SANFORD COMMUNITY GARDEN,INC.
SANFORD, FLORIDA

Sanford Community Garden is where gardeners of all skills can come together and learn how to grow their own organics herbs and vegetables. Our membership includes use of the soil and tools in the shed for working their plots, as well as an invitation to our garden educational events, workshops, workdays, and social gatherings. We usually meet every second Saturday of the month, usually at 800 AM from October through June, and 700 AM from July through September, weather permitting. At these Second Saturday Workdays we work on projects, do a lot of perimeter weeding, enjoy a guest speaker or just the companionship of fellow gardeners. We have quarterly garden meetings as well, with date and times fluctuating. Gardeners must either live or work in Sanford, use organic methods only, keep their plot well maintained, and attend meetings and some of our Saturday workdays. Even though our garden is now freshly built with concrete block beds, a new fence and 2500 sq. feet of new weed barrier cloth, there is always something to be done. The rebuild of the garden was desperately needed due to the aging wood beds, the depleted soil, the warped fence that squirrels leaped through, and limited space. The city informed us a few years ago that they are intending for the garden to be under a lease agreement, which means that we would have room to grow but we would be responsible for our own insurance and water bills. So this expansion we did could potentially assist us in furthering our education goals, as well as provide space where we could do all sorts of creative garden worshops to help bring funds to the garden. The rebuild was a giant effort largely from Lowes of Sanford, who chose us as their Heroe’s Project for 2017 which, due to the hurricanes and months of debris storage in the park, was delayed many times, yet we persevered and completed the project in December 2017. We are very grateful to them as well as the Altamonte Springs Cub Scouts Troop 849 who used their fundraising, design planning and physical work to create all new irrigation that supplies all 48 of our beds. They are also working on creating a composting station for us. The Sanford Mayor’s Youth Council has reached out to us on a potential collaboration to grow food for those in need starting in February 2018. We are tentatively planning a garden re opening celebration the fist weekend of March, so keep your eye on this webpage, our Facebook page or just email us at Welcome to the home of the Sanford Community Garden! Thank you for your interest and we hope that you discover what you are seeking here with us. What does Sanford Community Garden mean to us? We are committed to our beautiful town and it’s diverse, talented, and welcoming residents. We love living here and want this garden to continue to be a thriving place that is still loved many years from now. We are committed to helping children of all ages fall in love with where their food comes from, and enjoy the independence that comes from knowing how to grow it themselves in a way that works with Mother Nature and not against her. Today, children spend only half as much time outdoors as their parents did. The garden is a magical place that can spark imagination and wonder about the natural world, instill compassion and reverence for the planet and all its critters in a way that nothing else can. We are so proud to provide the space to make that happen for children of all ages. Our Mission Statement The Sanford Community Garden is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which serves our community by providing an opportunity for Sanford residents of all ages and abilities to learn how to grow their own organic fruits and vegetables. The garden provides a place for residents to enjoy the benefits of communing with their neighbors in a fun, creative way and to learn from each other and our programs. The garden aims to cultivate a community of individuals committed to sustainable land use in an urban setting who also have fun while learning how to grow, eat and prepare delicious healthy food while making new friends. This is a community-led organization working in conjunction with the City of Sanford. Due to these challenges, we are committed to setting our gardeners up for success. In December 2017, the garden was completely re-built and expanded and created in a manner setting our gardeners up for success. We have 47 new beds which are twice the size as before and are made of concrete block instead of the wood, which brought us ants, rot and needed constant replacement. We have all new weed cloth between beds to keep weeds under control. Each bed is being filled with high quality organic soil, and a new fence and doors which will help keep critters from stealing our edibles. We also have joined forces with the local Extension Office and have created a coaching program, where each gardener will have a Master Gardener Coach to assist them. We also created a garden buddy system where each gardener will also have a group of fellow gardeners to hopefully share watering responsibilities on the occasion it is needed. The garden was rebuilt over a couple months and is finally set to re-open Feb 3 rd , 2018. The rebuild was necessary due to the fence and many of the beds all needing to be replaced, the soil was spent, and much of the weed cloth needed to be replaced. We also wanted to expand to create space for our educational events which are open to the public (see Events) and to just have a space for the gardeners to commune. We had one picnic table for 40 gardeners. So, Lowes offered to make us their Heroes’ Project for 2017 and donated a lot of critical materials for our re-build as well as one day of labor from their volunteers at their Sanford Store. This re-build could not have happened without them and we are forever grateful to them. The City Of Sanford also helped us in prepping the space and to Robert Beall (Parks and Grounds Operation Manager) for also volunteering for the day of the rebuild. We had over 1,500 blocks to place, all of the posts and fence to go up too. The Boy Scouts of Longwood 849, led by Adam Mahl provided all of the planning, labor, equipment and supplies for all of the new irrigation for the garden. Of course, there are many more to thank, and lots of volunteers helped from many different places including troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol. The rebuild allowed us to go from having 1792 square feet to 11550 square feet. Within the space we now have an area of 30×82 square feet dedicated specifically to education and “Grow for Good”. The Sanford Mayor’s Youth Council and the garden are discussing potential plans to grow in that area and donate it to local food banks. This will allow us to not only meet our goals in education but the needs of the community while potentially providing us with the support we need to sustain the garden in the future.