How to Start, Join, or Expand a Garden or Orchard

Do you already have an established garden or orchard and are interested in joining the Seed St. Louis network? Please follow the instructions for becoming a new garden above, this includes completing the New Project Interest form and attending a New Project Orientation.

A Seed St. Louis Network Project (community garden, school garden, orchard, or urban farm) is a project that has completed our development process. Seed St. Louis’ development process is a four phase planning process staff has developed for groups who want to create a garden or orchard. Seed St. Louis gardens and orchards run autonomously, they create their own rules, member lists, and maintenance schedules. This step by step process helps groups plan how they will run their garden or orchard project. Seed St. Louis will support gardens and orchards by providing the infrastructure, tools, discounted seedlings, expertise, and education needed for long-term success. Seed St. Louis does not charge a fee to be a part of the network.

Seed St. Louis has found the steps groups go through to finish the development process are very beneficial to the sustainability of a community project. Network projects are eligible for many services that non-network projects are not eligible for including yearly garden and orchard expansions, vegetable seedlings, the ability to receive volunteer groups through Seed St. Louis, reduced rates for educator-led classes, and an assigned staff liaison to help with questions. Orchards are also eligible to receive the recommended spray ingredients, limb spreaders, and regular pest and disease alerts and reminders.

Seed St. Louis’s development process is simply a planning process we have developed for groups who want to create a community garden and/or orchard. This is a step by step process to help groups to plan how they will run their garden and/or orchard project. The steps in our process have been assembled based on our experience working with successful gardens and seeing what they have done as well as talking to our sister organizations in other major cities around the country.

Read more about the process: New Project Info Sheet

Firstly Seed St. Louis has found the steps groups go through to finish the development process are very beneficial to the sustainability of a community project. Secondly, network projects are eligible for many services that non-network projects are not eligible for including garden and orchard expansions, vegetable seedlings, tool loans, the ability to receive volunteer groups through Seed St. Louis, reduced rates for educator led classes, and an assigned staff liaison to help with questions. Orchards are also eligible to receive the recommended spray ingredients, limb spreaders, and regular pest and disease alerts and reminders.

No. Here at Seed St. Louis we believe strongly that the community projects we work with should be free to manage themselves. We do not manage any of the projects in our network and we charge no membership fees of any kind. All that is needed to join our network is to complete our development process with us.

Each of Seed St. Louis’s community and youth gardens are independently managed according to their own organizational principles, so some may allow individuals or families to adopt particular beds while others may require all beds be used communally. Typically, the majority of the food grown in community and youth gardens is used directly by the growers, although most gardens also informally donate surplus produce to neighbors or nearby soup kitchens. A few community gardens are run exclusively as pantry gardens and donate 100% of their harvest, however such food distribution decisions are left up to each community garden’s discretion.