We had a great workshop Wednesday! Very informal and very fruitful.
The topic was Making Front Yard Gardens. TimeBank member Christopher Daly offered to create a Front Yard Garden project so we co-led yesterday’s workshop, along with Mary Girard (DCTB Board member) who had organized our previous Garden Projects.
We had around 20 participants representing a wide range of organizations and interest areas.
After introducing ourselves and why we were there, we established our common goals, then did some asset and need mapping. We identified needed roles and functions and made a timeline for the season.
I’ll summarize here:
We started by establishing goals. I’ll list a few highlights here and you can also see them on the whiteboard photo, written in green: Healthy food, sharing food, spreading the joy of gardening, let gardening-haters avoid the misery of gardening, smart food distribution, spaces to swap and share, container gardening, seed and plant exchange, and environmental restoration.
We created the expanded title “Front Yard Gardens: Gardens Everywhere for Everyone”
Then we established a timeline of activities.
First, 
we will meet as a small group to create our outreach materials. One to invite individuals to participate by offering land, gardening, other project help, and also to invite them to ShareFest in mid-May, which will be the kick-off of the project. Other materials we will create will be invitations for organizations to partner on the project.
We will spend April doing outreach and preparing, kick off the project publicly at ShareFest in mid-May, hold seed and plant swaps and have crews dig and plant in May and June, hold food swaps and dinners in July and August, host a canning workshop (or more) in September, and have a big harvest party as part of the Dane County TimeBank’s 10th birthday party in October! Whew! This will be a really cool project.
The next Builders Workshop, Wednesday April 22 from 4-6pm at Madison Central Library, will be the next big work and planning session for this. Please come if you’re interested in this! Front Yard Gardens part II.
Yes, Spring is really coming.
Thanks for reading,
Stephanie
Filed under: Builders Workshops Tagged: front yard gardens 
Source: timeftw