What do you do if you have an urge to plant your own vegetables but lack an essential ingredient: land? Web sites are cropping up—so to speak—to unite land-challenged gardeners with open spaces where they can plant, hoe, weed, and reap. They include GrowFriend, Hyperlocavore, Shared Earth, and Yardsharing, and all encourage similar arrangements between landowners and would-be gardeners.
Much of the land made available through these web sites consists of small, unused urban plots; people can often find a patch land to tend within walking distance of their own house or apartment. Other plots are rural, such as portions of farms that are uncultivated for the season. The plots range from tiny vacant lots to several-acre spreads.
Once more common in Europe than in the US, these landsharing arrangements are steadily catching on here. The details vary depending on the parties involved, but the one doing the gardening generally gives the landowner some portion of the food produced. Details to be negotiated include whether the land will be kept planted year-round, who besides the gardener can have access to the site, who provides soil amendments if they’re needed, and whether and what kind of pesticides and fertilizers will be used.
Is this sort of landsharing a viable temporary use for the many construction sites now sitting dormant—some cleared, some with utilities but little else in place, some with a few houses constructed? Could allowing local weekend gardeners to plant on such sites actually help with erosion control efforts, or do you think it would cause more problems and questions of liability than it’s worth?