urban sharecropping

[erikgarrison.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to find space, or spaces, to grow vegetables this season.  Ideally such space would be in West Somerville, Medford, or in any of the communities along the Minuteman bikeway--- everyone in my extended social circle uses bikes for transport (and cargo bikes for moving heavy loads).

We're not looking for a lot of space, and will be respectful and share produce (!) with anyone who shares their land with us.  Water and tools obviously help, but we can probably get by without on-site access to either.  A soil test is nice, but raised beds are an option.  We'll happily submit tests if none have been completed.
The idea is roughly the same as that organized by sharingbackyards.com.  If a large number of people are interested in this kind of exchange, then perhaps that site would serve as a good coordination tool.  (I've written them about starting an organizing group here.)

Comments

[brewso.livejournal.com]

We'd be interested. We have a good-sized backyard near Davis. We have had the soil tested for lead and it exceeded the recommended allowance, so a raised bed or containers would have to be the way to go. I'm definitely motivated by the shared produce. :) I think this is a very cool idea!

Or fruiting crops?

[avjudge]

How high was it? Very little lead makes it into the eaten parts of fruiting crops (tomatoes, beans, squash, eggplants, etc), according to everything I've read.

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

There are lots of community gardens around, but a warning in advance: the waiting list for many of them is 2+ years. If you manage to make the sharingbackyards.com idea work, please post here!

Re: Or fruiting crops?

[brewso.livejournal.com]

I had a woman from "Gardens for Good" test it last year, and she never gave me the exact results from the report, just said that the soil near the house was "very high" in lead, and the rest of the soil was lower, but still higher than recommended for planting. I asked for the actual report, but was never sent it.

[turil.livejournal.com]

There is also the website Hyperlocavore (http://hyperlocavore.ning.com/) which is where I got hooked up with the folks at Sprout as a place to garden. (It's slow going, but someday soon, the garden there will be seriously awesome, I hope!) There is a Somerville group and a Cambridge group on Hyperlocavore, I think.

[erikgarrison.livejournal.com]

And that is exactly why I want to encourage and use yardsharing!

[erikgarrison.livejournal.com]

This sounds great! We should meet up and discuss the logistics.

Re: Or fruiting crops?

[erikgarrison.livejournal.com]

I think that you can submit soil tests to UMass. The cost is low ($9 at present http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/services1.htm), but the turnaround time is not. We could do that so that you ultimately have a better idea of exactly the problem areas in the yard.

Re: Or fruiting crops?

[squirrelitude]

I got my results in about a week. I think that's pretty reasonable for early to mid spring planting season. :-)

Re: Or fruiting crops?

[erikgarrison.livejournal.com]

Oh! That's great! I don't know where I was getting my misinformation about their turnaround time.