Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
you know when your garden community needs a rest. Some gardens go strong all winter long! (Specific
approaches to year-round gardening are not included in the scope of this topic, however.)
When it is time to wrap up the garden for the season, gardeners will need to know what's expected
of them in terms of cleanup and prepping for next season. You'll have a list of communal tasks specific
to your garden, such as collecting and storing all tools, winterizing water sources, and removing debris.
Gardeners will need to know how they (individually) need to tidy up the garden areas they and their
families have been tending.
When removing spent plants, avoid pulling them out by hand. Uprooting plants—especially ones
with large root systems like tomatoes and squash—can be difficult and messy. But more importantly,
turning the soil in this way is disruptive to your soil balance. All those tiny soil-dwelling organisms are
doing a fine job of conditioning your soil and keeping it healthy, so disturb them as little as possible.
Use pruning shears to cut off plants at the soil level; roots that remain should break down by next spring.
If your garden space (or available volunteer power) doesn't lend itself to a full-blown composting
program, encourage your gardeners to engage in passive composting, which requires little effort other
than setting the process in motion and letting nature go to work over the winter. Instead of throwing
spent plant materials in the trash, gardeners can passively compost simply by cutting trimmings into
small pieces and spreading them directly over their soil. The remains will start to decompose and imme-
diately return nutrients to the soil. The trimmings will also act as mulch to help insulate the beds over
the winter. If any pieces remain come spring, gardeners can remove them or gently mix them into the
top layer of the soil.
THE FIRST GARDEN SEASON: WHAT HAVE WE
LEARNED?
Once the garden closes for the season it is a good time to encourage the gardeners to reflect on what
worked in their individual gardens and what did not, and to take a few notes for next year. This is a good
habit for new gardeners to get into (though, regretfully, most do not).
From a community perspective, now is also a good time to reconvene and let everyone discuss what
did and didn't work in the garden. By listening to these experiences, the garden's education program
and rules can be fine-tuned for the following season. Praise and complaints are the culmination of your
program's first year—sharing these foundational experiences is essential to the garden's success in sub-
sequent years. Take the time to hear it all, absorb the joys and the woes, and find a way to constructively
channel that information back to the community. Your experiences will translate into valuable talking
points and best practices for planning the community garden's second year.
The end—and the beginning
I'll bet you learned a lot your first year! Did you take on more than you could accomplish? Did everyone
get tired mid-season and let things fall by the wayside? Did weeds drive you nuts? Did you figure out
how to best communicate with your gardeners and get to know the particular personality of your group?
Was the food you grew delicious? Did it help your gardeners or community? Was the space a haven for
people of all types?
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