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,. .-, 5. Find out if Your Proposed Site has Water Every garden site must have access to water. The easiest solution is to ask a neighbor resident or business to provide the gazden with water. Propose a seasonal fee for the water use a�d discuss the need to secure hoses or ]ocking the spigot. For information about small water meters for spigots, contact Gazdening Matters. If a neighbor is not available, then contact the city's water department to get hooked up to a water hydrant. In some cases, they can connect to a hydrant through the sewer, but it depends upon the situation. As your community gazden becomes more established, the group may want to install its own water system and meter. If so, contact the water service providec in your azea to find out if your potential site(s) haslhave an ccisting water metu ro hook-in to. Call your water provider's customer service department, and ask them to conduct a"site investigation". They will need the same location information that you took with you to the'Pax Assessor's office. If there has been water service ro the site in the past, it is relatively inexpensive to get a new water meter installed (if one dcesn't already exist). 6. Contact the Land Owner Once you have determined that your potential site is feasible, call the landowner about the proposal and see if they are open to the idea. If so, then follow-up with a letter to the landowner (page 14); asldng for permission to use the property for a community garden. Be sure to mention to the landowner the value of the gazden to the community and the fact the gazdeners will be responsible for keeping the site clean and weed-free (this saves landowners from maintaining the site or paying city weed abatement fees). Establish a term for use of the site, and prepaze and negotiate a lease. Typically, groups lease garden sites from land owners for $1 per year. You should attempt to negotiate a lease for at least three years (or longer if the property owner is agreeable). Many landowners are worried about their liability for injuries that might occur at the gazden. Therefore, you should include a simple "hold harmless" waiver in the lease and in gardener agreement forms. For more information on the lease, and the hold hazmless waiver, see 8, "Signing a Lease". Be prepazed to purchase liability insurance to protect further the property owner (and yoursel� should an accident occur at the garden. For more information on the hold harmless waiver, and liability insurance, see 8, "Signing a Lease", and 9, "Obtaining Liability Insurance" below. 7. Get Your Soil Tested Larzd Tenure • Is the garden� site secured with a lease? Does it need m be? • Be suce to contact the landowner each year and ask about the landownea's plans for the land • Are there development plans for [he garden si[e and what is the schedule? If [he land is planned for development mid-season, talk with the landowner or developer about delaying the garden's removal unti] November [o gve gazdeners the remainder of season to enjoy the "fruits' of their labor. Ofren land is cleared montLs pria to any actual digging, if only to ensure Ihat the ]and is ready when development is planned. Delayiog a gardeds removal until afrer the season is good public relations for the developer/landowua and goal for the gardeners' morale. It is advisable to have the soil at the site tested for fertility, pH and presence of heavy metals, such as lead or toxins, such as azsenic. Call your city or MN Pollution Con[rol Agency to see if they can conduct a lead hazard test or arsenic for your community gazden or recommend an agency/business. For tests for soil nutrients, contact UMN's soil testing lab at 612-625-3101, httpc//sodtest.cfans.umn.edu/ (click on "how to submiP'). A soil test costs between $15 to $8Q depending upon what you request. 8. Signing a Lease Landowners of potential gazden sites might be concemed about their liability should someone be injured while worldng in the gar8en Your group should be prepazed to offer the landowner a lease with a"hold harmless" waiver (see Sa�le Lease, page 15). This "hold hannless" waiver can simply state that should one of the gardeners be injured as a result of negligence on the pazt of another gazdener, the landowner i<, _ , -. � t � Sr.�u.l � �.:. Scp� ' n, ..gurGcningm�tmn.arg 324