Welcome to “Growing Together… A Neighborhood Garden”. 
This is an outreach ministry of the Keizer Church of Christ. As a church we want to know and be friends with our neighbors. So we are offering you, our neighbor, an opportunity to share what we have, garden boxes and lots of sunlight, in order to cultivate a friendship between us.
Won’t you come and grow with us?
Getting Started
Our garden has twenty boxes that are 4’ x 8’. In order to reserve a box, please fill out the application below and turn it into our church office. You will be contacted by our Garden Coordinator. Boxes are assigned as available, on a first come-first served basis.
If no boxes are available, you will be placed on our waiting list. When a box becomes available applicants will be contacted in the chronological order of the waiting list and will have one week to respond, before the next applicant is contacted.
There is a $25 annual fee to use a box which helps to defer the cost of maintenance, repairs, improvements and water. Make checks payable to Keizer Church of Christ.
Our garden agreements will be reviewed, and opened to renewal each year.
Our Garden Includes:
Water: We provide the water for your garden box. The wooden post on the eastern edge of the garden has a water hose. You may drag the hose to your box, or bring your own watering can. Please return the hose to it’s place when you are finished.
Hand tools: There is a bucket with several small hand tools on the garden post for your use. Some larger yard tools are hung on the back wall of the gray shed just to the east of the garden. Again, use what you like, and put it back where you found it.
Compost Pile: Toss your garden waste on the pile and we will turn it from time to time and over the winter.
Compost: Each spring a cubic yard of compost will be made available for all of our gardeners to amend their soil as they like.
Garbage Cans: A couple of full size garbage cans are available on the edge of the garden and by the brown shed. Please feel free to use them, they will be emptied as they fill up.
Parking: We have a small parking area, feel free to drive over. Please be conscientious about leaving space for others, especially our senior gardeners.
Bathrooms: We do not have an outdoor bathroom. If you are tending your box during regular “weekday hours” and need relief, feel free to knock on the back door of the gray house / office and we will let you in to use the restroom.
Signs and contact information: Each box will receive a sign with the name of the gardener fixed to it. Place the sign anywhere in your box, but please do keep it in your box all season. Phone numbers for your fellow gardeners can be attained from the office in order to facilitate helping one another.
Calendar
| Event | Date | Information |
| Official Opening Day | March 30, 2024 |
If you want to work your soil, plant seedlings or make other preparations before this date, you are welcome to give it a try, but April can bring some pretty wild swings in temperature and precipitation. Garden at your own risk. |
| The Big Fall Party! | Early Fall | Our congregation will host an annual Harvest Party. Our gardeners will be invited / encouraged to attend and give thanks for a bountiful gardening season. Details of date, time and program are TBA. |
| Official closing | Nov 30th, 2024 | At the close of the season your box must be cleaned up. Perennial plants may be left but your waste must be tossed on the compost pile and the box raked out and prepped for the winter. |
Gardening Guidelines
We anticipate having a wide variety of gardeners and encourage each person’s creativity and full investment in their box. But, the garden is a small space, so we have to have some ground rules to help avoid unnecessary conflicts, So…
- Use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides is permitted, but gardeners need to be very careful to treat only their own box and plants.
- Fully composted manures such as steer and chicken manure as well as fertilizers are permitted.
- No illegal or poisonous plants, including cannabis.
- Perennials or self-seeding plants are okay, but not shrubs or vines.
- Small trellises, tomato cages or other temporary support systems are fine, but no permanent structures are to be installed. And please keep your plants and / or structures from intruding into the walkways or other’s boxes.
- Please be aware of how your plant placement affects other gardeners. Place tallest plants in the center or southern edge of your box.
- Be a “weeder” and a “helper” We want the garden to look good and to foster good working relationships with others. So, please make a habit of weeding in / around the paths between boxes. Pick up sticks and other debris or trash that may show up. Volunteer to help your fellow gardeners with watering or other tasks.
Being Good Neighbors
We want our garden to be a place where friendships grow, as well as plants. We all have to work at this together. So,
- Speak kindly and encourage one another. Use your time in the garden to get to know others.
- Clean up after yourself.
- Do not take what is not yours. Harvest only what you have grown.
- Respect boundaries. Other gardeners boxes are their boxes, don’t “help” someone with out their permission.
- Take care of the property and tools.
- Drugs and alcohol are not allowed on the property
Gardeners and guests are expected to follow these guidelines. If you run into a problem, try to work it out with one another. However, if you have repeated conflicts with another person, please contact the office and we will pursue resolution.