Nora ... I echo the admiration of other comments for you efforts ... I'm of the generation when our school had a Victory Garden and have very happy memories, not to mention fortifying familial gardening pattern for a lifetime of enjoyment. May I add to the list of educational benefits to the children, the cross-generational habit/culture .... also the example of starting small [workable money/ time/ experience/ manpower-wise] is HUGE! The children will really feel the importance of their contribution if the scale is small. Visual aides are also valuable ... both for children and adults/community to see the scope of the plan. Re: soil tainted with toxic materials ... raised beds are great, but the pathways will kick up dust and airborne problems unless well-mulched. Because the oldsters and youngsters may be already at risk to airborne toxics. Again, a reason to start small, so as to throughly cover all the bases. Even if the soil test comes back OK/CLEAR, the fact that construction waste was dumped on the site is a major argument in favor of raised beds. Would you be able to use those rocks in the picture for some of the raised beds? They would be so pretty, not to mention FREE!

I have had my 'allotment' for 10 years now. It is 5mins away from my house on foot. There is a water tap at the end of my 15 x 75 foot plot. The allotments are under the jurisdiction of the City Council Parks Department. They provides leaves in the Autumn from the city's open spaces which are dumped in huge bins for us to help ourselves. There is rubbish collection for non-organic refuse and weeds (for those who don't compost). The City Council does not interfere at all unless there is a complaint, which is seldom. Their approach is very hands-off but they respond quickly if you need them. The allotment holders have an association which is voluntary and each site (there are several in this small town) has a site representative who you can contact if you want to. Most people just get on with gardening and do not poke their noses into other people's plots. We are not allowed to put up permanent buildings on my particular plot because it is in an area of great architectural importance, but most sites allow a small shed. Nor are we allowed to keep animals. I keep my tools in a locked chest after a theft some years ago. This was the only time I ever suffered any theft and I have never had any vandalism. (Fingers crossed). I love everything about allotmenting, especially that it is away from my home, so when I am there I am my own person. It is my own thing, not a family thing. I have no dislikes, except people who use weedkillers and pesticides and don't compost. Also I would like bigger plot. I am on the waiting list, so even that might be solved eventually.

Hi Felicia! What a great idea! Can any of your clients assist? Then they would be helping to produce their own food! I would suggest going through you city council representative. There are numerous publications about starting a comm. garden. Generally, your need to find the land, contact the owner, and arrange for a lease, get liability insurance, etc. Minimum liability insurance is generally $500,000. In our case it runs $150 per year. It might be a great idea to solicit member gardeners to offset the cost of the insurance. Maybe you could get a local business to donate the cost of the insurance annually. Look into grants, too. The tough part will be getting the land ready for planting, a great opportunity for your homeless. What about getting local college kids involved? Where are you? If you are in California, the Calif. Conservation Corps often has freebies in the form of tools, plants, compost contacts, and workers.If not, add the cost of tools into your grant application. Another idea is the Plant A Row For the Hungry program. Find a local CC and approach them, often there is such surplus in a CC that much edible food goes into the compost pile! If you are in Los Angeles, contact me and I'll arrange for that. Understand, though, that people are fairly lazy and probably won't want to drive the produce out to you :( We are currently looking for a home for our summer surplus. If you can't get a CC going, what about planter boxes? You also won't need insurance for this. Check out the book Square Foot Gardening to see how much you can get from just a square foot of soil!!! Contact me at my e-mail, I have lots of ideas and don't want to take up a bunch of space here. Best Luck!!! KarinK

Sophia, We volunteer at the Community Gardens in the Lansing, Michigan area. Our volunteer hours for this past year (both combine) was 620 hours. All people who sign up for a Community Garden is given a 25 X 25 plot. However, if any extra gardens are left people can have extra 25 X 25 plots. Each garden is staked off and a string is tied to the stakes.There are paths on all sides of the plot. There are people that take great pride in their gardens and others do a hit miss job. We have helped some that have been sick, out of town on their job, and other things that they cannot keep them up. During the winter we are in Florida and they have a system where people are notified to clean up their garden or it will be taken away from them after two weeks. However, it depends also on why it has not been kept us, and that is what they try to do in MI. The Community Gardens also have gardens that are called the Demo Garden which is near the building that they hand out plants, seeds, canning items, hand our gardening tools, and have classes. This is where Hubby and I do all our volunteer work. We help contacting the nurseries in the area for plants, haul them to the building and distribute them to people. We also have a personal garden in this area and it has been used by the Assistant Director to show people how to plant and keep the garden up. We have done some planting of 25 X 25 for viewing. One year we had 25 X25 plot with 24 different varieties of Cherry Tomatoes, the next year it was 24 varieties of Peppers, and this past summer we had 10 different varieties of carrots. This was a fun one as we had the purple, yellow and the carrots that were suppose to be healthier. In this same area we have a 25 X 25 of Strawberries and Red Raspberries. This was great as the school kids that had a plot next to this area were treated to pick a Strawberry and eat it. One little guy about six said, so this is where Strawberries com from. We also take care of the perennial flower beds which are sun and shade plus a plot and a half of Holding Bed. People donate plants from time to time and are put in the perennial beds or holding bed. In the fall we have a plant exchange amongst all the people plus the neighborhood area. This year we had over 400 plants to put out in exchange from the holding bed. One of the nurseries that donates gave us an additional 180 plants. It was a fun day for all. I should also mention that there are people that have these gardens as well as people who own their own gardens that receive help from this program. If you need more help I can give you the name and e-mail of our Director. She is an excellent Director and is very helpful in making this program work. Good Luck.