171Appendix A: Community Gardens Project

The Community Gardens (CG) is a collaborative gardening project on town property. Part of the garden is individual plots; part of the garden is a community plot and must be tended by all members of the Community Gardens project, most of whom also have individual plots. The produce from the Community Gardens serves the local soup kitchen, and the Community Gardens project sells produce at the farmers market on the town commons throughout the garden- ing season. The Community Gardens project enters prize winning vegetables in the local 4H competition. Many towns compete in the 4H competition, with one of two towns generally winning over other towns and contest entries. The two towns compete aggressively for the generous cash award for winning entries and for “bragging rights” throughout the year.

The towns have a long history of taking care of the less fortunate in the community; the soup kitchens rely on the fresh produce. The revenue from selling produce at the farmers market, along with prof- its from the Community Gardens cookbook, defrays the cost of the Community Gardens supplies and provides cash contributions to the town soup kitchen.

Each town is willing to contribute town resources for the pre- and post-season preparations; however, since town resources are used, the required resources must be included in the town budget. Otherwise,

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the town cannot legally allocate town resources for the pre- and post- season Community Gardens preparation.

A.1 Community Gardens Project

The project schedule starts immediately after the prior year’s lessons- learned meeting and season-end barbeque to celebrate the team’s hard work and success. Typically, the project manager holds a team meeting in late September or October. The project manager submits the bud- get request to the town in time for inclusion in the town budget and its approval process. Things are quiet throughout the winter months; planning for spring activities begins in February by developing plans and schedules. The season officially begins in March, and the project manager solicits gardeners for the individual gardens and also for the Community Gardens. At the kick-off meeting in mid-April, the team gathers to discuss what to plant and shared responsibilities during the season.

In May, the town prepares the gardens, turning, grading, and preparing the soil, setting up hoses for water, turning on the water, and putting up fences to keep out little critters and other unwelcome visitors. The project manager collects the requirements for seeds and plants from the individual gardeners and for the community plot. Individual gardeners may purchase their materials and supplies on their own or may pool their requirements with those of other indi- vidual gardeners and requirements of the community plot for reduced costs. The Community Gardens often benefit from reduced pricing when it purchases in large quantities; some vendors also provide sig- nificant discounts in exchange for advertising spots in the Community Gardens cookbook produced at the end of the season and sold at town events throughout the year. If individual gardeners choose to share in the bulk purchase, the Community Gardens team collects money in May for the materials and supplies.

The gardeners generally start planting in late May or early June after all risk of frost is gone; some folks plant hardier produce earlier. The Community Gardens have produce in mid-June and start weekly deliveries to the soup kitchen on Mondays and weekly participation in the farmers market on the town square on Thursdays. Individual

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gardeners transport the produce to the soup kitchen and staff the booth at the farmers market.

The 4H competition is an exciting event. Several towns have been in head-to-head competition for many years. First place in the 4H competition brings bragging rights to the winner and also a signifi- cant cash prize that is used along with the revenue from the farmers market and cookbook sales to defray expenses. Any additional money is shared among the soup kitchen and the individual gardeners. Generally, the individual gardeners elect to contribute their individual shares to the soup kitchen.

At the end of the season, the team gathers for a lessons-learned meeting and season-end celebration. Everyone tastes entries from all recipe candidates for the cookbook (which must use produce from the gardens) at the year-end celebration; only approved recipes are included in the cookbook.

A.2 The Community Gardens Project: Two Scenarios

Two towns, Legacy and Planful, are generally the top contenders for the 4H first place prize. The Community Gardens project man- agers for each town are a bit different in approach. Larry manages Legume Legacy Community Gardens. Larry has been managing the Community Gardens for 10+ years. He is 56 years old, semi-retired with lots of time on his hands. His style is “old boy network,” seat of the pants, and he is used to a “command and control” structure.

George leads Planful Community Gardens for his second year. He is in his 30s and is a project manager at his full-time job. He is very focused and structured. His style is collaborative/consensus.

George and his Planful Gardens project team follow a project process and develop project documents that, in the aggregate, form a project plan. The Community Gardens project documents in the appendices that follow are typical of the documents created by George and the Planful Community Gardens team. Appendix R contains project execution based on the project plan for George and no project plan for Larry and his team.

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