In Can Low Income Households Go Green, I touched on the benefits of getting involved in a community garden as a way to get fresh organic produce at minimal cost.

Produce grown in community gardens is fresher and often organic or, at least, less full of chemicals than their supermarket counterparts. You may also find out about cottage industries in canning, baking, etc. Support these micro businesses, get involved if you can, and find out about bartering opportunities in the small home garden microcosm. I used to belong to a community garden in Southern Ontario for several years. Many of the participants loved working in the garden but didn’t need all of the food they were growing and shared their crops liberally. I often tended multiple gardens during the summer while the “owners” were on holidays in exchange for harvesting what ripened while they were away.

Belonging to your local garden is easy and free (or inexpensive) depending on where you live and now, with a fresh crop of innovative organizations, getting connected is easier than ever.

A new social network based in New Zealand called Ooooby (short for Out Of Our Own Backyards) launched a site in December that helps members connect with local food growers and local food eaters. Ooooby members number over 700.

Signing up involves letting the Ooooby team know your level of growing experience (you don’t need any to participate), your field of expertise or interest, if any,and what, if anything, you are currently growing. There are numerous videos, an events listing, and you can start up your blog on your backyard gardening experiences, share recipes and network with other members to barter food and services. Treehugger has written about Ooooby as well:

Ooooby is a great idea, blending local living philosophy with the power of online networking. Though the site is young (live since only December 2008), membership already boasts almost a thousand members. We’re looking forward to other “oooobies” springing up online.

If you sign up, be sure to invite your friends along so that you can start up your own local network of growers and eaters. Create your own local events, post pics of your garden, and get a barter network going.

If you love the idea of fresh, local produce but aren’t much of a green thumb, you’ll love this business model. Green City Growers is a Boston based gardening service that builds and maintains organic gardens in the backyards of it’s customers. This service is fee based and depends on the growing conditions of your property. From the site:

GCG was established to offer a vital service to the community: fresh, chemical-free produce at a fraction of supermarket price with a minimal output of energy and resources. We will bring the produce from the farm to your family table, you simply supply the yard…we’ll do the dirty work.

This is such a good idea - one that I can see branching out to other locations. It would be interesting to see garden operations that, in effect, rent large yards to grow produce which is then sold to customers who have no available land.

Speaking of which, a great idea would be for those of you who have a large-ish lot to create your own community garden, effectively renting out space on your property for apartment dwellers to grow produce. Set up a barter system whereby you receive a portion of the harvest in exchange for the use of the land. It’s such a great idea that it’s already being put into practice at Hyperlocavore.

Hyperlocavore calls the practice yardsharing and has a social network that you can sign up for to find a yard for your garden or a garden for your yard! Yardsharing can be as big or a small as your needs demand:

Yardsharing and group growing is new. It’s different from a community garden - but the site can be used to create and manage one. A yardshare might be an arrangement between an elderly couple and a young one to grow more food cheaply for both. Or friends who live in an apartment and a friend in the burbs to save money and food miles. Hyperlocavore.com is here to help facilitate yardsharing.

Need to find some land? If you live in Vancouver next to a vacant lot, you may be in luck!

The City of Vancouver only issues a garden permit on vacant residential land to the neighbouring property owner. (ie. permits to people wanting to garden vacant land next to their house) Unopened lane or street is also issued on that basis, therefore not available to the City at large. $25 plus GST per year” Call Linda Kemp 604-873-7426.

My grandfather took advantage of a similar permit in Brantford, Ontario, creating a sizable garden on the vacant lot next to his house. He was told that he could use it temporarily til the land was sold or built upon. That was about twenty years ago and his organic garden is still going strong!

Are you involved in small gardening initiatives in your home town? Please share!

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