Several months ago I was contacted by the local Habitat for Humanity coordinator to see if I would be interested in working with their local organization. They build 5-6 homes a year so this seemed like it would be a pretty simple thing to do. After meeting with them last week we came up with a game plan on how to do this and what we could do for them. I made a nice letterhead with icons showing both the SFGF and Habitat symbols. We then discussed the easy plan to install a free SFG on every Habitat home built this summer. They do all the gathering of items needed which included asking the home contractor to save any 2X6″ pieces of wood that are 4 feet long, along with deck screws. They will also gather several 5 gallon buckets that are always on construction sites that end up in the trash bin. These will be used for water. They will certainly need to be given a good scrubbing, but they suit the bill perfectly for our needs. Habitat will be responsible for getting wood lath for the grid, all of the Mels mix(donated by local nurseries), and a singel t-post for vertical gardening. The tomatoe towers are a little pricey for them, but if they want to get one of those, that’s what we will install instead of the t-post. I will then put the box and grid together. The recipients of the SFG will help me mix the soil. When thats done, they will then receive a complimentary All New Square Foot Garden book and a short DVD on the basics. I will spend about 45 minutes with them to give a crash-course in square foot gardening. It should be enough to get them going on all the basics. Habitat plans on sending out letters to various women’s groups and other organizations asking for plant “starts” or seeds. At some point, Habitat has asked me to do a workshop to teach all of their homeowners that have a square foot garden. I think the end game is for these folks to have a community garden they tend themselves, and also to save some money on home-grown veggies and produce. It will be the responsibility of each homeowner to decide how big they want to make their square foot gardens after I leave. They will get the basic 4X4′ box from us. This should be enough to get them started as many of them are brand new couples. If they want to have a bigger SFG, they will then be able to do that on their own based on the teaching they have recieved…(give a man a fish and you feed him for a day-show him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime). It should be a fun project and one I am looking forward to. I will be offering each family I teach a chance to join us at our SFG workshops which are about 3 hours long. These workshops are hands-on. When they walk away from these they will know pretty much everything about the SFG system along with the advanced type of things. They do all of the work as I sit back and watch to make sure they are understaning what we do and why we do things the way we do. Our first garden has not been put in yet, but we will have a date on that within the next 3 or 4 weeks….yet another way for us to share with those just starting their young lives together…..can you imagine the look of those other homes as they see folks going out to their gardens, pulling a few carrots, a few radishes, a head of cabbage, a couple of cherry tomatoes and some lettuce? How fun is that?……
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