6 Tips for Setting Up Community Gardens in HOA Neighborhoods

In the modern digital age we're living in, setting up a community garden may be exactly what HOA neighborhoods need to get their members off their digital devices and back to nature a bit.

Community gardens promote positive relationships within neighborhoods, provide healthy activities for people of all ages, and if done well produce a good amount of healthy food.

In an effort to help planners get their thoughts aligned, here are 6 tips for setting up community gardens in HOA neighborhoods.

Gain and Gauge Support from Homeowners

Board members and homeowners interested in starting a community garden should start by gauging the support for the idea with community members.

Planners can gain and gauge support with methods such as:

surveys
emails
text messages
phone calls
flyers
word of mouth
announcements at board meetings
articles
fundraiser events

The main idea is to see how much support there is for such an idea; just keep in mind that some people may get excited about the idea only once it gets started.

If enough support is gained, board members and those directly involved can get started on the planning aspects.

Gathering Ideas

After consulting with the HOA's lawyer to make sure of the legalities of such a project, planners can begin gathering ideas for the community garden.

This might include asking interested homeowners to share their ideas and desires for the community garden space; also, planners can conduct some research online to see what other HOAs have done with their community gardens.

Decide on the Space and Scope of Project

Sometimes unused space in common areas is what sparked the thought of a community garden in the first place, yet if this isn't the case, an adequate space needs to be chosen.

Planners can now use the information and research they've gathered to choose the perfect place for the garden. The amount of funds available for the project will need to be considered when choosing a space as well.

As the garden plot is being chosen, planners should take into consideration any other projects they may want to add to the area. For example:

picnic area
horseshoe pit
dog park
BBQ area
small outside amphitheater

Building a community garden may be the beginning of other connected projects, bringing a larger scope to the project that must be considered when choosing a location.

Establishing Rules and Fees

Two important tasks for planners to accomplish is establishing the rules (if any) to govern the community garden and deciding what fees will be associated with it.

Having rules will ensure the garden is kept up and the plots are used in a manner that represents the HOA neighborhood.

Requiring a small fee will help board members pay for any project expenses and upkeep while making sure those who sign up are serious about using their assigned plot.

Outside Expertise

Planners may want to routinely bring in some outside garden expertise to help participants learn how to garden.

This will give beginners more confidence in their ability to get started and help experienced gardeners refresh their skills.

Enjoying the Community Garden

The last tip is to enjoy the positive effects of having a community garden. This is a project idea that really doesn't take a lot of effort, yet promises to bring the community together in a positive way.

Community gardens give HOA members of all ages a reason to come together and get away from their digital devices while learning how to grow healthy foods and enjoy the outdoors.

HOA neighborhoods need positive influences to create community cohesion and community gardens are sure to do just that.

Comments

Thrown in the Trash by NewsBreak

Out with the old, in with the robots. My time writing for NewsBreak is now over. The upstart news app used writers like me to get their bandwagon going, and now it has discarded us after becoming respectable in the realm of news. I can’t blame them when it comes to me, as I’ve been writing opinion pieces exclusively for the last year. I started out writing local news articles about Oregon, but changed my strategy because of time constraints. I would take news articles from Oregon and rewrite them basically; not with AI, just with my noggin. Some did well, others were stalled by their algorithm. I could never tell if an article would do well or not. All in all, I made more money with NB than any other writing effort online besides copywriting. This brings me a lot of satisfaction with my time there, but sadly, it has come to an end. Recently, they sent me an email explaining they are going to make all the contributors reapply to be a contributor, as their strategy has changed; something...

Is Your Writing System Holding You Back from Being Productive?

I think mine is. When I first started writing online back in 2013, I wrote for only one website called Allvoices — a contributor news site. How simple my online writing system was then compared to what it has turned into over the last 12 years. Now, I have too many sites to syndicate on, too many social media sites to share to, and overall just too large of a writing system to be productive. Crazy part is I’ve shaved it down to what it is now; it was larger and even bulkier before. One thing I won’t do is give up on trying to build a system that enhances instead of hinders my online writing efforts; I’m not there yet as it stands. I wonder how much more I would write if I didn’t have to spend an hour syndicating and sharing each article? If I could just write an article and maybe spend 5 minutes on sharing and syndicating it? As it is now, I have five platforms to syndicate with and ten social sites to share on. My system hinders my writing and keeps me from wanting to write because of...

The Most Discriminated People Are Not Who You Think

The physically unattractive, socially awkward, and poor are the most discriminated people. In America, social engineers have brainwashed us to believe minorities and women are the most discriminated people in our country and the world, yet is this really true? Using common sense, we can see this isn’t true in modern America, and even in the past. We can see clearly the most discriminated people in our country and the world are those who are physically unattractive, socially awkward, and poor. Physical Unattractiveness Physical unattractiveness is probably the top discrimination factor in the world. A person born like this will find they are not chosen for many things because of this unfortunate factor. They might be outgoing and friendly, which will help mitigate this problem, but they will invariably experience a completely different reality than a physically attractive person. We’re talking about not being chosen for jobs and friendships, and how they are treated in daily life by peo...

Future Freedom = Being Without Online Technology

Online technology was created to control humanity. One thing we can all agree on is that online/smart technology will only increase and become more integrated into our lives in the future, even at an exponential rate, as technological advancement reaches singularity. Therefore, we can conclude with deductive reasoning that our individual freedom will only be achieved without said technology. If this technology, manifested with AI automation, is going to be used to control us in every aspect of our lives, then freedom will not exist. Freedom is not just doing everything the controllers tell you to do or get punished, it is being free to do what you want do, under the natural law of treating others as you would want to be treated (do no harm physically to others, don’t steal or damage property/possessions of others, etc.). The near future is going to be defined by how technology is used to control humanity; it will be done under the guise of something other than control, but that is the ...

Business and Society Articles

Search This Blog