how should my free garden grow?

August 19, 2021 10:51 AM

I have a little free garden in my front yard in which I grow some parsley, sage, rosemary and a burning desire to better help people engage with my free garden.

What sorts of things would draw you in and make you feel curious/excited about using a free garden? What can I do to make my garden easy for everyone to use? How can I encourage garden users with means to start their own free gardens? All ideas welcome. Some details below:

My garden already has the following: solar lights, a huge sign that says "FREE" and a few other basic signs, and a lot of herbs and veggies.

Things I am definitely adding:
A mailbox for ideas/suggestions from people who currently use the garden
Better plant tags with pictures of the veggie/herb
An arbor with grapevine and blackberry bushes
A weatherproof information board with a seed library and map of local community gardens

... I need more. Decor ideas please! If your idea seems quirky I bet I will love it so please help me make this awesome.

posted by RobinofFrocksley to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

It’s probably easiest to get engagement that doesn’t require stepping off the sidewalk onto private property.

Sensory plantings along the walk - fragrances and textures - with signs/labels encouraging people to ‘smell me’ and ‘touch me’ and ‘crinkle a leaf with your fingers and sniff’ might be more overt cues for passers by about specifically what to do/what is allowed-welcomed-encouraged.
posted by janell at 10:56 AM on August 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

-a bench to sit and enjoy the garden
--bonus if it's in a shady spot (under a tree/trellis/in the shade of the building)
-sign with 'help yourself' or 'take what you need' in addition to the free sign
-toad abode
--explanation of toad abodes
-butterfly puddle
--explanation of butterfly puddles
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:59 AM on August 19, 2021 [4 favorites]

I love this! Maybe give the garden a fun name and put a sign somewhere.
posted by Threeve at 11:03 AM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

What about simple instructions or illustrations teaching how to harvest from your garden? I'm thinking of how my parent taught me in our small vegetable and herb garden to thin crowded stems first, snip at certain places for different kinds of plants to encourage growth, snip pieces that have already gone to seed, and that kind of thing, including that you don't have to be careful with rosemary because it is so vigorous.

If you could add a little free library, that would probably draw people in who are already familiar with and interested in that concept. Maybe you put in a note encouraging people to add books that are about plants and food.

You could make up a unique hashtag for Instagram and put it on a sign, encouraging people to take and share photos and tag them.
posted by dreamyshade at 11:05 AM on August 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Some sort of fairy/gnome situation would probably really amuse small children and their parents. Those little fairy house things?
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:21 AM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

I love the sound of your garden!

I recently passed a garden like yours where the owners had left a small pair of scissors in the garden, with a sign explaining they were there for people to borrow to snip the herbs. The sign said something like please help yourself to the herbs but leave the scissors behind for other people to use.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:32 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]

I think providing people with suggestions about how to harvest things (and any necessary tools, if applicable) would 1) be useful and 2) show that you're serious about sharing. A lot depends, also, on what kind of traffic you get past your garden. Like, a casual passer-by is probably not going to take a bunch of parsley unless they happen to have a pair of scissors and a container on them (or you provide them), while people in your neighborhood who are familiar with the garden might bring their scissors and a produce bag and go to town.

If you have a community fridge in your area you could take produce from your garden to the community fridge and leave a card to encourage people to swing by and get their own.
posted by mskyle at 11:34 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Good point by mskyle about needing a container once they’ve snipped their herbs. In addition to the scissors, you could leave a stack of paper envelopes for people to use to take away their herbs.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:21 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is neat! I've never seen one of these, but have been part of some community fruit harvesting groups with similar goals. My naive sense is that it's so unusual, at least in the US, that you really have to make it absolutely clear that strangers are welcome. "Free" may not be enough encouraging signage to convince people to walk onto someone else's proporty. Something lie "please come pick these herbs" might make it more clear.

