We have put together a list of commonly asked questions about our Front Lawn Food program.
If you are unable to find an answer from the list below, contact our Farm Manager (at maeve@greenagers.org) for more information.
- What is the Front Lawn Food program?
The Front Lawn Food program provides local households and organizations with raised garden beds in order to grow seasonal vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Greenagers youth crews construct the garden beds on site, fill with soil, and plant out seedlings.
- What are the different ways to get a garden bed?
Garden beds can be purchased directly through our website. The purchased bed price includes the donation cost of a garden bed to an income-eligible household.
Individuals may donate the funds required to supply an income-eligible household with their own garden bed.
Local non-profit organizations can purchase garden beds at a subsidized rate.
Income-eligible households can reserve their garden bed through our website.
- Who is considered income-eligible?
Households who receive any form of government assistance including fuel assistance, SNAP, and/or WIC benefits are eligible for our donated garden beds.
Also, households with older adults and/or youth individuals are prioritized for a donated garden bed.
- When will my garden bed be installed?
A Greenagers youth crew will install the garden bed at your property in April.
Our crews will return to plant out seedlings when the weather is warm enough in May.
All garden bed installations and planting dates are subject to weather conditions and crew capacity. These dates may change as needed.
- What will my garden bed have in it?
The Front Lawn Food program offers two different types of garden beds: vegetables or pollinators.
The seasonal vegetable garden is a mix of mainstay summer vegetables and herbs that you can tend to and harvest throughout the season.
The pollinator garden consists of mostly flowers that promote pollinator presence, as well as a few herbs that the pollinators enjoy.
- How can I best maintain my garden bed?
The most important thing to remember when maintaining a raised bed is to water it. Water drains out of the soil of a raised bed more quickly than it does out of the ground. So give your garden bed more water than you think it needs! Weeding is also a good way to maintain the health of the plants and garden bed as a whole. We will add compost to your bed during our planting days, and in the future compost is a great soil amendment.
- Can I choose what is planted in my garden bed?
We are unable to cater the plants to each household’s preferences. All of our seedlings are started in our greenhouse and we base our choices on what we think does best in the space/season we are planting. However, we strongly encourage people to plant what they want in their garden beds. Make it your own! You are not required to use the seedlings we provide.
- I received a garden bed in a previous year, will I receive new seedlings this year?
At this time we are not able to provide new seedlings for FLF beds that have been installed in previous years. We hope that in the future this will be a possibility, however we do not have the greenhouse space or the crew capacity at this time to provide this continued support.
- About the wood, soil, and seedlings that make up our Front Lawn Food garden beds.
All of our garden beds are built from locally harvested Hemlock that our crews mill at April Hill. We fill the garden beds with a mix of organic garden soil/compost and the seedlings we provide are primarily organic, and open-pollinated varieties.