighbourhood.

3. Something to remember whenever dealing with any office of your local government: be persistent and be patient. It always takes longer than you would think possible.

Step 2

Once you know who owns the land, schedule a meeting with the owner to discuss the use of the land as a community garden. If possible, invite a prominent member of the community who is a supporter of the project as well as someone with a legal or real estate background.

Tips:
1. It’s helpful to have ready a one page description of your project to give to the land owner, neighbours, city officials and potential fund-raisers. Keep it brief and include the following information:

- Definition of community gardening, aims and purposes
- Your garden’s mission statement
- Names of garden members
- What will be grown
- Year round maintenance plan
- Background of the sponsoring agency or group
- Name, address and phone numbers for at least two contact people
- Attach letters of support

2. Talk with the neighbours of the site, especially those immediately adjacent. Explain your intentions, invite them to participate and assure them of your commitment to maintain the site. Ask them to sign a letter of support for the project.

Step 3

Once you have agreement in principle with the site’s owner, you must now work out the terms of use and prepare a written agreement that will form the basis the site lease.
Points to consider include:

- General purpose
- Property description and location
- Utilities (water, electricity, etc.)
- Inspection of site
- Length of lease
- Option to renew
- Lease termination
- Lease modification
- Fees
- Maintenance
- Insurance
- Hold harmless clause
- Nondiscrimination clause

Many private owners require that you carry your own liability insurance, while municipalities can often include your group in their insurance. There is no one policy that covers community gardens. The best advice is to work it out with a sympathetic insurance broker.

Tip:
Some owners may be willing to have all participants just sign a “Hold Harmless” clause. This sets out in writing that you will absolve the owner of any liability but it will not provide any sort of coverage for the injured. Here’s an example of one from the American Community Gardening Association:

I understand that neither the garden group nor owners of the land are responsible for my actions. I THEREFORE AGREE TO HOLD HARMLESS THE GARDEN GROUP AND OWNERS OF THE LAND FOR ANY LIABILITY, DAMAGE, LOSS OR CLAIM THAT OCCURS IN CONNECTION WITH USE OF THE GARDEN BY ME OR ANY OF MY GUESTS.

A presentation to the City Council or a Residents Association may be required. Be well organized, clear and have examples and pictures of other successful community gardens. Bring as many supporters as possible to these types of meetings.

Landowners need to feel confident in your group’s ability to carry out the project. Keep them well informed, in writing, of your plans, past experience in community-based projects, and of your progress. Make sure to send them the monthly newsletter and, most of all, invite them to become a member of the garden.

Site Section Factors

What makes a good site for a community garden? Location, location, location…and plenty of sun! Community gardens should be just that–a garden within the community. Ideally they are located within easy walking distance of all participants or are accessible by public transport. If you have to drive or travel more than a very short distance by bus or subway, chances are that you won’t garden as often as you would if the garden is located just down the street from your home. In order for it to truly be a community garden it must be an integral part of everyday life in the neighbourhood.

Important factors in choosing a garden site

Sunlight

A vegetable garden should receive at least six hours a day of sunlight. A bit of dappled shade in part of the garden is desirable for a sitting area, but the growing areas must receive full sun for as long as possible. If you don’t have this kind of sun, and there is no other available site, look into growing those plants that can tolerate more shade than most . There isn’t a wide range of typical garden vegetables that do well in the shade, but don’t despair–think creatively.

Soil Quality

The most important factor for success of any garden, whether it is a community vegetable garden or a meadow regeneration project, is the soil. Without a living, healthy soil every ounce of energy and every penny that you put into your garden will be wasted. It makes much better sense to concentrate the garden group’s energy, especially in the first year, into adding organic matter (compost, manure, mulch) than in buying expensive, synthetic fertilizers that promise astonishing yields and giant vegetables. These chemical fertilizers need to be applied every year and, in the bargain, kill off the natural, beneficial soil organisms that do the work for free. Chemical fertilizers are to plants what steroids are to bodybuilders.

Every site should have a soil test, not only for nutrient content but also for contaminants. Contaminant tests can be quite expensive, so if you can narrow the scope of the tests by providing information which will tell the labs what to suspect, you can save some money. Investigate the past usage of the site–was it used for housing, commercial or heavy industrial use?

Tip:
If there was heavy industry on site there is a good chance that the soil contains toxic contaminants and may make the site unsuitable for gardening without first replacing or otherwise remediating the soil. It might be easier, and cheaper, to look for another site.

Nutrient tests will tell you the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorous to potassium, or NPK–the 3 numbers on fertilizer labels–as well as the soil’s pH. Some testing services will also report organic matter content, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfur and trace minerals. OMAFRA (Ontario only) supplies a list of these accredited labs to gardeners, as do many other provincial and state agricultural extension offices. The cost for nutrient testing is usually under $20.00 (contaminant testing is considerably higher), and depending upon the time of year, it may take a month or more to get the results.

Tip:
If time is of the essence, many nurseries and garden centres sell kits for testing pH and NPK at a comparable or slightly higher price.

