Community Garden Initiative
Social Project Community
Organized and managed a local community garden project to promote sustainable living and provide fresh produce. Less about code, more about people — coordinating volunteers and managing resources.
Origins
The vacant lot on 5th and Maple had been empty for three years. The city owned it, nobody maintained it, and it had become an eyesore. I grew up watching my grandmother turn a small balcony into a productive garden. The idea was simple: turn empty space into food and community.
The Setup
- Plot size: 4,800 sq ft, divided into 24 raised beds
- Membership: 18 families in year one, growing to 31 by year three
- Crops: Seasonal vegetables, herbs, and a small berry patch
- Irrigation: Rainwater collection system with drip irrigation
What I Learned About People
Managing a community garden is 10% horticulture and 90% people management. The key insights:
- Ownership breeds care. People who tend their own plots take the work seriously. Shared plots? Not so much.
- Communication is the infrastructure. A simple WhatsApp group prevented 90% of scheduling conflicts.
- Sustainability requires redundancy. When your irrigation pump breaks, you need a backup plan before the plants wilt.
The Tech Angle
While the garden itself is analog, I built a simple scheduling tool that handled:
- Volunteer shift management
- Harvest tracking (what was grown, how much, when)
- Seasonal planning reminders
It runs on a spreadsheet with some Google Apps Script. Not everything needs to be a microservice.