In article 1ca1a9d7-d3c8-4d2a-909b-c7637b9d5866
@x1g2000prh.googlegroups.com, says...
On Oct 20, 12:29*am, Skylermoon wrote:
Dear Gardening Community,
My name is Joshua Patterson I am posting this message to let you know
about a program I am trying to get started in Portland, Oregon.
Its called Yard Sharing. We all have that strip of grass between the
street and the sidewalk or that patch of grass we always neglect on
the side or in the back of our yard. Maybe your neglected space is in
your front yard.
Here in Portland our community gardens are overwhelmed with people. We
have too many people who want to have a garden and not enough space.
So I have gotten the idea of sharing yards with people who want or
need food producing gardens.
I have created a website where people can post spaces available or
people can post that they would like to create a garden. Its free I
will never charge to post or view or anything like that. I am just
trying to build a sustainable community and find a good way to allow
people to grow their own food.
Please check out our website athttp://www.yardsharing.organd let us
know what you think. If you have ideas about how we can make this
program grow please let us know..

Joshua Patterson


I'd be interested in how it works out.

My experience in garden sharing is mostly that they only want to share
in the harvest after I get it in a bag and never want to share in the
planting or maintaining of the garden.

And if they do share in the planting and maintaining, then they want
to do something entirely different then what I am doing and know to
work.

Ours has been (we have a 1200 square foot garden), that they are gung-ho
at the beginning and leave their spot to languish right from the outset.
Then they return in the fall expecting things to automagically have
survived and grown or they don't return at all.

In either case, we paid for irrigation. We put in the weeding time. We
dealt with the bugs and disease. We didn't get to plant what we wanted
in that space. We either got or didn't get the harvest... if there was
one because our word is good and the produce belongs to whomever we've
given the space to. Others may not see it that way.

In an economy of scale, 45 to 60 square feet, one of our garden beds, is
a good sized production space and can supply a winter's worth of
tomatoes.

In short, it isn't worth the pain to give the space to wannabees who
aren't willing to make a serious, up-front investment in their, albeit
temporarily theirs, garden.

We don't do it any more.