You
might have a strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk that’s looking
sad, or a backyard that yearns for a garden but you don’t have time. And, gosh,
you’d like to be able to meet some of your neighbors. And organic produce is
sooo expensive from the grocer down the street. You are a candidate for
yardsharing! Community (sometimes called allotment) gardens have traditionally
filled that need. But in many places, the converging trends of local food, food
security, and economic hardship have resulting in long waiting lists for
community garden plots. So creative gardeners are filling that gap using
yardsharing.
Yardsharing is the perfect combination of community
gardening, local food, slow food, and social networking. Yardsharing has
probably always been done on a small scale, but in the last while, it
has become a growing (pun intended) trend in North America and Europe.
Yard sharing connects someone with space for a garden but no time,
ability or inclination to plant one with someone who has time to create
a garden but no space – because, for instance, they live in an
apartment. In return, the person with the space receives a share of the
food the garden produces.
Yardsharing is an arrangement between people to share skills
and gardening resources – space, time, strength, tools – in order to
grow food as locally as possible, to make neighborhoods resilient,
kids healthy and food much cheaper.
Liz McLellan, the founder of Hyper-locavore – Yard
Sharing, a free online yardsharing community, goes further in her
description. She says, “Yardsharing is an arrangement between people to
share skills and gardening resources – space, time, strength, tools – in
order to grow food as locally as possible, to make neighborhoods
resilient, kids healthy and food much cheaper! The group can be friends,
family, neighbors, members of a faith community (or any combination).
Sometimes, older people lack stamina and are socially isolated; finding
younger people to partner in growing food together works wonderfully for
all.” (A hyperlocavore is a person who tries to eat as much food as
locally as possible. Growing your own is as local as it gets!)
As McLellan suggests, this simple exchange of land for
labor becomes much more than gardening. It is about connecting with your
neighbors (including those of different ages and from different
socio-economic conditions), reducing our carbon footprint, teaching
children about food, community empowerment, and helping others (excess
food can be donated to food banks). In short, it helps create
sustainable communities.
Victoria, B.C.-based Sharing Backyards notes that
“neighborhood” is the operative word in creating an effective
yardsharing relationship, stressing that it’s about “location, location,
location!”. They and other groups try to link people who are
geographically close to each other because “a garden that is close to
where the gardener lives is more likely to receive the love and care it
needs to thrive.” Joshua Patterson, the founder of Portland Yard
Sharing, and one of the movement pioneers, agrees. He advises, “Look for
someplace you walk past all the time, someplace you can run to if you
need something else for your dinner party. The idea here is to keep it
close if possible.”
Getting Started
You can sometimes find a yardsharing partner simply by networking
with your neighbors, work colleagues, and members of community groups.
Or you can post a sign on bulletin boards at local coffee shops, farmers
markets, community centers, food banks, etc. (wherever people gather).
There are also a burgeoning number of websites and online groups
dedicated to helping neighbors connect in this way. (See our resources
sidebar to get started.) These sites use social networking tools to
connect partners and typically have maps where you can list your
property for hosting a garden, or post a listing looking for a place to
garden. The British organization Landshare has over forty-four thousand
people signed up on their site.
Planning and a convenient location are key
components of a successful yardsharing arrangement.
Once you have located a potential yardsharing partner, you will need
to discuss the arrangements. This discussion should include how much
land is available and where (to make sure it’s useful garden space),
whether chemicals will be used or not, and how much produce the host
gets in return for use of the space. (See the list of considerations to
the right for more detail.) Trust is a major component of a successful
partnership – especially for the property owner, who doesn’t want her
yard dug up, then abandoned or polluted – so treat the process as if you
were looking for a tenant or roommate arrangement. The folks at Sharing
Backyards suggest speaking on the phone first, then meeting for the
first time in a public place, perhaps with a friend in tow. You might
even want to request (and check) personal references. A written
agreement is also a good idea. The Grow Friend and Landshare websites
both provide sample agreements.
Most of the national groups listed here have spawned local
yardsharing groups, which help promote the concept, provide guidelines
for creating sharing arrangements, and use technology such as online
maps to help link people up. If there isn’t already a local group set up
in your area, check their websites for details about how to become a
partner in their network. You’ll likely find comfort, information,
inspiration, and community by doing so.
Growing the Model
So if gardening in one neighbor’s yard works, then why not in
several? That’s the model being used in Boulder, Colorado, where Kipp
Nash farms more than a dozen neighbor’s yards – including church lawns –
as a Neighborhood Supported Agriculture (NSA) operation, based on the
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. After yard owners and
shareholders receive their produce, surplus from the Community Roots
Urban Gardens is sold at the Boulder Farmer’s Market and donated to
families in need. Kipp has also created an apprenticeship program to
train urban farmers in growing food in their front or back yards, and
gives workshops on the NSA model.
Then there is Toronto-based Sarah Nixon whose business My Luscious
Backyard involves selling arrangements of flowers that she has grown in
five different front and backyards. She started with her own yard,
expanded to some friends’ and then dropped off notes to strangers who
had large, empty yards. The homeowners get a free flower garden with no
effort, and Nixon’s business is blooming, as she cycles from yard to
yard and delivers her bouquets to weddings, offices, and stores via bike
trailer.
So if you’re a frustrated apartment-dwelling gardener or a homeowner
with an expanse of sunny but under-used lawn, find a partner and get
growing food, flowers, and community.
Wendy Priesnitz
is Natural Life’s Editor and chief trendspotter. Unfortunately, she has
neither time nor space to garden.
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