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DOWLING COMMUNITY GARDEN RULES

Dowling Community Garden is operated and collectively by its gardeners on land leased from the Minneapolis School District. Our continued use of this land depends on maintaining good relationships with the Dowling School community, the surrounding neighborhood, and the school district. We must all respect the interests of our fellow gardeners and the community that we share our gardening space with. To promote this and to ensure that the needs of the Garden and the requirements of our lease, our insurance policy, and the relevant Minneapolis city ordinances are met, the Dowling Garden Committee requires all gardeners to agree to and abide by these rules.

1. Agreement and fee. Submit your completed, signed Agreement and all required fees by March 1, 2008. If these are not postmarked by March 15, 2008, your plot will be reassigned.
2. Use of chemicals. You agree never to use pesticides or herbicides in the garden. Use is grounds for immediate forfeiture of privileges and your plot, no refund. Pesticide Information is available from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning.
3. Service commitment. Perform 4 hours minimum in service to the garden.
• Complete tasks as assigned by your service coordinator and report your service within 2 weeks of it's performance. Your service coordinator will specify how you report your service time.
• Coordinators make initial contact and outline tasks. You are responsible for ensuring that your minimum service hours are completed by November 2 and reported by November 16, 2008.
• Only reported, verified hours will be credited. Failure to perform the minimum service during a year is a violation and results in consequences outlined under "Consequences of Rule Violations".
• Note: lack of assignment does not excuse failure to meet the requirement. Contact your coordinator or call 651-255-6607 if you need alternative assignments. Be sure to make this contact a least a month before the season ends.
4. Contact information. Make sure the Garden Committee always has your current address, phone number, and (if possible) e-mail address. (Use the Web site e-mail link or call 651-255-6607 to provide updates.) Optional: provide contact information for a substitute to manage issues regarding your plot if you are unavailable.
5. Transferability. You may not transfer or sublet your plot unless your written request for a single-year transfer has been approved by the Dowling Garden Committee. Permission will not be granted more than once
6. Planting/cleanup deadlines. Clean up and plant your plot by the June 1 planting deadline. Any plot not prepared and at least half planted by that date is considered abandoned and will be reassigned immediately, with no refund provided. Remove dead plants and temporary structures by the November 2 fall cleanup deadline.
7. Expected conduct. To retain your gardening privileges and plot, you agree to:

1. Act in a manner considerate of the rights, needs, and safety of other gardeners and the community at large and with courtesy toward others.
2. Tend your plot regularly to control weeds and provide an attractive, cared-for-appearance, keeping all plantings within your plot boundaries. In-plot compost bins or piles must be neat and properly made to prevent odors. No plot may be consistently or excessively weedy, untended, or filled with debris nor contain weeds taller than 8". Any plot with numerous weeds 2' or taller or that shows no obvious maintenance for 3 weeks will be presumed abandoned and is subject to immediate forfeiture without refund. Minnesota Prohibited Noxious Weeds
3. Maintain your half of the path around your plot regularly. Paths must be kept free of rocks, weeds, and all obstacles, including encroaching or overhanging plants (e.g., raspberries). Approved methods of maintaining public paths are (1) regular mowing and (2) mulching with wood chips over landscape fabric. Carpeting, roofing materials, plastic, and other inorganic materials are prohibited.
4. Keep your plot free of trees. If an adjacent plot's gardener complains of excessive shading by anything on your plot, you must come to an agreement or remove it.
5. Pick and remove your ripe produce promptly to avoid encouraging theft.
6. If your plot borders the school's chain link fence around the garden, maintain a 1 foot plant-free buffer next to the fence.
7. Respect school property. Keep rocks inside your plot's border or remove them from the grounds. Put compostable materials only in the school compost area east of the orchard. Never dump debris or garden materials anywhere else on school property. Do not use motorized vehicles in the garden area.
8. Respect the Garden's property and assets. Use equipment and tools owned in common responsibly and treat them with care. Return them to the shed promptly and store them neatly and securely for the safety and convenience of fellow gardeners.
9. Do not enter others' plots except with permission or on garden business nor allow pets or unsupervised children to do so.
10. Keep dogs leashed and under your control at all times, and always clean up after them.

Consequences of Rule Violations

The cooperation of all gardeners is needed to ensure that Dowling Community Garden runs smoothly and that we can maintain our obligations to our leaseholder and neighbors. If a gardener violates the agreed-upon rules, the Commitee will address the vilation as follows.

Immediate Plot Forfeiture

You will be notified that you have forfeited your plot if you:

• Fail to comply with Rule 1 or Rule 2
• Abandon your plot (Rule 7b or Rule 6, planting deadline)
• Transfer it without permission (Rule 5)
• Fail to remedy any violation by the deadline in a second notice
• Exhibit a pattern of behavior that shows disregard for the Garden's rules, such as chronic or repeated rule violations (e.g., 3 violations in 2 years), even if remedied

Rule 7, conduct violation procedures:

1. If a violation is noted, the Committee sends the primary plot holder a first notice by mail, indicating the problem and the deadline for correction: 10 days from the letter's postmark date.
2. If the problem is not corrected by the first-notice deadline, the Committee issues a second and final notice by mail. It restates the problem and indicates both the deadline for correction (10 days from its postmark date) and the consequences of failing to correct the problem: immediate plot forfeiture.

Rule 3, service commitment procedures:

• After the November reporting deadline, the Committee will issue a violation notice to any gardener who has not fulfilled and reported in a timely fashion the minimum service hours.
• Any shortfall will be added to that gardener's service requirement for the following year. If the new requirement is not met in total that year, the Committee will notify the gardener that the plot has been forfeited, and the plot will be reassigned.