Introducing: The Open Source Community Garden

What: Open Source Community Garden Workday

Where: 5708 Arroyo Seco Austin, Tx 78756 (Around the corner from the Food is Free vortex)

When: Saturday, June 30, 2012 – 9am to Noon

We are starting an open source community garden around the corner from the Food is Free vortex. We are very excited about this new kind of community space. A place where neighbors can cross paths, relax, soak in the wonder of fresh local food and community, or even just pick a homegrown tomato as they’re walking by to bask in the magic!

There is a community garden near my home called, Sunshine Community Garden, and before I had fallen for gardening, I would walk past their plots, but I was under the impression that to enter the fenced-off area you had to be a member or gardener there. It wasn’t until I went to a seedling sale there that I found out that it is open to the public. I started to wonder how many other folks may have similar experience and how we can create communal spaces with no metaphorical or physical fences.

After realizing that many of the community gardens in town have a year-long waitlist, I was blown away. Why not just start more community gardens if we have a whole army that’s ready and waiting to make it happen? Hence, the community garden model of Food is Free. We will be documenting from start to finish how to transform a space into an open-source community garden. One where dreams become the seedlings of realities, and all kinds of wonder grows.



This is a community garden without rules. You don’t have to be a member, but we do ask that you pass on the joy and experience that you receive from the garden. The idea of a community garden being fenced in has always seemed a bit odd to us, so it’s time for that to change.

We’ll be installing the first phase of wicking bed gardens, welcoming the new chickens, and setting up the greenhouse that was just donated to Food is Free. We’ll follow the day with some refreshments and snacks, so feel free to bring anything you’d like to share.

Bring a friend and learn how to build a drought tolerant wicking bed garden together, then go home inspired to start transforming your block!

Here’s the event on meetup: http://www.meetup.com/FoodisFree/events/71164592/

Growing together,

John