Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and nearby gardeners might have to deal with soggy conditions, or kids playing with water. Provide a
little distance so everyone stays happy.
Sun
For a vegetable garden, you need six to eight hours of direct sun for popular crops like tomatoes,
peppers, and eggplants to grow. Some crops, like leafy greens, can handle partial or dappled shade.
Keep these factors in mind as you're designing your garden to make sure that, in an allotment situation,
everyone has enough light to grow; and in a group-production garden, specific beds can be set up for
crops with different light requirements. You don't have to get into the nitty-gritty of this now (light
needs for specific crops will be covered in
chapter 7
), but be aware of how sunlight will impact growing
conditions for all the gardeners and their plots.
DREAM GARDENS
Agenda for the Third Community Meeting
By now, with two community meetings under your belt, you and your team are getting used to the format.
Knowing your group, you will need to determine if this next step will require one or more meetings. There's
a lot of important community work here—you want people as involved as possible, but you also don't want
to burn them out with too many meetings. Only you know the commitment level of your group, and how
much time you have to go through a complete design process. As leaders, you may have to make some judg-
ment calls about how much group involvement there can be to move things forward.
WELCOME
Introduce yourself once again, as well as any teammates or special guests who are leading the meeting.
Thank people for attending.
OVERVIEW
Briefly state the purpose of the meeting: you're going to start the design process for the garden! You may
want to reiterate the hard work you've done to date, including developing your mission statement. Be sure to
comment about your previous meetings and how everyone has gotten to this place
together
. Either recite the
mission statement or write it on a big flip chart for everyone to see. This design exercise is the time when
you'll need it most!
GROUND RULES
Discuss meeting length, how off-topic comments will be handled, and any other information about group
participation. Continue to reinforce the group norms that are developing. Depending on how much time you
have, you may want to revisit the Attributes of a Successful Group list, and make sure everyone feels you are
moving in the right direction as a group.
AGENDA REVIEW
Hopefully, everyone is aware of why they're meeting—this can be solidified via the agenda review. Let
people add extra items or discuss outstanding issues from the last meeting, if they are important to someone.
INTRODUCTIONS
