Community Gardens

Contents

• About Community Gardens
• Relationship to Food Security and Healthy Communities
• Community Garden Programs (Public)
• Community Gardens and Youth
• Other Resources

About Community Gardens

Community gardens promote healthy communities and provide food security for many low income persons. In an urban setting, community gardens are part of the open space network. The gardens and those who participate in community gardening contribute to the preservation of open space, provide access to it, and create sustainable uses of the space. Community gardens strengthen community bonds, provide food, and create recreational and therapeutic opportunities for a community. They can also promote environmental awareness and provide community education.

One of the goals to create healthy communities is to improve nutrition in the community as a whole. These strategies are described in the Washington State Nutrition and Physical Activity Plan (NPASP) developed by DOH and its partners. Washington's strategic plan has among its objectives increasing access to health promoting foods. An example is increasing the availability of and access to local community gardens. Healthy Communities Pilot Projects are testing the effectiveness of the plan strategies in local communities. Moses Lake's Healthy Communities Project includes a community garden.

Public community garden programs are generally administered by the community development or parks department. In Seattle the city-wide community gardening program is under the Department of Neighborhoods.

• Bloom to Grow: Community gardening provides education, enrichment and eggplants all in one plot.
  By Marti Ross Bjornson, Parks and Recreation,  March 2006
• Cultivating Community Gardens: The Role of Local Government in Creating Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods - Local Government Commission
• Looking for 12 Reasons to Start Your Own Community Gardening Program? - National Recreation and Park Association

Relationship to Food Security and Healthy Communities

• USDA Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit - USDA Economic Research Services
  • Assessment of Community Food Production Resources (Community Gardens), in USDA Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit - USDA Economic Research Services
• Community Gardens: Growing More Than Vegetables -Canadian Health Network
• Discovering the Food System: A Primer on Community Food Systems: Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture - Cornell University
• Local Government Food Security Policies
  • Acting Food Policy Council  Seattle and King County - King County Extension
  • Community Food Security and the Seattle P-Patch Program
  • Assessing Your Community's Food Security - Sustainable City San Francisco
    

Community Garden Programs (Public)

• Auburn Pea Patch Program Guidelines 
• Bremerton Pea Patch: Annual Garden Plots
• Duvall Pea Patch Community Garden
• Issaquah Pickering Farm Teaching Garden
  • Issaquah Pickering Farm Teaching Garden (Word)- 2004 AWC Municipal Achievement Award
  • Pomegranate Center Gathering Place Project - Pickering Farm Teaching Garden
• Kent Community Garden Pea Patch - Kent Parks & Recreation
• Moses Lake Community Garden Project  Part of the  Healthy Communities Project
• Portland Parks and Recreation Community Gardens
• Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Community Gardens
  • Seattle Resolution 30194 - Five-Year Strategic Plan as guidance for the expansion of Seattle's community gardening program and adopting the policies and procedures necessary for the implementation of the plan, 6-00 
• Snoqualmie Community Pea Patch Program - Includes application form, brochure, and rules
• Tacoma Metro Parks Community Gardens
• Vancouver, BC Park Board Community Gardens - Includes link to the Community Gardens Policy

Community Gardens and Youth

• Cultivating Youth - Cultivating Youth works to help low-income youth lead healthier lives through gardening-based nutrition education in Seattle Housing Authority communities.
• Puget Sound School Garden's Collective - Highlights some of our many school gardens in the Puget Sound and offers ideas for curriculum, volunteer opportunities and ideas for starting a school garden program.
• Seattle Youth Garden Works - Job skills training program for youth

Other Resources including Urban Agriculture

• American Community Gardening Association
• City Farmer, Urban Agricultural Notes - Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture
• Community Food Security Coalition
  • Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe
• Community Garden Start-Up Guide - University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles
• Denver Urban Gardens
• Designing Urban Agriculture Opportunities for Southeast False Creek (Vancouver, B.C.) - Barrs Planning Group
• Organizing Your Community Garden - University of Maine Cooperative Extension Bulletin #4300
• Seattle P-Patch Garden Links
• SPIN-Farming
• Sustainable Urban Agriculture, by Benjamine Linsley and Ted Caplow, Urban Land, Spring 2008