[Chocolaht]

Hi!
We are finally booked for a LSV end of Jan 2012. Just wondered if there are any groups that help (encourage) one another with veggie gardens. Saw a thread back in 2010 but nothing updated.
Happy Holidays and a great New Year to you'all!

[NotGolfer]

I believe there are 'community' gardens behind the wood-working shop off from Rolling Acres Rd.

[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by Chocolaht;***692

Hi!
We are finally booked for a LSV end of Jan 2012. Just wondered if there are any groups that help (encourage) one another with veggie gardens. Saw a thread back in 2010 but nothing updated.
Happy Holidays and a great New Year to you'all!

Chocolaht, I don't know if this is the type of community vegetable garden you are referring to or not, but there was an article published in the 12/1/2011 issue of the Daily Sun about the Shared Harvest Community Garden which many TV residents volunteer at. This garden provides produce for North Lake Presbyterian Operation Homebound, Lady Lake Christian Food Pantry and a food pantry in Fruitland Park, the Wildwood Soup Kitchen, 
St. Theresa’s food pantry and two food pantries in Ocklawaha.

If you google "community vegetable garden in The Villages, Florida" the article should show up. If you want to send me a PM with your e-mail address, I will e-mail the article to you. Enjoy your upcoming LSV and Happy New Year to you!

[CruiseZ]

Just joined, started looking at a possibility of buying in TV.
I need to go through all the information here, but was wondering if you are allowed to have your own personal vegetable garden? Is there somewhere on here that lists what all you can't do? A link?
Thanks!

[scrapple]

Originally Posted by CruiseZ

Just joined, started looking at a possibility of buying in TV.
I need to go through all the information here, but was wondering if you are allowed to have your own personal vegetable garden? Is there somewhere on here that lists what all you can't do? A link?
Thanks!

The personal vegetable garden is a topic that I was keenly interested in when I first moved here a year ago. Mostly I was told it can't be done. We live in a CYV, so behind our own private walls we can get away with some things. Our sales agent even told us that a real garden was prohibited. I have a few "earth boxes' that I constructed to grow a few things, and I planted some okra out of sight next to "legal" fruit trees.

I do have a neighbor who says he got permission to plow up the back yard of his CYV, and he is growing veggies. He is supposed to re-plant the lawn when his lease is up, so it may be that the permission was obtained thru the homeowner and not the Villages government.
I have other neighbors who have a vegetable plant here and there in their back yard. Again we're talking CYV; so nobody can see the renegade activity

[skip0358]

I have seen them around the villages. Don't know about being legal. I would suggest you contact deed compliance for permission this way you'll get the true answer and save yourself some heartache. You can send an email to them and then save your answer for future ref. Welcome aboard!!

[Ohiogirl]

In A CYV, I don't think vegetables are a "verboten" activity. You can do whatever you want behind your walls. I have some scattered about, depending on the season. Right now, I have 2 pepper plants (growth has really slowed but have about 8 peppers of about 3 inches each waiting to be picked), 1 Roma tomato plant (getting about 1 tomato a week right now), an herb garden, radishes, lettuce and spinach, and pineapples (planted about 9 mos ago, told I need to cover in frost this winter and that I should get crops eventually). Be neatest crop right now is sugar snap peas, climbing on a trellis.

In designers and cottages/ranches, I have seen many people interplant among landscape areas and also do pots/containers in birdcages.

Previous poster is correct - the Harvest Garden is a food pantry garden, worked by volunteers, not a typical community garden at all.

If gardening is your main interest, consider a corner CYV, some have lots of room.

[CruiseZ]

Thanks Everyone for the information!

[bkcunningham1]

Originally Posted by scrapple

The personal vegetable garden is a topic that I was keenly interested in when I first moved here a year ago. Mostly I was told it can't be done. We live in a CYV, so behind our own private walls we can get away with some things. Our sales agent even told us that a real garden was prohibited. I have a few "earth boxes' that I constructed to grow a few things, and I planted some okra out of sight next to "legal" fruit trees.

I do have a neighbor who says he got permission to plow up the back yard of his CYV, and he is growing veggies. He is supposed to re-plant the lawn when his lease is up, so it may be that the permission was obtained thru the homeowner and not the Villages government.
I have other neighbors who have a vegetable plant here and there in their back yard. Again we're talking CYV; so nobody can see the renegade activity

We own a home on the historic side of TV. I am in the process of landscaping so that any place where there isn't "grass" is river rock. I have all of my plants in various size pots. I have tomatoes and chili peppers; in addition to my various flowering plants, and plan on growing many more veggies in pots when the time is right. (My problem is I've been too busy to research when the time is right. lol)

Why plow your yard, which is sand, when you can put plants in containers?

[rubicon]

I know how to grow weeds

[graciegirl]

JoJo's mother, the lovely Bernice, brought a Rosemary plant in a pot as a housewarming gift to us. We celebrated Christmas the day before yesterday when our family arrived. Our traditional Christmas dinner is a leg of lamb with many garlic cloves inserted and sprinkled with Rosemary. This year we had FRESH Rosemary and it was the yummiest lamb we have ever had!!

I plan to have several decorative planters under the eaves with herbs and vegetables. I am thinking about a lemon tree. Very pretty.....

[mulligan]

and the lemon flower is sweet

[Happinow]

We were wondering the same thing about vegetable gardens too. Here in the North our growing season is mighty short but we do grow the best sweet corn you've ever had! Probably not allowed to plant a row of corn in TV. Will have to have some shipped to us when we move. Lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans and pumpkins....we have all of that fresh in the summer. I would certainly be interested in a community garden. There's nothing like fresh produce!

[springfield]

There is a new club called the villages garden club, wonderful people, very helpful info. At one of the meetings, they had the people from Architectural Review talk to us about what needs approval, etc. They also said we can have vegetable gardens but they can not be fenced, so you would have to share your produce with the critters. This is contrary to what we were told when we bought. A FL Master Gardener told me that the FL legislature said you can't prevent people from gardening. You can also have rain barrels. That being said, gardening in FL is a different game than up north. My tomatoes don't do well in July because it is too hot which is when mine were going gang busters in IL. Good luck with gardening in TV. There are many of us that still like to get our hands dirty.