Community Steps: Start or Join a Community Garden

Courtesy of www.EarthHero.org

Ease: Ambitious
Impact Rating (1-5): 3
Influence Beyond You: 3
Types of Impacts: Community Resilience, Protects Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Money saver

Does it help with making your community resilient to disasters and emergencies? Yes. Less vulnerable to supply chain disruption, Community support

Tags: Community, Visible action, nutrition, cooperative

Money Saved (1-4 $): $

Description: Becoming involved in a community garden is ambitious but provides great benefits in your local area. Providing a communal space for growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants can reduce transportation and waste; increase local economic activity; and promote healthy eating habits. One study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1499404606008542) found community garden participants were more likely to eat more produce throughout the day. And eating more local fruits and vegetables helps reduce carbon emissions produced by large-scale ranching and other agricultural practices (www.projectdrawdown.org/solutions).

Getting involved in a community garden requires planning. Begin by researching your area for established community gardens. Based on your findings, you may discover one close enough to join. If not, start your own with the help of your local government, community organization, or a dedicated group of green thumbs. Refer to literature produced by The Conservation Fund, “Want to Start a Community Garden?” (https://www.conservationfund.org/images/RC_CommunityGarden_Brochure-Final_webview.pdf)

Community gardens offer a clean, green environment and create space for people to gather and grow together!

Tips:

• Start with a virtual group

Return to Community/Social Steps

Image credit: Photo by Zen Chung from Pexels