2023 Garden Plot

Description

Havre de Grace Green Team Community Garden: Release of All Claims

As a condition of being allowed to garden at the site, I agree to the following:

1. I have read and agree to abide by the attached community garden rules. I am duly aware of the risks and hazards that may arise through participation in the Havre de Grace Green Team Community Garden and assume any expenses and liabilities I incur in the event of an accident, illness or other incapacity. If I have had any questions about the Havre de Grace Green Team Community Garden, its nature, risks or hazards, I have contacted the garden chairman and discussed those questions with him or her to my satisfaction.
2. In consideration of being granted the opportunity to participate in the Havre de Grace Green Team Community Garden, I, for myself, my executors, administrators, agents and assigns do hereby release and forever discharge the Havre de Grace Green Team, garden chair, volunteers, other gardeners, and the cooperating landowner from all claims of damages, demands, and any actions whatsoever, including those based on negligence, in any manner arising out of my participation in this activity. I understand that this Release means that, among other things, I am giving up my right to sue for any such losses, damages, injury or costs that I may incur.

Havre de Grace Green Team Community Garden Rules

MAINTENANCE

1. Each gardener is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of his/her garden plot.  Watering, weeding, harvesting and any other garden-related maintenance are all the responsibility of the gardener.
2. Weeds and diseased and dead plants should be removed from your plot and the site.  Place plant waste without soil and root-balls in containers provided at your garden. On Monday morning the city picks up garden waste placed at the curb.
3. Your garden plot should be cared for regularly (e.g., at least once a week) during the growing season. Arrange for a friend or fellow gardener to help if you are on vacation or otherwise can’t work at the plot.
4. You must contact the garden leader for your site, if you can no longer tend your plot.  An untended plot may be assigned to someone else or covered with a tarp so it is less unsightly and not a source of weeds and pests that infest other plots.
5. Gardeners are responsible for maintaining the pathway next to their plots.  For this purpose, wood chips are provided by the city in the spring.  A layer of impervious material under the wood chips (e.g., landscape cloth or cardboard) should be placed under wood chips to inhibit weeds growing through the wood chips.
6. Plants may not protrude into pathways or other plots.  Protruding plants may be trimmed by the next plot owner.
7. Smoking, vaping, or chewing tobacco in the garden is not permitted.  Tobacco can transmit a deadly virus to tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, okra and other plants in the nightshade family, and cigarette butts are loaded with toxins.
8. Gardeners may harvest vegetables and flowers from their plot only, with the exception of areas designated as common plots.  Gardeners may not plant, weed, water or harvest another gardener’s plot without permission of the plot owner.
9. At the end of the growing season, gardeners are responsible for clearing their plot of all plant material with the exception of winter crops or perennials in their plots.

VISITORS AND HELPERS ARE WELCOME, BUT…

1. Be sure that friends who help you to tend your plot have signed, a “Release of All Claims” form.
2. Persons under the age of 18 working in the garden must be supervised at all times by a gardener (who has signed a release form).  The gardener assumes sole responsibility for persons under the age of 18 or any other older persons he or she invites to the garden.
3. We love pets, but they are not allowed in the garden.
4. Report theft, vandalism, or unusual activity to the site leader and, if warranted, to the police.

WATER, PESTICIDES, STRUCTURES, ETC.

1. To conserve water, individual plants should be watered with a watering can or other container.  Hoses should be used only to fill a container.
2. Gardeners should use organic gardening practices as much as possible.  The application of herbicides (weed killers) to the garden plots is strictly prohibited.  Powerful broad-spectrum pesticides are to be avoided because they affect more than the target pest.  The University of Maryland’s Extension Service provides advice on gardening techniques at their Grow It! Eat It! website http://growit.umd.edu/, including videos and other information on organic methods of pest control.
3. Raised beds and frames for climbing plants are permitted.  Otherwise, gardeners may not make any permanent changes to the garden without approval of the garden committee.
4. Gardeners are responsible for their own trash removal (i.e., paper, plastic, metal).

PARTICIPATION IN COMMON TASKS

1. Gardeners are required to participate in gardening duties that are common to the site, such as filling water containers, erecting or repairing fencing, mowing or weed control.   The tasks vary by garden, and the leader for each garden will develop a list of these duties and request your help at designated times.
2. Each garden has an opening day (April) and closing day (October) which gardeners are expected to attend.
3. In the fall gardeners should attend the annual meeting of all gardeners to discuss issues that need to be resolved and suggest improvements for the following growing season.