City of Suwanee , Georgia
One of America ’ s 10 Best Towns for Families — Family Circle , 2013 # 3 City in the U . S . to Raise Your Kids — Kiplinger , 2012 One of America ’ s Best Places to Live — Money Magazine , 2013 , 2009 , 2007
www . suwane . com
“ Harvest Farm opened in 2010 . The construction of our garden was funded by the City of Suwanee and we are located in the City ' s White Street Park . We had a group of about a dozen community volunteers who assisted us with the design of the master plan ( attached ) for both the garden and the surrounding park . This group assisted us with constructing the plots and then getting a Managing Board up and running .
We are the largest organic community gardens in Georgia , with 76 plots . We are going on our fifth season and have been 100 % full with a small waiting list for each year .
The first is our garden ’ s values statement which gives you a good idea of who we are as a group and garden . This was develop by our volunteer run Managing Board .
The second is our two-year Work Program . The Board develops and adopts this annually . We adapted this document from the City of Suwanee , whose Council adopts a 5-year Short Term Work Program each year . This document really helps us focus our resources ( both time and money ), which is critical for a volunteer-run , non-profit organization . When the garden first opened , Suwannee ’ s City Manager told the group it would be natural to want to “ chase shiny objects ” since the excitement level is always high with something new like this . This focuses us and helps us to analyze and make good decisions .
We do an annual Scarecrow contest , which encourages communitywide participation in the garden . We receive Scarecrow entries from gardeners and community members . We ’ re currently working to expand this as a Fundraiser for the garden by receiving donated Scarecrows from businesses that we can auction off .
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