Our Community Gardening History

We have lived in a gated community since 2006. I am an urban homesteader without any personal land.

2010 I signed us up for our first community garden plot. We added a second plot a couple of years later. Four hundred square feet can produce an astonishing amount of fresh organic vegetables, satisfying the deep need to be personally responsible for at least some of our food supply.

With retirement approaching I longed for another small piece of land with less restrictions and more possibilities. Out of that yearning grew the miracle. Just before my retirement, a co-worker put me in touch with a small farm owner who had some private growing space to rent. We started gardening there in 2019. At first we kept all the plots, but gardening allotments in two different locations was overwhelming, as was the amount of food we were producing.

At the end of the growing season in 2022, we released our original plots and settled down to grow food on the private farm only. Now we have 560 square feet to grow on, which seems just about right. Growing, eating, sharing, and putting by our own fresh vegetables and herbs fills my life with joy. 

Community gardening is something I believe in. I served on the board at the first location in various capacities for ten years. I've recently been part of a committee to propose an allotment garden in our gated community. I'm part of a fledgling project at our church.

From 2011 to 2013, I kept a WordPress site of my early gardening experiences at the first community garden. If you’d like, you can look through those at https://bushgarden.wordpress.com/