How a Garden Can Help Your Community
Edible gardens are a powerful force for bringing local communities together.
In community gardens, new and experienced gardeners alike get to learn, teach, and support each other in real time. Homegrown food also builds community, whether volunteers share a meal from the garden or donate produce to those in need.
School gardens are another great way to share the magic of homegrown food and sustainability with the next generation. But school and community gardens are complex projects to bring to fruition.
Backyard Eats is adept at managing the challenges that these projects present: including community relations, conceptual design support, detailed garden design, 3D rendering, grant writing, subcontractor management, compliance with township and municipal rules, and planning for long-term maintenance.
Backyard Eats continues to collaborate with local volunteers to maintain the Ambler Community Garden in Knight’s Park after its initial installation.
types of community gardens
Gardens for Public Schools
Backyard Eats has helped public schools like Shady Grove Elementary School in Montgomery County, PA to conceptualize, design, fund, build, and maintain their school garden.
Gardens for Private Schools
Backyard Eats worked with Gwynned Mercy Academy to build an enclosed raised bed garden complete with an herb spiral and berry trellis. Students in Gwynned Mercy’s new gardening club help maintain the space, and donate harvested product to help those in need.
Gardens for Multifamily Facilities
Multifamily apartment owners have turned to roof gardens and raised bed gardens as valuable amenities for their residents. Multifamily Executive reports “the promise of a working garden, no matter how small, can be a draw for residents.” Backyard Eats can work with your Landscape Architect or Civil Engineer to plan a garden that suits your property.
Gardens for Restaurants
Backyard Eats has installed restaurant gardens, commercial gardens, and kitchen gardens. We can work with chefs and restaurateurs to develop plans for your rooftop, restaurant, or satellite garden to help you put the farm in farm-to-table!
Corporate Wellness Gardens
If you want to create Corporate Wellness Magazine notes that the number of corporate gardens has risen steadily over the years, mainly due to the low-cost benefits of office gardens. As corporations take a deeper interest in the well-being of their employees, they are finding that maintaining a functional outdoor or rooftop garden makes an impact on both well-being and sense of community. Backyard Eats will cover the details, while your employees reap the benefits.
Gardens for Retirement Communities
Likewise, retirement communities enjoy the low-maintenance, safe, and convenient access that raised beds provide. Much like apartment-dwellers and office workers, residents of assisted living facilities put a high value on a fully functional and pleasant garden space.
How Our Process Works
Conceptual phase
Contact us as early in the process as possible. We’ll sit down with you and help define your vision for your project or program. We’ll help research grant opportunities to find funding opportunities relevant to your school or organization, and identify acceptable sites for a garden project.
Planning phase
In the planning phase, we start by soliciting input from multiple stakeholders. Conceptual designs are refined through an iterative review process, until a detailed design proposal is established, including a budget for contractors and volunteer hours for various phases of the project or program implementation.
INSTALLATION, PROGRAMMING, AND MAINTENANCE
Our installation team will complete the installation independently or in coordination with contractors. After completion of construction and planting, Backyard Eats is on-hand for any services related to the success of the garden and the garden program.