Yard Sharing in Portland—Creating Community with a Tasty Twist

In the spirit of Earth Day, many Portland neighbors are heeding the call to dig up their front yards, parking strips and unimproved alleyways to prepare the soil and make way for vegetable gardens. This spring, you're sure to see plenty of delawning activity in green spaces across town. Some neighbors will do it themselves and others will get by with a little help from their friends. Yard sharing groups have sprung up all over Portland. These groups are committed not only to helping neighbors remove their lawns, but grow food, share space and create alternatives to the already popular CSA (community supported agriculture) model.

Yard sharing is trending right now in the world of urban agriculture, and our strong local movement is growing like, well, weeds. Local groups are eager to borrow a piece of your yard to grow food for you and your neighbors. But, reader beware: this is more than merely salad—yard sharing is all about creating community with a food production and distribution twist.

Why Share Your Yard?

Yard sharing is not people tromping through your property at 7 a.m. on a Saturday to whack weeds. Far from it. While yard sharing models vary in the gritty details, the common denominator is the commitment to share space suitable for food production with an emphasis on community building and healthy living practices. Some groups swap space and fresh produce for labor and supplies. Others create gardens on donated land and engage volunteers to help prepare, maintain and cultivate vegetables, grains, herbs and fruit in exchange for a portion of the season’s bounty and the opportunity to learn new skills. Some groups provide fresh veggies to neighbors and restaurants, while others communally grow food to share amongst themselves.

An unused space at SE 24th and Ankeny was put in the capable hands of Southeast Portland's Food Not Lawns. Photo: Food Not Lawns

No matter what the model, if you’ve got usable but unused garden space you might consider sharing it with others who will help you grow food, teach you something new about gardening or share in the overall labor. When you share your yard with others, you not only add to the food supply of your community and beautify your surroundings, but you can make new connections, lower your grocery and yard maintenance costs each month, help reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a hands-on model that teaches sustainability and independence. And, you’ll get some fresh, organic veggies for your table, too.

The transformed lot at SE 24th and Ankeny. Photo: Food Not Lawns

Make Friends with Salad!

Southeast Portland’s Food Not Lawns hosts work parties every Sunday at Southeast 35th and Hawthorne. The group has a Secret Garden space (accessed with this work group) that needs major preparation (right now!) to get ready for the growing season. The group is committed to creating community around “permaculture, kinship gardening, ecological design and biodynamics.” Group members are also interested in “sustainable community food cycles” and engaging people in permaculture practices to teach those from traditionally underserved populations (low-income urban communities, in particular) about organics, regional biodiversity and sustainability.

Portland Yardsharing.org's map matches gardeners with available lots.

Joshua Patterson started Portland’s Yardsharing.org, because he was inspired by the notion that people could use their lawn space to grow food—enough for not only their own families, but for their neighbors, too. Many people live in situations where they want to but cannot grow their own produce for various reasons. Some of Portland’s community garden projects (many run by Portland Parks & Rec) have wait lists multiple years and hundreds of eager users long. Some people don’t have time to create gardens (or the gumption to grow and tend veggies and herbs) while others have the time and know-how, but no space. Patterson believes that perfect unions are possible and so Portland Yardsharing.org links yards with users, and fosters the exchange of resources to build community. On the site’s home page you’ll see a map showing both those offering space and those looking for space; the idea is that by using the map, neighbors can connect and share. Anyone can join and the range of locations and willing participants is swiftly growing this season.

Become Part of the Food Production Machine

The smart and sassy Sellwood Garden Club has created a sweet model that relies on the barter system. Members offer their yard space for growing (nearly 200 crops available during the 2010 growing season!) in exchange for “rent”–a basket of produce delivered weekly. Twenty-plus small farms—primarily front and side yards in Southeast Portland—grow organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, grains and other goodies that are traded and also sold to partnering restaurants. Not a plum is picked from the tree nor a tomato plucked from the vine until a restaurant—currently 20 regular customers—places a specific order. The goal of this group is to grow the most delectable organic produce possible by taking over “useless lawns throughout Southeast Portland” and transforming them "into individual farm fields that collectively nourish hundreds of people.” Sellwood Garden Club is what food democracy looks like.

Farmer K from Sunroot Gardens transplants some starts.

Or, Beat the Traditional Food Production Machine at Its Own Game

Sunroot Gardens is what revolutionary urban farming looks like. This rad group offers a way for people to participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting and distributing food—with survival and sustainability at its core. Freshly grown food is traded for labor, land and farming items the group needs (there’s a specific wish list on the site). Sunroot’s focus is not only on growing produce, however—the underlying assumption is that we all need to learn how to fend for ourselves, so why not learn how to grow your own food for your family and your neighbors? The group is also big on seed saving, propagating heirloom varieties and teaching others smart agricultural practices.

Sunroot Gardens "fire pit" garden in Southeast Portland's Richmond neighborhood.

Go On. Get Radical.

So, why not go beyond the plant-a-tree-ride-a-bike mentality (please, adopt these habits, too) and join the urban agriculture movement by offering up that sunny side yard, attending a work party to learn some new soil replenishing tricks or choosing to engage your street in a block-long farm project? With so many local groups busy as bees this spring, you could easily be inspired by the commitment to growing and sharing your own.

In addition to vegetables, Sunroot Gardens grows grains which are ground in to flour.
Photo: Farmer K