How to start a community garden in your neighborhood

All across America, neighborhoods, towns and cities are creating their own community garden spaces as a way for locals to cultivate fresh food and other products. So how do you start one of these of near where you live?

Here are some common stages for putting together a community garden project that has a good chance of working over time

Get Space

For soil-based community gardens, you'll be looking for an unused piece of land, something that nobody's going to build on, but has the right characteristics and slope for garden projects.

Or, you can eliminate that difficult search with a hydroponic garden. Hydroponics can be done indoors or outdoors, anywhere there is a sufficient amount of space for people to put together trays, tables or pots for plants.

Prep the Area

For soil-based gardening, you want to clear the area of debris and plow up the ground to get ready for gardening.

For hydroponics, prepping involves setting up your water source, arranging hydroponic installations in the space, and setting up grow lights or providing for sufficient lighting for photosynthesis.

Engage People

In the end, any community garden is really a team effort. You can do all the work you want, but without getting other people on board, it can be difficult to make the project work over the long-term.

Engagement can start with mailing lists or other tools. Present gardening project at public events, or go door-to-door to advertise the project. Get coverage in a local newspaper or other news source. Then start putting together a short list of people who are on board to take the project to the next level.

Someone has to be in charge of a community garden, and there have to be rules about what’s allowed inside the gardening space, and time lines, commitments etc. Once you have the engagement in place, get the policies down and start to really administrate a community garden to help people come together and grow fresh food right where they live.

Hydroponics is more than just seeds, water and sunlight. It's a complex arrangement with a lot of tools and accessories that help make the process easier for community gardeners or anyone else with an interest in this type of innovative cultivation. For more on hydroponics and what you need to succeed, take a look at what hydroponic manufacturers and retailers offer you to set up projects that will work for many crop cycles.