• Health benefits from eating safe, wholesome foods free of toxins.
• More nutrients from the foods they eat
• The simple joy of spending time outdoors and connecting to the Earth through gardening

Gardening can be a pleasurable solo activity but it takes on a whole new dimension when approached as a community effort. A community garden brings together neighbors to help put together a garden, grow and tend to the vegetables and plants, and ultimately enjoy the (often literal) fruits of their labor together. It’s a fantastic way to bring a community together on a regular basis and share the workload to produce exceptional results. A community garden is also a great way to involve children in the neighborhood, who can often help with many gardening tasks and learn a lot in the process.

It’s a great way to pull everyone out of their homes, away from the television sets, the games of Pottermore and Call of Duty, and get them outside, breathing fresh air and soaking up some nature.

The single biggest requirement for a community garden is a shared space in which to plant. To be successful, it needs to be centrally located and suitable for cultivation. If the neighborhood does not have a convenient shared space, than one or more residents may be willing to utilize a portion of their own property for the effort. However, certain attention to legal and liability issues needs to be considered in this case.

Assuming you do have the space secured, then it’s time to get growing! Any community garden effort must start with some planning, which is best done early in the year before it’s time to start planting. Consider your budget and get early commitments from participants beforehand. With any gardening project, it’s best to start small in scope for the first year and then grow as interest in the project expands in the following years. And once everyone catches sight (and taste) of the amazing foods growing in your neighborhood garden, you can expect that interest to grow quickly.

When planning, try to get clear commitments from everyone involved. It helps to set up weekly shifts for families to take care of the basic tasks, such as fertilizing, weeding and pruning and to rotate those tasks accordingly. Bear in mind that scheduling can get tough during certain times of the growing season, such as school breaks and summer vacations.

You’ll also want to determine your budget. If the neighborhood association can cover costs, this can alleviate a lot of the issues. But even in these cases, it’s often a good idea to ask for small donations from each of the participants, even as low as $10 or $20 per family. These donations, while small, help lock in commitment for the entire season.

A great time to bring everyone together is at the harvest. Try to plan the planting of most of the items in your community garden so that they’re ready for harvest at the same time. This can lead to a major event where everyone comes together on a weekend or two to harvest all the fruits and vegetables from the garden and then prepare them together for a neighborhood feast. Together, everyone can enjoy the delicious results and celebrate a summer of working together on their organic garden.

So if you’ve been looking to unload a lot of stuff that’s collecting dust in your garage, such as that old bedroom set with the cheap mattress, or the kitchen furniture that has been needing a replacement for a while, get your neighbors together and think about putting on a garage sale to end all garage sales.

All it takes to put together a winning lemonade stand is a pitcher of lemonade, some cups, a table, a few chairs, and a nice big sign to advertise the goods. If your kids are going to be sitting directly out in the sun, it’s a good idea to include a patio or beach umbrella into the setup, or at least some hats and plenty of sunscreen.

What about the lemonade? If you’re making a stand for the neighborhood, our advice is to go as authentic as possible. Here’s a great formula for winning lemonade from Simply Recipes.

Perfect Lemonade

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Method

1. Make simple syrup by heating up the sugar and water in a saucepan. Let the sugar dissolve completely.
2. While it’s dissolving, extract lemon juice from lemons using a juicer. You’ll need about 4-6 lemons.
3. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Dilute with the cold water. Refrigerate for about a half hour.
4. Serve with ice and add lemon slices for garnish and additional flavor.

Now that you’ve got your lemonade, it’s time to pick a spot. It’s best to find a location that’s near a main street but set far enough back from traffic so that safety doesn’t need to be a major concern. Encourage the kids in your neighborhood to be part of the planning process. It’s a great opportunity to have them involved in establishing the price of the lemonade and of course creating the sign for the stand itself. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can work with them to prepare and sell extra goodies at the stand (a great chance to learn about impulse buys!) Chocolate chip cookies are a great choice, but there’s no end to the possibilities here.

Done right, a lemonade stand can be a great way to get the kids outside, meet the neighborhood, and learn something in the process.

Tips for Halloween

• Of course, trick or treating always works best when planned in advance. Organize your neighborhood a few weeks in advance and let homeowners know that there is a concerted effort.
• Publish planned trick or treating hours, ideally early enough for the very little ones, but running late enough for older kids to have a real Halloween night experience. In general, 5-8 pm works best.
• Encourage homeowners to follow a lights on/lights off policy. If they wish to have trick or treaters visit, they can leave the porch or exterior light on. If they’d prefer to not be disturbed, lights off.
• If you have the time and resources, consider creating a simple welcome sign to distribute. You can cut out orange jack-o-lanterns from construction paper and distribute to neighbors, encouraging to tape them to their door to welcome trick or treaters.
• Depending on how rowdy your neighborhood gets, you may want to ask for adults to volunteer to walk the streets in the later hours of night. This can help prevent the fun from getting out of hand.