How should community gardens divide up work and produce?

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by Lumbuck Thornton, Apr 18, 2014.

  1. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    I would be interested to hear from anyone with ideas about how to divide up work and produce from a community garden.
    Is it worthwhile floating a “currency?” and auctioning work and produce?
     
  2. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    Is there a shortage of food to compensate the workers ?
     
  3. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    Hi Grasshopper,

    The garden got off to a great start coming out of winter, plants grew well through spring then we went into a really tough drought Summer capable of cooking vegetables like tomatoes on the plant in some cases.

    We had to systems going in the community garden, private beds where the individual did everything - weeding, planting, watering and got the produce and usually shared some.

    Then there were the community beds where donated plants were placed in communally weeded and watered beds.

    As the going got tough for the garden, those with individual beds only needed to miss one day of watering and potentially lost all their plants. The beds with more people looking after them fared better but then some fruit rotted on the plants because people were unsure who should have it. Other vegies were stolen by people not even doing any work in the garden - still at least it was improving their nutrition.

    I guess my real question is, and maybe other communitie have worked out how to tackle this:-

    Is there some way we can better value all the work going into a community garden and fairly make the produce of the garden available to these workers by way of creating a currency or credits that can be used in auction processes - both auctioning the work and auctioning the produce - a level playing field so to speak??

    If someone really wants particular produce then they need to earn the credits to outbid others.

    It might help encourage participation if people are given a starting credit.
     
  4. Unmutual

    Unmutual Junior Member

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    That sounds more like a co-op than a community garden to me. But the only fair way to do it would be to "pay" the people who worked in the community garden and then sell the produce from it for no higher than the amount of currency given out(zero sum). At least that's what my born-into-capitalism brain comes up with.
     
  5. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    how is the community garden set up? is it on public land? who has invested time and money into the project? if i were involved in something like this i would want a written agreements and understandings:

    - if you put in work you get some return, but since the return is not predictable we can't say what that is until it is harvested.

    - some percentage goes to the wildlife, some percentage goes to the poorest in the community, and some percentage goes to those who do the work.

    - decoratives can play an important role in keeping the bees and other insects happy, along with other ideas like having insect refuges within the gardens to keep predator and prey insects in balance. must have agreements about what is not touched (what is a weed conversations...).

    - if the effort is funded in any way by the community then the community should get some portion of the results.

    - i would not think that running a community garden with the expectation with private plots is a conflict waiting to happen. you'd almost need fences and locks on gates. to me that kinda defeats the purposes...

    - if the idea is to get edibles to the people the less area devoted to pathways, fences and gates is an important consideration.

    - keeping track of who puts in what time and resources is good as that really tells you who is there and what they are doing. the people who do the work should have the most say in what comes of that work (minus percentages for poor and critters).

    - there should be a board of people who is responsible and gets to say what can and cannot happen, otherwise i expect the area will be too full of conflicts and ideas. like, is the garden organic or is chems/*cides allowed? what about IPM and determining what to do when that doesn't seem to be working. ideas about acceptable losses, water management, drip irrigation, timers, controls, and how to keep the surrounding community happy (so it doesn't get damaged or sprayed by people doing their lawn work or whatever).

    i know this: as soon as money gets involved then it turns into an extractive system which may ignore the basic carrying capacity of the soil. avoiding that mentality is critical...

    all IMHO...
     
  6. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Having a board of directors sounds like a good idea. Another possible use for the produce would be to donate it to a charity that provides meals for people. The group may well get behind that idea as being consistent with the third ethic.
     
  7. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Juvenile county offenders maintain the garden, the populace eats. ;) Simple.
     
  8. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    Good points Songbird.

    We live in a dry climate where one year all watering of home gardens with town water was banned. This was the trigger for a community garden that collected the unused rainwater off a string of department of housing rentals. Water has been the main issue but we are getting there but the only way was to do it collectively in a park with Council approval.
     
  9. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    Unfortunately corrective services could not manage much more than mowing.
     
  10. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    How sad.

    Corrective Services has them cleaning the roads here of debris, cutting downed trees with chainsaws, and fighting forest fires here in this part of the world.

    Maybe some Permaculturalist should teach them so they can have a better skill set so they won't be in corrective services anymore. ;)
     
  11. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    I agree they need permaculture training. The problem is they are low risk inmates that are close to release and not likely to return so have little investment. Maybe back at their regular accommodation more should be done.
     
  12. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Little investment? Children are our future. Turning 1 person onto Permaculture in a sea of blue people makes it all worth while IMO.
     
  13. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    that is actually much nicer in some regards as it is more formal and so more people might respect it and work with it instead of damaging it.

    has it been actually used yet or is it still forming and being set up?
     
  14. Lumbuck Thornton

    Lumbuck Thornton Junior Member

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    Hi Songbird,

    Its been struggling but we just got a water tank installed and if we get a few more interesting components in place it should get more interest and participation.
     

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