Ideas for community garden group

[puglogic]

We have a small but growing community garden group in my town of 500 souls.

I'm planning to put up a few web pages for the group (I'm a web person by trade) and wanted to include things like

a tool swap board - who has/needs what special tool
a seed swap board - who wants to trade??
a library - who has what great gardening books on their shelf that they'd loan
a discussion space to share tips and what's working/what's not
a calendar of upcoming meetings and other events of interest

Can anyone think of other useful things that might help the group share more, communicate more, and be able to call on one another more easily when we're not physically working in the dirt together? :)

[Tiam]

Communal compost? Sometimes members pitch in to buy a couple of bales of straw to start the organic bank going and then the veggie trims and pulls to into that. Our community garden went dry after just one year without replenishing it.

[fidgiegirl]

A directory of phone numbers for those who aren't so into working via web. Maybe they can manage to at least locate the directory online, or people could pay for a photocopied version. Maybe the directory could have some gardening interests listed, like veggies, organic gardening, chickens, roses, etc.

Exciting. Seeing the title of your thread inspired me to finally try to figure out how to get my own community garden plot! Our lot is so shady that I would love to have a supplementary plot for high-light veggies.

[spiderfolks]

How about a wish list for containers? Or, someone with carpentry skills who might put together a raised bed for someone who can't work at ground level?

[puglogic]

I'm thinking, from these posts, that it would definitely behoove us to have a "wanted/offered" kind of space, like a freecycle system. For example, one of our gardeners has a surplus of burlap sacks, which have many uses. I always have spent grain from my husband's brewery; makes wonderful compost. Thanks, all!

[iris lily]

Our community garden was supposed to have a web site but I never saw the point of it, and not much as been done on the site. We already get regular commmunications via email.

The one thing I wanted to be on the sites, the bed waiting list, didn't happen. I wanted it publicly posted because our garden leader gives beds to her friends and to people who do her favors, there's not been a fair distribution of beds.

[puglogic]

That's a shame, I.L. We have the opposite problem...we have more beds than interested gardeners. This year I'm just going to commandeer any empty spaces :)