Garden support in partnership with nonprofits, apartments, schools, others
Growing Gardens works with Elementary Schools, Housing Authority apartment complexes and other non-profits to assist the planning, building and maintenance of larger gardens for a crowd.
Since 1996 Growing Gardens has installed 35 Partner Gardens. Our most recent partnerships have been with the St. Johns Woods apartment complex, Alder Elementary & Kelly Elementary.
Starting a larger garden for a variety of community members is not a quick process. Growing Gardens has found that the most successful gardens are the ones that are created as a collaborative effort with a broad base of involved people.
Below are some tips for starting a garden for a crowd.
- Talk with people from the community – find out if there is any initial interest in a garden.
- Create a garden planning committee.
- Organize an initial meeting – find out the interests and basic goals of the group and brainstorm the following questions:
- Why is the group interested in starting a garden?
- Who will the garden serve?
- Where are possible locations for a garden?
- Is there a water source & who pays for the water?
- Are there organizations or businesses that might get involved for support and/or monetary & in-kind donations?
- What opportunities are there for building community support? – Neighborhood Associations, newsletters, newspapers, community meetings etc.
- Where will the funding come from, is the group able to do fundraising?