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These people who run these gardens talk about growing local and having access to fresh vegetables, which is a good thing; but the size of the plots in some of the gardens around here are ridiculously small. A few square meters is not going to feed anyone for very long. I rented a plot a couple times and I estimate the monetary value of the food that I grew was less than I paid for the plot and seeds etc. When you factor in the time I spent weeding and going back and forth from the garden the amount of effort made it even less worthwhile. When I was there nobody really hung around and talked, and those that did seemed to have issues with other gardeners. It was really somewhat of a toxic environment you could say. Needless to say my enthusiasm waned after while. When I had my plot the city ran it and did a poor job of it. Since then control was handed over to a Marxist revolutionary group and the dynamic has really changed; I went to look around a few times and I got a really creepy vibe like I was infringing on their territory. My guess is that they're suspicious of infiltrators and undercover cops because many of these people apparently participate in a lot of local protests and I would think some are masked rock-throwers at some of the more riotous affairs. Whatever the case they act like they're saving the world by tilling a few square meters land in a community garden.
You can fit a lot of veggies into a small plot with some careful planning. Community gardens tend to have small plots, but most of them aren't too small to be useful.
Some people like to garden but don't have any land at all, like apartment dwellers.
I wouldn't rent in a community garden because I have five acres. I can tell you, for sure, that I am not saving any money by growing my own vegetables. But I like the quality of the food and I like to garden. ( $7,000 worth of fencing to keep the deer and rabbits out. I could buy a lot of veggies at the store for $7000 )
You can fit a lot of veggies into a small plot with some careful planning. Community gardens tend to have small plots, but most of them aren't too small to be useful.
Some people like to garden but don't have any land at all, like apartment dwellers.
Exactly!
Or their soil is awful,
or their land is so full of critters that gardening is futile,
or they do not get the proper amount of sunlight,
or they like the socialization of community plots.
These people who run these gardens talk about growing local and having access to fresh vegetables, which is a good thing; but the size of the plots in some of the gardens around here are ridiculously small. A few square meters is not going to feed anyone for very long. I rented a plot a couple times and I estimate the monetary value of the food that I grew was less than I paid for the plot and seeds etc. When you factor in the time I spent weeding and going back and forth from the garden the amount of effort made it even less worthwhile. When I was there nobody really hung around and talked, and those that did seemed to have issues with other gardeners. It was really somewhat of a toxic environment you could say. Needless to say my enthusiasm waned after while. When I had my plot the city ran it and did a poor job of it. Since then control was handed over to a Marxist revolutionary group and the dynamic has really changed; I went to look around a few times and I got a really creepy vibe like I was infringing on their territory. My guess is that they're suspicious of infiltrators and undercover cops because many of these people apparently participate in a lot of local protests and I would think some are masked rock-throwers at some of the more riotous affairs. Whatever the case they act like they're saving the world by tilling a few square meters land in a community garden.
These people who run these gardens talk about growing local and having access to fresh vegetables, which is a good thing; but the size of the plots in some of the gardens around here are ridiculously small. A few square meters is not going to feed anyone for very long. I rented a plot a couple times and I estimate the monetary value of the food that I grew was less than I paid for the plot and seeds etc. When you factor in the time I spent weeding and going back and forth from the garden the amount of effort made it even less worthwhile. When I was there nobody really hung around and talked, and those that did seemed to have issues with other gardeners. It was really somewhat of a toxic environment you could say. Needless to say my enthusiasm waned after while. When I had my plot the city ran it and did a poor job of it. Since then control was handed over to a Marxist revolutionary group and the dynamic has really changed; I went to look around a few times and I got a really creepy vibe like I was infringing on their territory. My guess is that they're suspicious of infiltrators and undercover cops because many of these people apparently participate in a lot of local protests and I would think some are masked rock-throwers at some of the more riotous affairs. Whatever the case they act like they're saving the world by tilling a few square meters land in a community garden.
I dunno what your life experience has been, but if you suspect people you meet of "bad" behavior because of some preconception you have about them, you shouldn't be surprised if they react negatively to you. Humans are highly attuned to how other people view them.
As to the small plots - no, you can't grow all your vegetables in the typical community garden plot. But I'd be very surprised if any of the gardeners were trying to do that. Maybe you just want to grow all your own salad greens year-round. Or maybe you just want to grow tomatoes so you can preserve a year's supply of your granny's sauce recipe. Or maybe you just want to grow all your own culinary herbs. These would all be very feasible. Or maybe you don't want to keep up a quarter-acre of yard/garden, but still like to putter around a little.
And for the record - we live in a weird world, and IMO there are few things more revolutionary than growing your own food. Modern ag has freed a lot of people from grunt labor, and that's a good thing. But the ambition of some major actors in the sector is total control of the global food supply, feeding us all on highly processed and variously flavored people chow composed of corn, soybeans, fat, and sugar, hydroponically grown in dead dust. And that's *not* a good thing.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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With good planning and execution, you can get a large amount of food from a small plot. While my lot is 1/3 acre the house is big and we have huge fir trees shading much of it. On the side lawn (corner property) there is one spot that get sun most of the day, so I planted there. because of our short growing season I built a greenhouse, 6'x11', so only 66 SF. I planted peas, lettuce, spinach and kale in April, now picked and eaten. Currently there are green beans, several kinds of summer squash, many tomato plants, eggplant and cucumbers. Next year I will omit the squash, because they take up a lot of space and don't taste much different than store bought, but the rest are well worth the trouble, especially tomatoes, because they taste sooo much better than the tasteless ones from the local grocery.
I had a small community garden until health issues forced me to give it up.
it was a plot about 20X20 and cost $20 a year to rent. I'd get enough tomatoes to last me a year in bottled sauces, a years worth of herbs fresh at first then dried,along with much produce that didnt last that long but was sure fun to eat.To me it wasnt so much about how much produce i could grow but the joy of being out in the sun working the earth.
The community garden in my development is free but because most of the residents are young and have busy lives, they don't use the garden. Over the years, weeds and grasses have taken over the boxes but the HOA has put some money into periodic mowing and weed trimming to make walking into the garden possible.
I much prefer growing stuff in my own back yard because getting up the enegy to head down to the community garden can be hard to overcome when it's 100 degrees out or if the rain yesterday has made the soil like quicksand.
I had hoped to use the extra beds to grow watermelons and pumpkins and cantelope but they all died presumably from squash borer so I'll try again next year. My wife wants me to grow some corn but I'm not sure if I managed to kill off all the johnson grass that was taking over the beds since I have mine covered with black plastic since about may.
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