Technology for Community Garden Operations

Like all organizations, community gardens use technology for communications, planning, management, and storing and sharing knowledge. Here, we refer to community gardens that perform a wide range of functions (compared to those that just manage individual raised beds), such as

serving as a public space for rest, relaxation, and play serving as a community center whereplay, neighborhood organizations can meet serving as an event venue whereorganization, local musicians,arts artists,& culture exhibits and theatreperformances, groups can perform serving as a place for education, whether througheducational workshops, classes, lectures, or as a site for independent research and observation serving as a communally stewarded garden including non-food-production plants intended for ecological function (wildlife food & habitat, shade, soil management, stormwater mitigation) as well as beauty volunteering.

These community gardens are organizations rooted in locality, and are composed of many different kinds of members varying in age, background, and technical ability. The choice of technology used should match the unique needs and principles of community gardens:

Easy to use. Community gardens Paper and analog technology. Not just digital. Redundancy at multiple layers Easy to manage Cheap Less change is better Security not paramount for most operations Avoid big tech if possible Ownership over data and resources

Mailing list Google workspace for nonprofits Google calendar for scheduling olpen hours Google groups Google drive Everything on docs Editable by anyone who has link as much as possible External contact@ and events@ lists (+ spam ) Google photos shared Squarespace/pikapage + password protected Printing out calendar Offering option for paper signups Event requests system Venmo/Paypal/Donation bucket

Instagram/Facebook External communications - newsletter + syndication Garden guestbook Posters and local print shops