Grow food, friendships, and opportunities
By Ann Christoph
Community gardens are increasingly appreciated as urban amenities, where social isolation—both from standardized-housing tract design and from COVID-19 pandemic restrictions—can be relieved. For example, the community of Rancho Mission Viejo in southeast Orange County, Calif., advertises “Get closer to nature and neighbors with all the elements to grow and thrive.” A 2022 study by Eiji Toda and Edward Lowe1 of Soka University surveyed six community gardens in south Orange County. Their findings substantiate this trend and suggest that community gardens reflect a shift in the “utopian visions of post-suburban planning” away from a consumerist/privacy-oriented lifestyle to a “newer one that enables access to nature and sustained social connections among residents.”
Greg O'Loughlin
The researchers found two “values frameworks” among those gardens:
1. A community ethos promoting greater community engagement
2. An individualistic ethos promoting the value of gardening for each gardener in his or her own plot.
Knowing that human nature is not altogether altruistic (unselfishly community-oriented), a model community-garden organization must balance group engagement with individual development of gardening skills and growing tasty, nutritious produce to put on the table. The study identified three management types:
1. Grassroots/anarchic
2. Municipal/democratic
3. Corporate/homeowners association (HOA).
How are these managed, and how do they balance the community and individualistic values?
Success In South Laguna
The South Laguna Community Garden Park is one of the “grassroots/anarchic” gardens studied. It was conceived, built, and continues to be managed by volunteers in the community. This park provides an exemplary balance of individual garden and community/social opportunities.
The South Laguna Civic Association organized the park on a quarter-acre of vacant commercial land with permission from the property owner and temporary-use permits from the city of Laguna Beach. The first phase (2009), with 30 six- by eight-foot raised beds, a shed, fencing, gates, water system, rock walls, and mulched pathways, was completed in three months with volunteers working every weekend. The second phase was completed in 2011. It connected upper and lower areas with steps, added more fencing and gates, planted slopes, and borders; more beds, for a total of 52, were installed.
The garden is managed by a volunteer committee that plans events—potlucks, classes, and workdays. The committee also raises funds, oversees the maintenance of the garden, interviews gardeners, and monitors their progress. Gardeners maintain the entire garden property as well as care for their own beds. The garden has become a participatory park, open to the public in daylight hours. There are picnic tables and benches, and visitors are free to enjoy and learn from the plantings, but are asked not to pick produce without permission. Since the garden property is not owned by the city or the Civic Association, an overriding issue has been keeping the Garden Park. That has involved a decade-long effort with the broader community and the city council to promote the importance of having the garden. While politically frustrating, the process has had the significant benefit of raising awareness of community gardens. The group is now engaged in negotiations to purchase the property with donations from the city and community members.
Here are some of the characteristics that have made the garden successful:
1. The garden is in a neighborhood where a community garden is needed. Some gardeners live in condos with no planting space of their own. Others have yards too small or shady for gardening.
2. It is situated away from wild herbivores—rabbits, deer, etc.
Ann Christoph
3. There is suitable sun exposure and climate. (The site is in full sun all day, and the area is frost-free, providing a year-round growing season.)
4. It is in a central location where it can be seen and accessed by members of the public and gardeners on foot, and where it can contribute to the beautification and education of the residents. Ideally, a garden of this type should focus on the community and not be tucked away in a remote, left-over location.
5. There is enthusiastic support and effective management from the gardeners’ committee and Civic Association.
6. There is excellent resident and business encouragement and generous donations.
7. It has the support of landscape architects, horticulturists, lawyers, and realtors, who offer volunteer professional guidance.
8. There is a well-organized process for accepting donations and managing gardeners. A website, rules, waivers, 501 (c)(3) status, and people who organize events and garden-maintenance workdays all play a role. Gardeners maintain their plots and do their share to maintain the entire property.
9. There are high standards for garden design, layout, and quality of construction. Even though there was no guarantee the garden would be on a permanent location, it was built as though it were. Volunteers acted confidently, believing that if the garden was built well, it would be a place of pride and would generate support.
10. There is community outreach, including educational sessions, cooking demonstrations, potlucks, and sing-alongs. Musician gardeners started the Garden Band, which plays throughout the community as well as at garden events.
While the initial motivation for creating and joining a community garden may be the opportunity for families to grow their own produce, the social and psychological benefits outweigh the culinary.
Working together on a garden is critical to achieving such benefits, as it provides a non-threatening, relaxing setting for neighbors to get to know one another. Shoveling and spreading mulch, pulling weeds, pruning, sweeping, and solving problems together also produces a community spirit and fosters intimacy. Can someone help with a personal problem? Sometimes. At the very least, group members can sympathize and know they are not alone. They have new friends.
Alternative Methods
Management of the other gardens in the study is done by staff members of the cities that own the gardens, or by HOAs established by the developer to run garden amenities that are part of a package of benefits for residents. These gardens usually have no organization representing the gardeners, and their responsibilities are generally for their own plots. Social and educational events are minimal, so interactions are limited to encounters while gardeners tend their plots. None of the other gardens are open to the public. They are only open to garden members, and in some cases the individual plots are fenced off and locked for protection. The gardens have an individualistic orientation and minimal social-interaction amenities with few or no benches, tables, etc.
In contrast, with a greater emphasis on the social aspects, one HOA provides a farm, with staff members in charge. Members work under the staff's direction and can harvest what is available. There are no individual plots, but there are ample facilities in the complex for social activities. The advantage to the developer, staff members explain, is “it’s s a very affordable amenity. So, if you think about how expensive it is to build a clubhouse and a pool and a gym and maintain it, a farm can be just a unique similar amenity, right? You don’t swim, you farm. You don’t work out, you farm, right? And so, I think it provides the developer unique marketing (and an affordable amenity).”1
As the public and park and recreation professionals understand the benefits of integrating agriculture into urban life, creative approaches that are unique to each situation will result in an array of exciting and productive community gardens.
References
1Toda, E., & Lowe, E. (2022). Gardens in a post-suburban region: Community garden governance and ethos in Orange County. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2022.112.010
Ann Christoph is a landscape architect, the designer and one of the founding members of the South Laguna Community Garden Park. She is a board member emerita of the South Laguna Civic Association and former councilmember and mayor of the city of Laguna Beach. For more information, visit AC-LA.com or email her at Ann@AC-LA.com.