Technology for Community Garden Operations

Community gardens use technology for communications, planning, management, and storing and sharing knowledge. Here, we refer to community gardens that serve as community centers: spaces for rest, relaxation, play, activism, local arts & culture, educational workshops, and 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 garden members are volunteers and come from a wide range of technical backgrounds. Emphasis should be on familiar, easy-to-use technology.
Analog redundancy. Paper is technology too. Where practical, resources and avenues of engagement should be made available outside of digital technology.
Redundancy at multiple layers.
Easy to manage
Cheap
Less change is better
Security not paramount for most operations, but signal could be effective
Avoid big tech and walled gardens if possible (Email>)
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