Well, the summer has come to an end and the garden is getting gobbled up. Overall, I thought that the community garden had a very successful first year!
Top three lessons that I’ve learnt throughout the summer:
1. Communication, communication, communication! This is a community garden and found that it was a struggle to manage all the request in a proper manner.
2. Division of Roles. With such a large project it is important to delegate to other people. I found that I was so excited to be a part of all the projects that I didn’t give other people a chance to step up too. Next year, leadership will be selected and people with have specific tasks throughout the summer.
3. Everyone has valuable experience. Not everyone is an expert gardener but throughout the summer I found that every single member had something to offer to the community garden.
If I could go back and change anything would I? Of course, who wouldn’t? I found that the community members really rallied together and made the best of a short time line and even shorter growing season. The construction dates ideally should have been moved earlier into the spring but with weather and other problems popping up we had to make due.
More education! After all the building and working and planting we ran out of time during the summer for more of an education component. I suppose these are growing pains and hopefully someone can take on this role next summer so we can have learning bees instead of just working bees.
