Tips for YOUR community Garden

• Assign tasks to the gardeners outside of their own plots (ie, filling the water tank, turning the compost, removing garbage etc)
• Create an easy-to-read list of rules or guidelines for the garden (ie. a list of banned plants, that the garden is pesticide free, or to keep weeds under control). Use the template created by Willow Green Community Garden for a Gardener Handbook or Gardener Contract and Jobs - see Public Resources
  
• Determine a budget at the beginning of the year to make sure that money is available to cover big purchase items if needed.
  
• Create good communication with the neighbours near the garden, their extra sets of eyes can help cut down on vandalism.
• Also, create good communication among the gardeners at your garden by creating a listserv, a newsletter, or even simply a whiteboard at the garden to leaves messages for each other.
  
• Get the gardeners to participate in the garden clean-up at the end of the season by having some or all of their fees refunded.
• Understand that people will contribute when you rely on their strengths. Find out what they are good at and ask them to contribute in a way that uses these strengths.
• Reach out to your community in one of these ways: use your garden as a platform for diverse community members to interact, engage Sunday Schools  by providing them with a plot, inviting neighbourhood children to make hand prints in the concrete when your garden is starting up.
• Mosquitoes might deter gardeners at night. Try using citronella sprays or sprinkle pine needles.
  
• Provide a plot for youth in the community to prevent theft and vandalism.
• Subsidize some plots in your garden for people on a limited budget. For some people, $20 for a plot is a barrier to participating.
  
• Also, allow the gardeners to sell their produce at a fundraiser.
  
• Use this guide to:  Promote your garden through word-of-mouth, websites, community bulletin boards, newsletters, flyers in local stores and email notices.  Get the word out and generate interest in your project from the public, media, and politicians too!
• Create an event where your gardeners go door-to-door and see if you can get members of the community to donate tools.
• Or, if this is not something that you think your gardeners would want to do, see if you can acquire some free tools by making a request in your local paper or on websites like Freecycle and Kijiji.
  
• Have a water source close to your garden so that gardeners with less moblility do not need to worry about bringing their own water.
  
• Or consider an alternative type of garden in which there is one shared plot. It can make gardening more social, fun and productive.

If you are looking for information about decision-making in the garden, check out Including gardeners in community garden decisions.