Garden sharing

Garden sharing is a local food and urban farming arrangement where a landowner allows a gardener access to land, typically a front or back yard, in order to grow food.

This may be an informal, one-to-one relationship, but numerous Web-based projects exist to facilitate matchmaking. In some cases, garden sharing projects are launched as a way to shorten community garden waiting lists that are common in many cities.

Organisation
Garden sharing arrangements take two main forms. The simplest is an agreement between two parties: one supplies the land, the other supplies the labour, and the proceeds are shared. In larger collaborations, groups, often neighbours, share garden spaces, labour and the harvest.

The specifics addressed by a garden sharing agreement are potentially numerous, and the contract itself may be simple or exhaustive. Issues to be considered include terms of access, acceptable behavior, and who supplies what as far as gardening equipment and supplies. At one end of the scale, a verbal arrangement may be all that is expected. However, garden sharing organisations often suggest a written agreement and supply sample contracts. Organisers may also interview participants before suggesting a match.

Garden sharing projects
The Web is frequently used as a platform for initiating garden sharing arrangements. Web sites connecting landowners and growers are generally free and non-commercial. Web sites are instituted by a variety of parties, including private individuals, government agencies, and non-profit groups.

North America
Numerous local, regional and national programs exist across the U.S. and Canada. Examples include:


 * Growfriend.org, matching garden owners with gardeners in Los Angeles County, California, is run by the L.A. Community Garden Council, overseer of community gardens in Los Angeles.
 * Yardsharing.org of Portland, Oregon, is a free online service devoted to connecting renters with landowners, with the goal of creating food for all. The website, created in 2007 by Joshua Patterson, resulted from a local media campaign to find relief for the Portland Community Gardens Program.
 * Hyperlocavore.com is a free, U.S.-based international service that matches garden owners with gardeners, and facilitates the set-up of neighbourhood produce exchanges and other sharing projects.
 * SharingBackyards.com, run by a sustainability NPO in Victoria, British Columbia, was launched in 2006 by a volunteer at a community garden—the free programme is now in over 20 cities across North America.
 * UrbanGardenShare.org, matching garden owners with gardeners in the Seattle, Washington (U.S. state) region, is the result of a collaboration between an individual and a local sustainability group.

Europe
Landshare is a high-profile national garden sharing project in England, spearheaded by celebrity chef and TV personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, in conjunction with public-service broadcaster Channel 4. Growers, landowners and volunteers can, at no charge, register their interest in participating in a share in their area. There are over 40,000 members.

yours2share enables people to find like-minded partners to share gardens, allotments and land. Garden sharers use the service free of charge. yours2share has over 6,000 members.

In France a similar project, name "prêter son jardin" (share your garden) was developed in 2010 by a journalist.

Worldwide
Garden sharing projects are also incorporated into larger sustainability schemes. Transition Town Totnes (Totnes, England)  and Transition Timaru (Timaru, NZ) have instituted garden sharing projects as part of their Transition Towns efforts to prepare communities on a local level for the effects of climate change and peak oil.