Advertising to local groups who are already likely to get it won't do much to change society, but it can't hurt. Are there local time-banking orgs / skillshare groups / community kitchens / hippy co-op markets where you could advertise?
posted by eotvos at 12:50 PM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

I would expand upon the "FREE" sign. If I saw that, I would still be wondering (like eotvos said above). So, if you don't already, I'd add another sign for folks who are curious: "I created this garden to be free for all. Please enjoy!" That'll help folks know you mean it.

You could also post on your neighborhood pages, whether that's through Facebook (neighborhood group, buy nothing, etc), NextDoor, etc.

I do think berries will get some attention too.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:53 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

A short list of things to make with the herbs and veggies. If you're in the U.S., your county extension service may offer print/downloadable information sheets on what you're growing. Maybe laminate these, and attach to a sign with a string? Parsley; sage; rosemary (.pdf).
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:45 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

For kids you could make a living fort something like this, on a small scale with whatever types of vines grow well in your area. If you can grow sweet potatoe vines you would have the added bonus of sweet potatoes to harvest in the fall. I think if you can get the kids to come into the garden the adults will follow. When I lived in Texas I had a huge lantana bush out by the road. The flowers were constant and attracted huge butterfly's and the butterfly's attracted all the neighborhood kids.So maybe a really big flowering plant of some kind by the entrance. I love the idea of your garden, it's wonderful! I hope that you are pesticide and hebacide free. If yes, you could add that fact to your signage. People love produce that's grown without synthetic chemicals.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:15 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Agree 100% to make it interesting for kids and have reassuring signs for parents, like “please pick me!” and then in smaller print “This is a little free garden, like a little free library. Please help yourself to the herbs and fruit here!” (Etc.)

For ways to get the kids interested - flowers they can pick, fairy gardens, interesting things hanging in the sun (sun catchers, etc.), wind chimes, and something like this bumblebee and ladybug tic tac toe.

What you’re doing is amazing and my kid and I would love it.
posted by bananacabana at 3:05 PM on August 19, 2021 [4 favorites]

Painted rocks?
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:34 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

adorable idea, wish you were my neighbor.

what about signs with a little info? like "PARSLEY: great in tabbouli and other salads", "SAGE: great with chicken or turkey" etc?
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:10 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like this idea and it makes me think I should put the spare pruners out front with a tag saying "please cut big woody stems off this rosemary I can't eat all the pruning it needs."

If you want people to come onto your yard, I think a fence or other "here's how far" boundary -- that they can see from the sidewalk -- would help say "yes, this is fine."
posted by away for regrooving at 9:44 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’d agree that, depending on what your other signs say, it maybe needs more explanation - might be a cultural thing (I’m in the UK) but I’ve never heard the phrase Free Garden before and wouldn’t know what it means. So expand your signage to spell out exactly what people are welcome to do - come in, sit down, enjoy passing time here, pick produce and take it away etc.
posted by penguin pie at 4:05 AM on August 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I knew you all would be great at this!

So many great answers addressed signage so: I do already have a sign that says "harvest herbs and veggies by hand". I am now going to replace that sign with a welcome station with scissors etc and much better wording describing how to use and enjoy the garden on the sign. I will also add more signs everywhere making things more clear/welcoming because the vibe I'm getting is one of ALL THE SIGNS.

Also you guys are so very smart and good at this that I spent part of my day today making a toad abode and installing it in the garden with appropriate signage. I now want to shapeshift into a toad and sit in it.

wish you were my neighbor.

You are all my neighbors in my mind and I am super thankful.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 1:46 PM on August 20, 2021 [10 favorites]

For people who don’t garden it might be helpful to add some recipe ideas. If you only buy basil in a plastic package then maybe it isn’t obvious on the plant. You could identify some herbs by what they are used for, like listing Italian dishes for oregano. Parsley and cilantro look very similar to non-gardeners. Going forward think about co-locating plants from similar cuisines or geographic regions, like an “Italian corner” and you could have fun with maps or country flags in your signage.
posted by Bunglegirl at 8:38 PM on August 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

This sounds so lovely! I would love to see more photos.
posted by exceptinsects at 2:32 PM on August 24, 2021