The Community Gardening Handbook: The Guide to Organizing, Planting, and Caring for a Community Garden

This accessible, inviting book by Ben Raskin extolls the benefits of gardening in the introductory pages, reminding us it is also mood therapy and provides benefits by nurturing us as well as connecting us with nature. In this way it is aimed at potential urban gardeners and serves as a motivational and inspirational read from page one. Ben Raskin remarks that gardening can be a solitary activity or one that is shared, as the act itself helps nourish an emotionally healthy society. The first chapter examines some of the ways community gardens have been set up by gardeners, launching into a series of inspiring case examples with full colour photos galore. Individual space rentals are discussed as are their advantages and disadvantages. These include issues involving rules, having the advantage of other people if you need help or when you go away. Benefits of collaborating on gardening include social interaction, lots of volunteers to do larger jobs, and the potential to tailor each job to the individual.

He also beautifully discusses orchards. Orchards work well with work parties, are wonderful spaces, and can invite picnicking or to have a poetry reading there. Orchard considerations include how much fruit, is there enough space, and direct access to healthy fruit. There is nothing Ben Raskin doesn't see as doable in this urban gardening book.

Animals in community gardens are discussed, as they provide weed control, and pigs and goats can provide manure, while poultry eat insects, and again on the emotionally healthy front, Raskin adds that it helps mental health to interact with animals and care for their wellbeing. As a downside, bylaws sometimes prohibit animals, they can be a big-time committment, and require a continual and reliable source of clean water, as well as treatment for diseases. good fencing, and several other details which Raskin explores in surprising depth. There are even photos of community gardens with pigs, chickens and goats happily encorporated into their scheme.

Raskin then discusses community supported agriculture, i.e. the "CSA," which tend to be larger than community gardens, and involve commitment to upfront payment by members. CSA's also require members to work in many cases, something members often enjoy. Rooftop gardening is also addressed, including the planning of it, questions involving wind, water, access, roof strength and other logistics and safety questions. Moving quickly through these major topics, Raskin then tackles a brief overview of the challenges of temporary gardening: arrangements and water needs of portable gardens, pallet beds, one ton bags, trailer gardening and dumpster gardens.

Guerrilla gardening, or planting without permission is addressed after this, and is a particularly upbeat section. Leaving it better than you found it gardening, which is tidying up a neglected space and planting appropriately, planting in potholes, planting in areas under signposts, on the front yards of government offices and planting in places where people are cheered by the sitr of a tiny garden or a controversy occurs because of a garden springing up there are charmingly presented as possible gardening "activities" by Raskin.

The author also encourages gardeners to reach out and become more literate and aware of their communities, citing UK gardening activist sites online such as Community Networks, Transition Networks, and the Incredible Edible Network. Going further, Raskin in the second half of the book encourages readers to step forward from vision to reality. Here Raskin describes how building your gardening team can be done by creating the vision, having a public meeting, raising funds, and moving towards making it a reality. Raskin even had excellent details on how to run a public meeting that could apply to almost any meeting type, but was intended for communtiy gardeners. Raskin's suggestions on how to create interest include "get a local key figure or celebrity" to endorse and come to your meeting. He explains how to use the meeting to listen, to collect contact information, to develop a proof of need and future community and funding support, and how to be prepared to adjust your plans if you have not thought of everything at the start. Raskin encourages anticipation of possible issues such as questions around dogs, loss of wildlife, traffic and privacy concerns among others. The book then suggests a follow up organizing "with your steering committee" a week or two after the first meeting while the buzz is still fresh.

Here the book delves into "Building the team and sharing the workload," as well as "Finding the right people," which can involve finding out what skills people have, a process in itself. Raskin advises asking for expert advice, and remembering that everyday people have skills already, and any meeting may have a lot of undeclared skills prrsent in the room. Raskin also talks about "Voluntary vs paid" and when such projects have been rolled into part of a day job. "Organizational structure," including balancing strong and weak personalities, is discussed. Raising funds annual fees, informal fundraising, loans, share offers, crowdfunding, applying for grants, financial transparency are all explored. Gardens often survive by bringing in new members, creating a sustainable business model that will not rely on funding for everything.

"Community events, horticultural events, skill-sharing and seed swaps as well as plan-and-learn events" are all fundraisng ideas, and an "apple grafting course" as an example of an orchard learning event is described. Raskin mentions that in the case of a seed swap event, "practical demonstrations of cleaning and storage of seeds" is advised. The final part of the book delves deeply into ways to share and devdlop planning the layout of the garden, watering routines, water harvesting, compost, efficient use of space, and picking the right crops for the garden. Raskin also describes the balue of perennials that can take two or three years, crop rotation, flowers for pest control, and creating a task list based around seasons.

The very last third of the book is an in-depth description with drawings of different common garden varieties, with an actual whole page devoted to green beans, a page on asparagus, a page on ea h of the common herbs an so on. I commend Ben Raskin for creating such an activist book. Its pages are dense with excellent and motivating information and the book itself is laid out in a beautiful and accessible manner. I reccommend this book to be read and shared as widely as possible. A classic.

Raskin, B. (2017). The Community Gardening Handbook: The Guide to Organizing, planting, and caring for a community garden. Lumina Media.