Urban Garden Share: Ready? Set? Plant

Garden Seeks Gardener. Must have green thumbs, patience and flexibility. Will be working with other gardeners. You: will have a passion for tending. Me: will bear fruit, vegetables and plants for neighbors and community to enjoy.

Personal advertisement aside, Seattle, Wash.-based Urban Garden Share brings gardens and gardeners together. Think Match.com but on a green tip: someone lists their garden profile on urbangardenshare.org, complete with backyard dimensions (house description, square footage, current state), what grows well and what the owner provides (labor, design direction, etc.). Someone else views the listing and contacts the owner for a match.

It’s relatively easy to get growing. From the homepage of Urban Garden Share, you can create a garden profile or gardener profile and dig into the listings. Some are empty lots in neighborhoods that have gone fallow, or they’re  front lawns and back lawns that need care and attention.

To start, a home must receive adequate sun (at minimum eight hours of it) and have a water source (drip system or soaker hose is preferred to cut down on water usage). And as much as Urban Garden Share is about community building, it’s also about being honest and clear about who’s buying what, not unlike a real live relationship!

The share concept is also based on trust: your “match” will often have daytime access to your garden. Urban Garden Share’s founders—all seasoned gardeners who launched the venture one year ago—also harp about expectations too. Weeds happen. Things die. Mother Nature does her thing and control can fall by the wayside. Patience will be needed. You will learn and teach.  Appreciate what’s grown, and celebrate a harvest, together.

The site will expand to more cities this spring, starting with Atlanta, Louisville and Portland.  As Urban Garden Share’s founders say on their site: “When neighbors come together and co-operatively grow food, dirt flies and good things happen.”

So grab that shovel.

Ready? Set? Plant.

This article was written by Genevieve Roja, www.jorgandolif.com.

Related posts:

1. We Patch – Urban Garden Share
2. Plant an Extra Row: Plant a Seed, Feed Someone in Need
3. Become a Member of Cascadian Edible Landscapes’ Community Supported Plant Starts Program

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