Don't know. I'm trying to get a 5,400 square foot plot setup my self. Not sure about maintaining it though. I have people in my family that will help from time to time.

I bet such an undertaking could very easily become a full time job just to manage the site and its volunteers. With that many personalities there are also bound to be differences of opinion that lead to bad blood and squabbles between participants. During preparation planting and harvest there will need to be hundreds of hours spent per week by volunteers and about half as many spent by the person organizing it. With all those people it would be real easy for one or two bad apples to make the job a living nightmare.

I'm not saying that is how its going to be. I'm just saying whenever you are dealing with that many people. You will more than likely need a very thick skin at times. You are bound to run into some very strong and domineering type personalities. Let alone those who will see the end product as more theirs than it is for the none profit they are volunteering for.

Last word of advice. Keep anything of value locked up. Always watch your back and keep your car parked where you can see it from the garden.

You have the most honorable of goals, but it will definitely amount to a full time job for the summer. The best run community/plant-a-row gardens have lots of rules and strong leadership.

May I suggest something else? Turn the whole plot into potatoes and sweet corn, or even all potatoes. Much easier to keep up with the demands, and you can diversify in future years if the project is successful.

Many farm-to-school programs start with potatoes, too.

Planatus: i suspect the lot wont be ready in time to plant potatoes or corn. Im a student so my schedule is reasonably trim and i have access to some university resources including the students so im hoping campaigning on campus will elicit lots of volunteers, especially from the ag and hort depts. If not there are lots of very active retirees in the area.

It depends on what you plant. Initially starting with easy to plant and harvest crops which do not require labor intensive thinnng and harvest might be best. ie. tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini NOT harvest intensive beans and peas or ones requiring careful seeding ,thinning, weeding, or cleaning....ie. carrots, onions from seed

Crops that can be harvested all at once and do not require frequent harvest are also good ie. onions, potatoes. Schedule a work day and snack/meal and make harvests day a fun social time for the volunteers.

Black plastic (with tiny holes to allow water through if, like us, you are not running drip tape or other irrigation) and other mulches are your friends. Weeds are not. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini planted through plastic are much easier to maintain....mostly water, fertilize, and harvest. Not near the weeding maintenance that many volunteers do not enjoy.

Most pantries around me do better with donations of produce that will keep without much care or refrigeration. Again, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, onions, maybe cukes, all work well for them. NOT lettuce. Talk with yours to see what they can get to people while it is still in good condition and plan your planting accordingly.

I've done 4,000 sq ft with the crops mentioned and managed it with one other person.....We spent a few long days getting it tilled (It had been a garden previous years) and planted early in the year and after that both of us were there 2-3 long mornings a week. We got along well and got to know each other well. One of us had alot of gardening experience and the other had in depth knowledge of the organization who owned the land. We had access to a tiller and basic garden hand tools. The garden did not always look pretty but it produced alot of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and zucchini. In fact, we had to find a second pantry because the first did not have many clients who wanted our prolific hot peppers.....we learned to work with the pantry early and plant crops they had demand for the next year.

If you know you have good, reliable, season long help (and sometimes those who assure you they will be, disappear in a few weeks)consider crops that require more weeding, cleaning after harvest, and watering. Might be best to get a year in first though, to see how things go and add the higher maintenance veggies later.

Enjoy the successes and don't let any failures you encounter drag you down. Lots of people will be thrilled to have fresh produce.

Also keep in mind that just because a garden is huge in terms of square feet that doesn't necessarily mean it is more productive than a smaller garden. The reverse is often true.

A 2000 sq. foot garden or equivalent can often be much more productive (not to mention more efficiently managed and require much less work and less volunteers) than a 10,000 sq. foot one.

Bottom line: size doesn't equate with productivity. Quality of soil and informed effective management do.

Dave

Dave: the native soil here is clay and drains poorly. A lot of it has been heavily farmed as well. Im assuming that the soil is not in the best shape when figuring layout and production.

Im assuming that the soil is not in the best shape when figuring layout and production.

No way to know without a professional soil test. But even the worst soil on earth can be fixed/improved/made fertile. And don't forget that clay has some redeeming qualities too. Those who garden in sandy soil would often give up 1/2 their garden for a bit clay soil.

From a purely fiscal POV, X amt of dollars spent on improving a smaller plot of soil can increase productivity 5 fold over the same amount of money spent on just basic prep of a much larger area.

All the pics that Jon has posted here of his gardens are proof.

I was actually thinking that, Jonehughes, was the person you need to talk too. He donates huge amounts of homegrown produce to foodbanks... and probably knows a lot of your answers.

search his name on here and you should find his info. I wish you the best of luck, very admirable goal!

You can also search Jonehughes on youtube and see some videos of his.

I will try to get in cpntact with jon. Thanks guys.

scotty66 It's Jon Hughes, not Jone Hughes :)

Mindy, I work with a daycare at Sonoma State University in CA. We are a very AG county and very into organics!
Believe it or not, the child care center is very connected with the Ag dept! They compost, have worm bins, take the kids to the gardens and have them "help". There are also usually a couple of people from the Ag dept who are child development majors! They teach the kids about veges and eating right etc!
The chef at the day care also cooks with mostly organic produce and the kids are eating things like broccoli for snack, cause that is what they grew up with at this fine day care center! Nancy

Some questions:

1) do you need to fence it, including electrical fencing?
2) do you need organic matter (probably yes)? Can you drive a truck in, only at the beginning? Can you easily spread said matter?
3) do you need to build raised beds? Do you need to mulch or otherwise cover the paths?
4) Is water secured? do you need to build drip irrigation?
5) do you plan on using hoop houses or other season extending equipment? Do you need a green house to start all the needed plants?

Tending the garden the first year is a small fraction of the time it takes to do all this.