Community garden

From Free net encyclopedia

Community gardens are small plots of land allocated to groups of people by some organization that holds title or lease to the land, sometimes for rent, sometimes simply as a grant of land.

Community gardens run from 5'x5' plots to as much as 25' square plots. Usual sizes are in the 10 x 10 to 15 x 15' range. Community gardens are often run by a self-governing set of bylaws, some elect boards in a democratic fashion while others can be run by appointed officials. Most are run by a non-profit, either a community gardening association or a church or other land-owner, and sometimes by a city's recreation or parks department or a school or University. There are many different organizational models to choose from. The American Community Gardening Association, has information on starting your own community garden and is a wealth of further information on the subject.

Community gardens in the UK

In the United Kingdom, community gardening is generally distinct from allotment gardening, though the distinction is sometimes blurred. Allotments are generally plots of land rented to individuals for their cultivation by local authorities or other public bodies—the upkeep of the land is usually the responsibility of the individual plot owners. Allotments tend (but not invariably) to be situated around the outskirts of built-up areas. Use of allotment areas as open space or play areas is generally discouraged.

The community garden movement is of more recent provenance than allotment gardening - many such gardens have sprung up on bombed and derelict inner-city sites in the aftermath of The Blitz. A UK community garden tends to be situated in a built-up area and tends to be run by an independent non-profit organisation (though this may be wholly or partly funded by public money). It is also likely to perform a dual function as an open space or play area (in which role it may also be known as a 'city park') and—while it may offer plots to individual cultivators—the organisation that administers the garden shoulders a great deal of the responsibility for its planting, landscaping and upkeep. (A paradigm inner-city garden of this sort is Islington's Culpeper Community Garden)

For more information on community gardens and city parks in the UK, see The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardensfr:Jardin communautaire de:Kleingarten en:Allotment (gardening) es:Jardín comunitario fi:Siirtolapuutarha ja:クラインガルテン nl:Volkstuin en:Community garden