Garner Grows Urban Community Garden is a communal space that provides access to land, education and resources to learn and grow food in an environmentally sustainable manner.
How It Works
Membership Fees: The garden will collect an annual membership of $30 from each member household. The membership fee amount remains low in order to encourage participation of low-income households in sustainable living and gardening. We never want money to be a barrier to getting fresh food, so we offer free scholarships to those who can’t afford the membership fee.
Tending The Garden: In some community gardens, members essentially lease a small plot of land on which they can grow whatever they want, and are solely responsible for their own plot. We find this model to be very limiting so our garden operates through shared garden plots instead, where everyone shares the work among the entire garden. Gardening with a group allows for a larger variety of crops and a more plentiful yield, as well as allows novice gardeners to learn and benefit from the wisdom of more experienced members. Specific vegetables and layout are designed each season according to member input and may alter from year to year depending on demand. All members participate in planting and maintenance of shared garden plots, overall garden infrastructure, and miscellaneous tasks as their schedule and abilities allow. Every member is a valuable resource, and we work to delegate a variety of tasks so that members of all ages, level of physical ability, and gardening skill can pitch in!
Harvesting Crops: We operate on a “Share the Work, Share the Harvest” model; splitting what we harvest on any given workday among those who worked that day. Members are under no obligation to work in the garden, but to be fair to other members we do encourage you to work at least 4 hours in a given month if you plan to take a share of the harvest. There are plenty of jobs to go around and we will work with you to find tasks that fit your skillset (even the kids find ways to chip in).
Funding: The cost of gardening tools and supplies can really add up, and since we want to keep our membership fees low, we participate in a number of different fundraising activities each year. These include things like: applying for grants, holding plant sales, organizing yard sales, selling BBQ plates, entering State Fair Competitions, and soliciting donations from businesses and the general community. If you’d like to donate online you can do so via PayPal. We are open to other ideas for fundraising as well, so if you have any out-of-the-box ideas or would like to lend your skills towards raising money for the garden, please reach out to us at info@garnergrows.com.