In addition to nutrient content, soil texture is another important selection criteria. Soil is made up of organic components (humus) and inorganic components (sand, clay and silt). The ideal soil has lots of organic matter and a combination of the tiny rock fragments of sand, silt and clay. The relative proportion of these factors influences the soil’s water retention capabilities, drainage, oxygen content, and fertility. Sandy soil drains too quickly to hold water for long and so adversely affects the soil’s fertility. Clay soil sticks together, forming hard, dense crusts that roots and water have trouble penetrating.

Tip:
The addition of organic matter, especially in the form of compost, can improve any type of soil.

Drainage

In addition to the soil’s characteristics, the drainage of the site as a whole is very important. Improving the soil texture will help the general drainage, but if the site is unevenly graded, the low areas will hold water regardless of the texture. If your site has problem areas, regrade it to redirect the water elsewhere, but also examine the texture. If the problem doesn’t resolve by regrading and adding organic matter, the cause may be underground. Often subterranean springs, leaking water pipes, buried paving and other unknowable factors are the cause of wet areas that just won’t go away.

Tip:
Don’t fight it. if your site has a low area that is always wet, plant a miniature wetland or use plants that love to have their feet wet at all times.

Water

Easy access to water is vital to garden success. If there isn’t any running water on the site, investigate the cost of providing it. If that is too prohibitive or is not possible due to zoning or lease conditions, perhaps an adjacent neighbour will allow the (newly formed) Water Committee to run a hose or fill holding barrels once a week, either for contributions to the water bill or for a share of the harvest. And if that isn’t possible, the committee should purchase some rain barrels (there are several good ones on the market these days).

Tip:
Encourage all gardeners to practice water conservation techniques, such as mulching and bottle drip irrigation.

Proximity to Pollution Sources

Air born pollution is an ongoing vexation for any gardener who wants to use organic gardening techniques, whether in the city or in rural areas. The wind knows no boundaries and pollution that originates in one part of the country is quite capable of affecting a garden hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. Combating long range pollution requires a political approach. Combating more immediate pollution sources can take a more horticultural approach.

The most common source of air born pollution that you can do something about comes from car exhausts. Common sense tells us to keep the garden, especially the food plants, as far away as possible from busy roads, parking lots, situations where cars sit idling their engines (traffic lights, stop signs, drop off and pick up areas).

Tip:
If the garden is too close to a road for comfort, plant an ornamental (non-edible) strip, such as a hedge or a vine on a fence, to act as a filter. Choose something with large leaves or something that is very thick and dense. The more biomass, the better the filter.

Lead paint is another problem pollution source. The soil of many older building sites are contaminated with minuscule flakes of lead-based paint. This is especially hazardous to children, who have a much lower tolerance of lead than do adults, because of their smaller body size. The only way to determine if lead is a problem at your site is to have the soil tested for contaminants. Be sure to alert the soil lab to the possibility of lead when you send in your sample.

If you get a positive test result, the only way to use the site safely would be to remove the contaminated soil and replace it with healthy soil. Depending on the size of the garden, this could be prohibitively expensive. Make sure that all of the gardeners are aware of the health hazard and that children are not allowed to play in the contaminated soil. Even the small amount of lead absorbed by just getting your hands dirty is too much for a child and breathing the dust stirred up by removing the soil is hazardous.

Tips:
1. Look for another site or build planters that will allow you to grow food crops in good soil.
2. Certain plants in the mustard family (brassicas) can clean heavy metals from the soil. This is known as bio-remediation or phytoremediation.There are many websites on the topic. Start here: http://water.usgs.gov/wid/html/bioremed.html

Another type of pollution that occurs more often in urban areas than in rural ones is from road salt. Again, locate the growing areas as far away from the pollution source as you can, and encourage garden neighbours as well as your municipality to use sand rather than salt on their sidewalks and roads.

Tip:
Small areas of salt contamination can be improved by removing the top 5–20 cm. (2”–8”) of soil, watering the excavated area heavily in order to dilute the salt as much as possible, and then replacing it with healthy soil with a high organic matter content. Plants used in this remediated area should have shallow root systems that will remain within the new soil zone.

Safety

A good location for a community garden is in a highly visible, well traveled area. Out of the way locations are potentially unsafe and open to vandalism. A garden that is visible is much safer and is more likely to become a source of community pride if it is in view at all times.

Some type of lighting is also advisable, especially if members like to visit the garden at night. Take care to adjust the lights so that they illuminate the garden and do not annoy the neighbours.

Tip:
Make it possible for the gardeners to identify each other and to distinguish between friend and foe.

Access and Services

Look for a site that allows easy access by the gardeners, their bicycles and, occasionally, their cars and also by delivery trucks. Nearby public transportation and adequate parking is important if the gardeners are coming from outside the neighbourhood--make sure that they don’t take the locals residents’ parking spaces!

Another vital site criteria is the proximity of public washrooms and telephones. If there are no public facilities, consider renting a portable toilet, but get the approval of the neighbours and check if you also need zoning permission.

Tip:
If you do get a port-a-potty, locate it in such a way that it will be as unobtrusive as possible and plant some tall flowers around it as an added precaution.