RSS

Management Plan template

March 8, 2011

Getting started, Plans of Management

Management Plan template

This Management Plan template is about the governance of your community garden…. it’s about social design rather than site design although it does cover management of the site in general.

The Plan was developed through participatory processes with the cooperation of teams setting up new community gardens. As a participatory design process developed over a number of years, approaches adopted in its development included World Cafe, the Workshop Method , structured conversation and strategic questioning.

The need for establishing governance processes for new community gardens has been evident for some time. It has become apparent over the years that the lack of clear means of dealing with conflict and with dominating personalities in community gardens can drive away gardeners and even lead to the abandonment of gardens. The need for establishing some kind of agreement among gardeners about conduct, decision making processes and resolving disagreement is a learning of community gardening.

Another reason for developing the Plan was that some local governments ask for a plan of management as part of their application for assistance in community gardening process.

The Plan will be reviewed from time to time and changes made. We welcome your feedback on using the plan so that timely changes can be made.

>>>> Download (word 176kB)

Topics in the plan:

1. Vision
1.1 Purpose of our community garden
1.2 Objectives of our community garden?
2. Management of site
2.1 Managing waste on site – organic and non-organic waste
2.2 Will our garden use organic gardening practices?
2.3 Outline our proposed organic gardening practices
2.4 Water management
2.5 Use of sustainable materials on site
2.6 Garden tools and storage
2.7 Site safety
2.8 Allocation of plots
2.9 Management of shared areas
2.10 Dealing with common objections to new community gardens
3. Management structure
3.1 Roles in the community garden
3.2 Code of conduct/gardeners agreement
3.3 Decision making process
3.4 Resolving disagreement
3.5 Communication
4. Policies
4.1 Access and acceptance
4.2 Alcohol, smoking and drugs on site
5. Funding
5.1 Membership fees
5.2 Applying for grants
5.3 Fundraising activities
5.4 Other
6. Training
6.1 Start-up phase – planning and construction
6.2 Recruiting and induction of new gardeners
6.3 Ongoing training workshops
7. Partnerships and community engagement
8. Contacts
9. Other information that might be applicable

3 Responses to “Management Plan template”

  1. Ian Says:
    November 29, 2011 at 8:38 am

    Thanks for this head start. We are a long running garden that pre-dates any requirement for a management plan. Recent changes (for the better!) mean we need to put a plan in place. I had no idea where to start. Thanks again.

  2. ciara Says:
    March 24, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    This is invaluable, and well-appreciated ~ I’m about to become involved in a local community garden (from scratch) so I appreciate this ‘leg-up’! Cheers

  3. Maree Says:
    May 7, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    Thanks, I have a vision of organic vegetables herbs fruit and flowers all growing in our little neck of the world. Having people come and help, enjoy digging eating talking and sharing, I was overwhelmed where do i start, so thanks i have a start when its up and running i will post photos
    I love the speech I have a dream. Butterfly’s and bees birds singing thanks you may make it a reality Maree

Leave a Reply

CAPTCHA Image
*