Great idea! You have space, use it. Make sure it's south facing, without many trees or buildings to block the sun. I would start by mapping out the plan for garden beds. If funds are short, I wouldn't bother with raised beds. They can be added later if donations of wood are abundant. I recommend 4x8' beds at least 2 feet apart to allow for paths and reaching the middle from either side. That way, you can add wood in standard 8 foot lenghts later. Once you have your plan, mark them off in the area and have the volunteers go to work removing the sod. The sod can be placed elsewhere if you need to re-sod an area, or broken up in a compost pile near the beds. Trust me, you want a compost pile. Once the area is clear of sod, you should augment the soil with as much compost as your donations/funds will alow. The dirt won't have the nutrients to grow great crops. If you weren't growing for several months, I would suggest just turning over the sod and breaking it up. However, now is the time for salad crops. At least I think it is in your neck of the woods. Plant several types of leaf lettuce, spinach and any greens that are appropriate for your dinner table. I like Salad Bowl, Red Sails, Italiansheir for their rapid growing, color and texture. By growing leaf lettuce according to the spacing on the packet, you can simply trim off the top few inches and let it grow back over a week or two. Radishes and green onions are good to, maybe carrots. I'm not an expert on your aream but that makes for a decent salad in short order (carrots are slower growing). Save the northern most spaces for your tall crops so they don't shade your garden, though come summer time, that may be a good idea for your salad greens so they don't bolt so fast. By tall crops I mean tomatoes. You may want to get your parisioners to donate seedlings since you may not want to mess with growing from seed to start, and may not want to pay to buy them. I hope that helps. Others can help better for your area. Enjoy your garden and best of luck to you! Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure.

How is your community garden coming along? Have you gotten the membership you need? Are there garden clubs in your area? If so let them know about it. Our Community gardens have waiting lists once they are established and people can see them..that's when they want a plot. Is yours ready to plant yet? Ours is not ready yet. We have our space plowed but are waiting for a load of compost this week and then a fence has to be put up. Everything is taking much longer to get done than we anticipated! Joann

Jay, I just wanted to cry when I read the article you linked from the Dallas Observer. How frustrating it must be for all the folks who want to start/participate in community gardens within the Dallas city limite! As a former long-time resident of the D-FW Metro area, though, I am not surprised. There are many things to love about Dallas, but their city government is not one of them. There is a reason that Texas Stadium was in Irving and that Dallas Cowboys Stadium is in Arlington. There is a reason the The Ballpark in Arlington is in Arlington and not in Dallas. The reason? Dallas City Hall and all its employees. The city of Dallas cannot get its act together and manage to do anything right to encourage growth and development in the city of Dallas. Dallas city government is the gang that can't shoot straight. Many areas in the metroplex have flourishing community gardens, whether they are on city-owned land, abandoned/absentee owner land, or privately owned land (often owned by churches or schools). However, you will find them in Fort Worth (like in the Fairmount neighborhood), Grapevine, Richardson, Denton, Colleyville, Southlake, etc. You will rarely find them in Dallas. The Old East Dallas Community Garden is the exception to the rule, and the GICD group that runs it has six or seven community gardens scattered around the region. They, however, have flourished in spite of the city of Dallas, not because of any help or encouragement they've received from it. As far as I know, the Old East Dallas Community Garden has been around for maybe 20 years and when it took off and started getting some attention, I thought dozens of other community gardens would follow. If it were up to the people of Dallas, that would have happened. But, because the city of Dallas has a massive, well-entrenched, behind-the-times bureacracy, it hasn't happened and it won't happen. About the only way to have a community garden inside the city limits there is to do guerilla gardening, where you QUIETLY take over an abandoned or unused plot of land and have your community garden and hope the city of Dallas doesn't notice....because, if they do, they're likely to come shut you down. I just hate it for the sake of all the would-be urban gardeners. Nothing gets accomplished in the city of Dallas quickly. They spend 10-20 years planning something (anything!) and then another 10-20 years implementing the plan. Well, that is, unless one of the big-dollar movers and shakers, i.e. well-connected and wealthy businesspeople, want it....and then it can happen very quickly. Do I have a lot of hope for community gardens in the city of Dallas? No. The city government is light years behind forward-thinking and progressive cities like Austin, and they'll never catch up because they don't want to. There is an strong underground backyard chicken movement in Dallas too, but the city is making that difficult as well. When a long-time, well-established, highly-regarded local nursery (North Haven Gardens) became the center of the backyard chicken movement, the city of Dallas started harassing and threatening them. (I believe the city wouldn't let them sell chicks from the nursery, nor would they allow a man who'd been selling chicks to would-be chicken owners in the parking lot on Saturday mornings to continue doing so. So, in the city of Dallas, if you want to have a community garden or backyard chickens, the city isn't going to do one single thing to help you or encourage you and will do all it can to discourage you....of course, that's just my opinion, but I think oddles of plain old wannabe community gardeners and backyard chickens owners in Dallas would share that opinion. If you want to participate in a community garden or have backyard chickens in the Dallas area, it is best to find a friendly suburb that encourages both and just move there. In keeping with the 'eat local' movement, some small farmer's markets had popped up in different places around the city this year (and local residents loved them and were patronizing them), and the city shut that down too. They claimed it was for zoning reasons, but I suspect the truth is that they don't want any small farmer's markets competing with the big Dallas Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas. Dallas is the city that "can't" and it is just so pathetic. There is a perception that you have to "pay to play" in the city of Dallas, which has had a major corruption trial underway for months now...I believe a guilty verdict was delivered this past week or the week before. It is unlikely community garden advocates will pay to play (bribes), so they can't play. I love Dallas and hope to see positive changes made there, but the sustainable living folks who advocate for community gardens, truly local farmer's markets, backyard chickens, etc., really, really, really have their work cut out for them if those dreams are ever to become a reality. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Few Successful Dallas Community Gardens

I'm not sure this sort of situation is within the purview of the Master Gardener program but I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask. I know it wouldn't be as far as my state's MG program works. It is your property. Therefore you have the final say on how it can be used and how it should appear. The fact that you run a business from this property should be something that they need to keep in mind and realize that the appearance of the property reflects on you and your business. It must be well kept and tidy at all times. There is really nothing fundamentally wrong with clay. It is a perfectly good growing medium, as is obvious if both the natives and the weeds are thriving. It just can be a little hard to work with, both when bone dry or overly wet. I would speak to the gardeners and explain the situation clearly and reasonably. Suggest that they organize a weekend work party to clear the plantings of weeds. Maybe even involve some of your employees (if any) that would be willing to help out. Once the berms are weed free, a good 2-3" thick application of a mulch - bark, wood chips, compost, etc. - will keep the weeds in check for the rest of the growing season with perhaps just a little attention now and again in case something nasty pops up. The mulch will have no negative impact on the existing natives other than to dissuade much self-seeding. And the mulch will eventually help to improve the textural quality of the berm soil as well as holding in moisture, reducing the need for a lot of watering. The appearance of the berms will be radically improved by just weeding and mulching. Mulching always gives a garden a finished, tidy look as well providing other, less visible benefits. If you give them choice between a weekend work party clean up and mulching or bulldozing the berms, I doubt there will be much argument. Just make your wishes clear in a calm, reasonable manner and don't let them walk all over you and your generosity of allowing them to use the property in the first place. Good luck!