Could you use something about 10 ft tall that looks like tiny sunflowers? I probably have some Jerusalem Artichoke/sunchokes in the old garden. They are good at "naturalizing" ie being invasive. They do look pretty cool and get really tall with nice flowers. You need an area that they can take over though...can we say extra hardy. I could send you a couple tubers, that is all you will need. Kim

Okay, I shouldn't even be responding because I have zero experience with community gardening (having been on our local waiting list for three years now!), so take everything I say with a huge grain of salt, but... to echo what rlewing says, I'd recommend that you start small! I'd imagine that, like anything else, a brand new community garden program will have a huge learning curve for everyone involved, as you figure out what does and doesn't work for your school and community. You will probably want to look at the next few years as being a bit of a pilot project and for a while, you will probably have a big list of "lessons learned" after each new season. Remember, you won't be able to feed the whole community or even the whole school right away, so I'd recommend setting aside (for now) your initial worries about not being able to accommodate the whole community. Arguably, it's better in the long run to slowly and methodologically develop a well-operating program, even if it means that fewer people can participate in the short term. Sounds like, first off, you'll need to find some land (preferably where you can start small and later expand) and the necessary materials. What about creating a gardening club among your students, to start with? Perhaps they'd be willing to solicit donations of money and materials, while you investigate the property aspect? They might also be able to provide input on whether they'd rather work the whole garden together as a club, and split the produce, or create and assign separate plots to individuals? Then, when the garden is up and running for a few years, perhaps new plots can be created and provided to the community on an individual rental basis, with your garden club volunteers growing additional crops for charity or just generally running the garden? Or plot renters can be either required to donate a certain percentage of their harvest, or asked to voluntarily donate a certain percentage of their harvest (although you'd need a system in place, practically speaking, for them to do so). Or there could be a procedure for waiving rental fees where appropriate. Or the garden club could do an annual fundraising event to fund the garden without the need for rental fees-- there are lots of ways to approach the matter, but I think it will really depend on what works in your community, which is something you'll only be able to learn once the program is up and running--hence my recommendation for an initial "pilot program" for the first year or two. Just a few ideas--they may or may not be practical in your situation, but I would definitely recommend considering creating a gardening club of interested students so that you have a core group of hopefully dedicated kids who can share the work and have the opportunity for input. Do you have a local 4H club? If so, it might be worth talking with those club leaders to see whether there are any interesting opportunities there. The fact that your county is rural but some growers are using progressive agricultural methods makes me think that there have to be people in the area that would great contacts and may be willing to donate materials or even just time to help get this program off the ground. I also agree with DirtandYarn that fostering a sense of ownership among the students (or other gardeners) will likely be important, especially to keep people interested and inspired when the initial excitement wears off. Let's face it--cleaning up beds for the winter and turning compost in the summer heat are a lot less fun than picking tomatoes. In my opinion, a program that starts out too big, with too many people who may not currently fully appreciate the work that will be involved, runs the risk of losing steam in the long run. Starting small, on the other hand, allows you to expand to meet demand once you have an established program. Just my uninformed two cents, in rambling multi-paragraph form! And knock on wood for me that I'll get my own community garden plot next year! Then I might actually have a leg to stand on when I post on this forum. ;)

In Philadelphia, a strategy that is similar to what you are talking about is performed by Philadelphia Green, an urban gardening section of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. They take garden wish lists (tools, plants, etc.) and negotiate with companies to get deals/donations. For example, many gardens wanted tool sheds and they worked with Rubbermaid to get them for us. I should point out that Philly Green has been in place for a while and setting up such a program independently would be somewhat harder. Also, they can't help EVERY garden of course, but they have selected around a dozen gardens to participate in this program. Perhaps you could partner up with other gardens and find an individual or org. experienced in negotiation/fundraising to do something similar. Would the Parks Dept. help? Good luck!

The Longue Vue House and Gardens has a children's garden that may give you ideas. They have a terrific planting of lamb's ears, sensitive plant and chenille plant for the kids to explore. They also have bamboo or willow plantings that create a tunnel. I think I had more fun exploring the kids area than the formal gardens.