Frequently Asked Questions

We hope to grow the garden on a strip of city-owned property on Goodwin Avenue. The area we are hoping to use for the garden is the sunny area closest to 20 Goodwin Avenue. The shaded areas aren't as suitable for planting, and in some cases, are very close to homes where it wouldn't make as much sense to have garden activity.

Ashley Kolodziej has volunteered to be garden coordinator. She lives next to the proposed garden area and is able to keep an eye on simple day to day needs. We also have a growing number of volunteers who have shown interest specifically in maintaining and planting the garden on an ongoing basis.

Great gardens take a village, so if you would like to help maintain the garden, we can use all the help we can get! Please sign up as a volunteer if you're interested in helping out.

Ari Taylor is helping us coordinate on behalf of the city, and confirmed that if the garden is not maintained, it will be cleaned up and reverted to its previous empty state.

One benefit of this project is that we now know to prioritize low maintenance plants in this area. Currently, the land is covered in grass that has to be mowed regularly to manage pests such as rats and snakes. However, there are lots of groundcover plants that don't require mowing at all, tolerate foot and pet traffic, and provide a beautiful look and feel without the need for ongoing maintenance. Some even occur naturally in that area, such as moss. We may establish such plants as part of the garden. By giving the garden a try, even if this worst case scenario happens and the garden has to be removed, the land will be equal or lower maintenance than it is now.

That said, with our growing number of volunteers, we think it's likely this will be a success! Join us as a volunteer if you're interested in helping out.

Grass lawns are one of the highest maintenance plants homeowners have to deal with, and require regular watering, mowing, weeding, fertilizing, and other special care that most typical perrenials and garden plants don't require. This is one reason why leaving the city-owned area as grass isn't a good idea as a long term solution. Other groundcover plants don't require watering or mowing and will not harbor pests if they cannot be tended to weekly or biweekly.

Please be kind and remember that an unmowed lawn, especially when it is generally unusual for the yard or persists for more than a week or two, may be a sign that a neighbor is experiencing physical or mental difficulty at that time and needs help. Additionally, professional lawn care may not be attainable financially for all neighbors. For those reasons, and to protect your neighbors' privacy, discuss any concerns you have with a neighbor's yard privately with them or use the See Click Fix app for Malden to report an ongoing issue.

The land is owned by the City of Malden. Currently, we are still in the stages of gathering community support and agreement, and have not agreed on a long term plan of care for the land that would share the burden of care between volunteers and the city. Once we know this, we can establish a system for reporting and delegating issues to garden volunteers.

In the meantime, you can report issues directly to the City of Malden using the See Click Fix app.

We're in the early stages of planning now, and focusing on gathering input and volunteers to make this a reality. You can help now by attending upcoming meetings or signing up to help with our leadership! Learn more about volunteering if you want to help now.

No - due to the small size of the space, we wouldn't be able to support more than 4 or so plots if we did an assigned plot garden model. Instead, we are using a shared garden model where we'll agree on plants and planning together, and then coordinate events and educational content to provide ongoing opportunities to care for the garden to anyone who wants to participate in gardening activities. This is both easier to manage for the amount of space, and gives everyone nearby an opportunity to participate without the full-season commitment of a garden plot.

If you're looking for a full-season plot opportunity, we reccommend looking at the Malden Community Garden, which offers a plot signup model.

No, we are not affiliated with the Malden Community Garden. As a neighborhood garden in a residential area, we have different needs and concerns, so our garden model and leadership works differently. That said, we love the work they do! Please volunteer with them if you are looking for a plot you can sign up for, or garden opportunities that are more focused on growing crops and edible food. Our focus as a residential garden is on beautification, education, and promoting healthy eating and cooking by growing fresh herbs.

Our goal is to build a garden that does not attract pests. We will incorporate this requirement into our plant selection and plans for building any garden beds. Some flowers, like lavender and daffodils, are even natural pest repellents, meaning that you may see a reduction in local pests if we plan this correctly.

No. As people who live in the neighborhood and have our own pets, we understand how important it is for our safety and our pets' safety to ensure we don't encourage additional coyote activity. By ensuring that we are integrating pest management planning and techniques into our build plan and plant choices, we will reduce pests such as rats and rabbits, which will reduce food sources for coyotes. The garden will also take a open, unattended area where a coyote could previously hang out and keep it more actively used and maintained. Our hope is that by maintaining the area, we can not only prevent an increase in coyotes as a result of the garden - perhaps we can even discourage them from congregating in our street in sheltered areas.

The garden will be funded primarily through outside grants. It will not use or affect the City of Malden budget. We plan to keep costs minimal while keeping the community involved by creating volunteer events where folks can help build garden boxes, plant seeds, and maintain the garden. We have lots of time to plan, so we expect that we can propagate or plant many of our plants from seed. We also plan to incorporate techniques that will reduce water usage and maintainance requirements, such as rain barrels and olla watering.

You can join our email list below for the most up to date information. We'll also publicize upcoming meetings on Facebook and Reddit.

We need people with all kinds of skills to help make this idea a reality! Check out our volunteer page to see all the opportunities and sign up.