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Group garden
Started getting e-mails from the group that live year round at "The Place"
We have a loose group, keeping in touch with a Yahoo group, of both permanent and seasonal cabin and land owners.
Last year they got the idea to group together to have a massive garden, for everyone.
Did it right, land had been pasture, so a bunch of them got together and tilled up about an acre, fenced it in both barbed wire and electric, as there is a lot of wildlife.
A water carboy/tractor was made available for toting water from the river across the road. Nice set up.
Planted 150 tomatoes, sweet corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, peppers and just about anything you could think of.
I was invited to take part, but a lot of "family stuff" kinda cropped up so I declined.
I did chip in $30 bucks for a share of a group tiller, good one.
After a good start, 10-15 families taking part, kinda fell apart, when weeding and such started to get overwhelming.
I had offered my opinion as I have participated in group gardens before, that seems to be the pattern.
Good idea, plenty of horse power to start with, other stuff shows up, so 3-4 people end up doing all the work.
Well it was discussed that maybe a family plot system would work better, and in my experience it does.
So I'll most likely kick for a share of the "fence fund" and fuel for the tractor.
Hopefully I'l have more time this year.
Will keep ya posted.
Anyone else do anything like this?
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We once had a plot in a community garden in a small town near where we lived. A farmer took one of his fields, charged $30 per plot, which I think were about 50'x50'. He even did the heavy spring tilling. You still had to go in with a rototiller to break up the clods.
All was fine except for the water. No onsite water. Damn, I would never want to be a farmer dependent on rain. Lost the corn but the tomatoes did all right. Mulching turned out to be the key for the weed problem. Just didn't have enough grass clippings to do the whole thing and couldn't afford to buy mulch.
At that time there really was no vandalism of the gardens. I remember someone losing a crop of cauliflower just as it was coming on to kids that apparently had a splendid time bashing the heads with sticks. Little bastids.
I drive by one now though where a lot of local Asian migrant crop workers grow their kitchen gardens for the season. There are 4 "cabanas" out there and someone always on watch day and night. No fence so I'm sure for the animals... Uh huh. Animals.
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