Do you want to learn more about community gardening? How to get started? Who to work with? What are the benefits to a community?
A new publication, Community Gardening in New Hampshire: From the Ground Up, answers these questions and more. The guide is free and online at http://bit.ly/ZpKpWi
UNH Cooperative Extension and the Master Gardeners Program collaborated to bring to you this new online guide. Written by New Hampshire master gardeners Yvonne Beran, Tina Burr and Nancy Friese, and Extension Program Team Leader Charlie French, it not only addresses questions about starting and maintaining a community garden, it also shares five success stories of community gardens in New Hampshire.
The guide provides information on the types of community gardens, how to organize them and a variety of additional resources to help you get started.
Lorraine Merrill, commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food, who wrote the foreword for the publication, says, “Community and other civic gardening projects bring people together across generations to cultivate plants, food, beauty, knowledge and relationships. Creating opportunities for children and young people to connect with and learn from elder generations builds true community.”
What is a community garden?
According to the American Community Garden Association, a community garden is any piece of land gardened by a group of people. It can be urban, suburban or rural. You can grow flowers, vegetables or community. It can be one community plot, or many individual plots. You can locate a community garden at a school, hospital or in your neighborhood.
There has been a marked increase in community gardening in New Hampshire that coincides with local food movements. In the past five years, more than 29 new community gardens have sprouted across the state, and the total number now surpasses 75 gardens.
About UNH Cooperative Extension
UNH Cooperative Extension puts trusted information and practical know-how in the hands of New Hampshire citizens and organizations. UNH Cooperative Extension is at work in every New Hampshire county, making the state’s critical industries stronger; developing vibrant communities and municipal leaders, and fostering healthy youth and families, and an informed and engaged citizenry. www.extension.unh.edu