Garden sharing or urban horticulture sharing is a

local food Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system. Local food (or "locavore") movements aim to con ...

and

urban farming Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. It encompasses a complex and diverse mix of food production activities, including fisheries and for ...

arrangement where a landowner allows a gardener access to land, typically a front or back

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

, in order to grow food. This may be an informal, one-to-one relationship, but numerous Web-based projects exist to facilitate matchmaking. In some cases, garden sharing projects are launched as a way to shorten

community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plo ...

waiting lists that are common in many cities.Modern-day sharecropping
''Los Angeles Times'', June 20, 2009Garden-sharing program bears fruit
''The Star'', July 10, 2009

Organization

Garden sharing arrangements take two main forms. The simplest is an agreement between two parties: one supplies the land, the other supplies the labour, and the proceeds are shared. In larger collaborations, groups, often neighbours, share garden spaces, labour and the harvest.
''The Oregonian'', June 04, 2009 The specifics addressed by a garden sharing agreement are potentially numerous, and the contract itself may be simple or exhaustive. Issues to be considered include terms of access, acceptable behavior, and who supplies what as far as gardening equipment and supplies. At one end of the scale, a verbal arrangement may be all that is expected."Growing Relations"
Urban Garden Share, US However, garden sharing organisations often suggest a written agreement and supply sample contracts.''The Sharing Solution''
by Emily Doskow, Janelle Orsi pp. 259-262 (Nolo, 2009)
by Cathy Locke. ''Colorado Springs Gazette''. June 1, 2009."Sample agreements: Pro forma templates"
Landshare, UK Organisers may also interview participants before suggesting a match.

Garden sharing projects

The Web is frequently used as a platform for initiating garden sharing arrangements. Web sites connecting landowners and growers are generally free and non-commercial. Web sites are instituted by a variety of parties, including private individuals, government agencies, and non-profit groups.

North America

A number of local, regional and national programs exist across the U.S. and Canada, including: *Yardsharing.org of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, is a free online service devoted to connecting renters with landowners, with the goal of creating food for all. The website, created in 2007 by Joshua Patterson, resulted from a local media campaign to find relief for the Portland Community Gardens Program. *Hyperlocavore.com is a free, U.S.-based international service that matches garden owners with gardeners, and facilitates the set-up of neighbourhood produce exchanges and other sharing projects.
Alfrea.com
was built to help landowners and gardeners connect. Think of it as your Marketplace for Land Sharing, Garden Services, and connecting you to Fresh Local food. *SharingBackyards.com, run by a sustainability NPO in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

, was launched in 2006 by a volunteer at a community garden—the free programme is now in over 20 cities across North America. *UrbanGardenShare.org, matching garden owners with gardeners, started in the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington (U.S. state) Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

region, the result of a collaboration between an individual and a local sustainability group., and has grown to cover a number of cities in several states.Urban Garden Share
has listings for Seattle, Wa, Whatcom Co, Wa, Bellingham, Wa, Louisville, Ky, Atlanta, Ga, Boise, Id, Santa Cruz, Ca, and Sonoma County, Ca, as of 30 September 2014
SharedEarth.com
is a website that connects people who have land, with people who want to garden or farm.

Europe

In the UK, Landshare is a high-profile national garden sharing project in England, spearheaded by

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

and TV personality

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues. Fearnley-Whittingstall hosted the ''River C ...

, in conjunction with public-service broadcaster

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. Growers, landowners and volunteers can, at no charge, register their interest in participating in a share in their area. There are over 40,000 members. Although this is a number that have registered since 2009 when the social enterprise was first publicized widely, since then its activity has decreased. Scotland, has only one project, a charity calle
Edinburgh Garden Partners
which has over 60 gardens throughout the city shared by volunteers. The charity aims to promote locally grown food and the skills of doing so with supportin
older and disabled people
who can no longer manage their garden. In France, Prêter son jardin ("Garden lending") is a garden sharing web site started by a journalist in 2010.

Worldwide

Garden sharing projects are also incorporated into larger sustainability schemes. Transition Town Totnes (Totnes, England)Garden scheme to grow food
(video) BBC News. Monday, 13 October 2008. and Transition Timaru (Timaru, NZ) have instituted garden sharing projects as part of their

Transition Towns The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instabilitythrough r ...

efforts to prepare communities on a local level for the

effects of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice ( glaciers), sea le ...

and

peak oil Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; whil ...

References

External links

The non-profit Shared Earth is created to connect gardeners with landowners.
Sustainable America. 18 April 2016
Tanis Taylor on the garden-sharers growing their own food.
''The Guardian''. 4 September 2008
Gardeners plant seeds of sharing
WRAL.com (WRAL-TV). April 30, 2009

''The Telegraph''. 2 February 2009

by Nancy Trejos. ''Washington Post'', July 17, 2009 {{Sharing economy Urban agriculture Types of garden Sustainable agriculture