There is a good amount of planning that needs to go into creating a successful community garden. To help people and organizations build and maintain productive community gardens University of Illinois Extension created the Community Garden Webinar Series. This series takes users through a variety of modules discussing the different steps that can be taken to develop a successful community garden.

Community gardens are started for a variety of reasons and provide numerous benefits to a community. They provide food to locations suffering from food insecurity, allow citizens to grow their food, beautify an abandoned lot, and much more. Research has shown that people who participate in community gardens eat more fruits and vegetables.

The Community Garden webinar series is broken up into six modules.

• The first module goes through the steps needed to create a successful community garden.
• The second module discusses how you can go about planning your garden and different techniques that are used to plant gardens.
• The third module discusses different types of vegetables that are commonly grown in gardens and the basics on how to grow them.
• The fourth module discusses how to successfully start plants indoors from seeds for use later in the garden.
• The fifth module discusses basic community garden care, including watering, fertilizing, pest control considerations, and more.
• The sixth and final module discusses gardening safety and some of the considerations needed to make sure community gardens are safe and enjoyable for all.

The webinar series is available to be viewed online at go.illinois.edu/communitygarden.

Source: Ken Johnson, 217-243-7424, kjohnso@illinois.edu