Start a Community Garden

Budgeting For Your Community Garden

 

The cost of a community garden varies greatly depending on the size and design, so plan your garden accordingly. Most community gardens will cost between $1000 and $4000 initially. There will also be a few hundred dollars a year in maintenance costs. If these numbers sound daunting to you, keep in mind it is possible to build a small community garden for as little as $200, and annual up-keep can be augmented from produce sales. The information below will help you calculate your costs.

Consider planting a community orchard. Although fruit trees take a few years to yield fruit, community orchards are very low maintenance and cost efficient. If the gardener is willing to become educated in fruit tree culture, most trees will pay back their purchase cost each year with only a few hours of work per tree. With fruit at more than $1 per pound, a purchase cost of $5 to $25 per tree is quickly repaid.

The initial budget for your community garden should include:

• Instruction
• Raised bed frames
• Soil to fill the raised beds
• Mulch
• Path materials
• Fencing (optional)
• Water connection and irrigation
• Tools
• Fertilizers & pest repellents
• Seeds and young plants

The following assumptions are made for budget purposes. Determine if your circumstances may be different:

No labor costs not specifically mentioned in the budget.
No significant donated materials.
Free site preparation. Please note that tree trimming, land clearing and pond construction for drainage can be expensive.
Free design. Urban Harvest can usually provide this service.

In addition to your initial budget, you'll need an annual maintenance budget for your community garden. This budget should include:

• Water (if not provided for free)
• Mulch
• Fertilizers & Pest Repellents
• Seeds and young plants
• Replacement tools, stakes & cages, hoses, gloves as needed

 

Instruction

Urban Harvest is able to offer its services free of charge to members. For a small annual fee, you and your gardeners can become members and help Urban Harvest to continue aiding community gardens like yours.

Raised Beds

A raised bed can be any length, between 3 and 5 ft. wide, and from 6 to 16 in. high. For the purpose of this budget, we will use Urban Harvest standard bed size: 40 ft. long, 5 ft. wide and 8 in. high. If your beds are not this size, and many are not, costs will need to be adjusted.

A 20 bed garden costing $4,000 to $5000 covers a 100 ft. by 100 ft. plot of land. After the trial and error learning period, it can produce 10,000 to 20,000 servings of produce per year. That translates into $5000 to $35,000 worth of produce.

Twenty beds is a lot of work for most beginners. For 5 to 10 people, we suggest 5 or 10 beds to start with and a plan to perhaps grow to 20.

We also recommend orchards, as they are low-maintenance, beautiful, cost-effective and highly productive. Fruit trees cost about $10-$20 each, plus about $1 per tree per year in upkeep. Since orchard trees are more costly than vegetable seeds, unless there is a gardener with orchard experience, we suggest that the orchard be started with "foolproof" trees. Look in Dr. Randall's book or call us for recommendations.

Bed Borders

Urban Harvest recommends that you construct your beds from 8x8x8 concrete blocks. Camp Logan Cement Works (713-869-3385) sells both solid and shim blocks. If you have a business tax number, shim blocks can be obtained for wholesale cost from White's Concrete in Pasadena.

Cost depends on quantity. The cost per block is less when bought in pallet quantities. At Camp Logan Cement Works, 8 x 8 x 8, 36 pound solid concrete blocks cost $1.12 each, $.84 each when bought in pallet quantities of 90. Shim blocks 4 x 8 x 16 are $1.09 each, $.82 in pallet quantities of 90. Delivery within the general Houston area is $50 for one to three pallets, $35 for three to five, and free above that.

To figure your cost for the blocks, we may be able to draw a plan on a computer and budget it for you. To calculate it yourself, figure out how many feet are around the outside of each bed. If these are rectangles, it will be the sum of the four sides. Add up the figures for all beds. Next, determine the number of blocks you need by multiplying the number of feet by 1.5 to get the number of 8 in. blocks needed (or 0.75 for 16 in. shims). Next, figure the number of pallets. Divide the number of blocks by 90.

Soil for the beds

To calculate the number of cubic yards you will need, first determine the total square feet inside the beds. Multiply this number by 0.67 and then divide by 27. Order the soil a week in advance to be delivered a few days in advance of the day the garden will be built. Wet weather can postpone delivery.

Mulch

Mulch can be ordered from Nature's Way Resources (713-329-9177) or Garden-Ville Square (281-499-6995), or you can buy hay from a feed store. To determine the amount of mulch you need for your garden, take the result for the amount of soil you need from above, and simply multiply it by 3/8 or 0.375.

Water Connection and Irrigation

If you can connect to an outside tap on a building or a well, one time costs for piping to the garden are about $30-50. A water tap in the garden is $10. Hoses cost $15-30 depending on length and quality. A fan nozzle is about $4. Water itself costs $40-$45 per month depending on garden size and season.

If you must use water from the street, you need to get the water company's connection charges. Give them an accurate address. Costs range from as little as $85 if there is an old water meter connection from a former dwelling, to as much as $1500 with no water near the garden.

If you have more than 5 beds or will be away a lot, you need a soaker hose system with a timer. Costs will be $150-300 for a 24 hour irrigation system that saves a lot of water and time.

A wet area may need ditches or ponds. If you have gumbo clay and can hand dig a hole, you can build a basic pond for about $100. For a few hundred dollars more, you can install a liner for a nature pond. Back hoe or bulldozer rental could increase pond costs $300 or more.

Fencing

A fence with a locked gate is sometimes an essential component of your community garden. If fencing to keep out people and dogs is all that is required, a 4 ft. Cyclone™ or chain link fence may prove adequate. In some settings, 6 ft. will be necessary. Fruits may need a 10 ft height. Fencing costs can only be estimated on a case by case basis. A 6 ft. fence and rabbit protection around a very large garden might cost $1500 installed. A much smaller garden with a 4 ft. fence could be $200 or less, especially if you build it.

Tools

A good quality long handled spade, a garden (short-tined) fork, a garden rake and either a hoe or some other weeding tool cost about $15 - $20 each. Felco pruning shears, loppers and saws are great for pruning fruit. You will need $75-100 worth of cages, stakes, and trellises. Visit garden shops and hardware stores to budget for the other tools you will need: wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, hoses, etc.