On Sun, 28 Sep 2014 13:38:53 -0700 (PDT), Hypatia Nachshon
wrote:

Wondering if others have something like the following in their communities:

Allow would-be gardeners who live in apartments or otherwise have no ground,
to grow crops in your garden in exchange for ? a share of produce? other consideration?
Of course taking care to know who they are and make entry arrangements.

ISTR there used to be something like that here; I'm trying to track it down, and
if I don't find, start something.

I'm increasingly dubious about veg gardening, both because of water co$t probably
increasing with CA drought, and because we don't really consume enough to bother.
We have 4 farmers' markets in town, plus a Co-Op, plus Whole Foods (the latter of which I don't patronize), so even though organic is more expensive -- hey, you only go around once.

It's a big life transition after [censored] years of home veg/fruit gardening! I can remember standing at the corn patch, chewing the kernels off the cob w/o even cooking!!! Ditto tomatoes right off the vine. And divine little fraises du bois hiding under their foliage. And crisp snow peas...(pause to wipe mouth)...

But the good years seem, if memory serves, to have been not as frequent as the less good.

Sigh!

HB

There are ways to grow vegetables with minimal water... raised bed
and/or container gardening work well... set up a drip system. There
are inexpensive amendments one can add to soil that hold onto water
and release slowly. Typically in dry climes the most productive
gardening ploy is to bring in quality top soil and regularly amend...
use a proper composter too. Too many people want to garden on the
cheap, then they get what they pay for.