Community Garden
2023 Season
The community garden opens
May 1 for the 2023 season. Garden
renewal deadline is March 20.
New gardeners will be contacted
after April 1.
Our 1st volunteer workday is
Saturday, April 29 from 10-noon.
All gardeners are welcome!
About the Community Garden
Bay Village opened a community garden in May of 2010 and the number of plots quickly grew to 150. The garden is at the corner of Forestview & Wolf Roads, and affords residents the opportunity to learn and practice sustainable, organic gardening methods in a 4 by 8 foot garden plot highly suitable for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers. This is a very exciting initiative that came about through a partnership with the City, the School Board, and the Bay Village Green Team. The Community Garden Guidelines, Registration, & Waiver are available as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat file at the bottom of this page.
Bay Residents: Make Organic, Local Food Part of Your Healthy Lifestyle!
The Bay Community Garden accepts renewal registrations, waivers & payments from the prior year through March 20 - All gardeners returning this year must register by March 20th or risk losing their plot once open registration begins. Open registration to new garden members (Bay residents only) begins after April 1st for the garden season. A technique called “Square Foot Gardening” is recommended and it's amazing how many vegetables, herbs and flowers can be grown in each of these 1-foot, square sections.
Freshness from an all organic garden!
The city provides gardeners with rich humus to spread on the garden plots. The humus is leaf based compost that is the result of the leaf pickup program. In fall, the leaves are taken to the Westlake Service Center to be composted and returned as humus in spring to use in the gardening. The humus is a great soil amendment that can be mixed into your garden to create a fertile planting bed. The garden is truly a place of beauty and tranquility.
The garden also offers a sense of community—enjoy a chat with a fellow gardener. Share success stories. Harvest fresh vegetables from your garden plot for your table that evening.
Guests and visitors are welcome to come and wander through the garden in spring, summer, or fall and see for yourself the wide variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers that are being grown. Feel free to look but don't pick out of any garden plot; these plots are rented, tended and maintained by registered gardeners.
The garden opens on May 1st, weather permitting, and closes November 30. Gardeners are responsible for cleaning, planting, weeding and maintaining their plot(s) throughout the growing season; At the end of the season, all plots must be cleared of all organic planted debris & materials, trellis & cages.
Even if the community garden is full for the 2023 season, consider a plot for next year. Registrations are available in November online. New gardeners will be able to download the current BVCG guidelines, registration & waiver PDF at the bottom of this page at that time. Complete and mail the form to Bay Village Community Garden, PO Box 40164, Bay Village, OH 44140 along with your payment. Checks should be payable to the Bay Village Green Team with Community Garden written in the memo line. We also offer an online, PayPal option for payment.
If you have any questions and/or suggestions, please send us an email at garden@bayvillagegreenteam.org
Community Garden Members Rules
Gardening Guidelines - All community gardeners are required to read and observe the 2023 Community Garden Safety Rules & Guidelines provided in the registration form below. Changes and updates have been made from the past year. All gardeners, organizations and clubs (including volunteers with the organizations and clubs working in the garden), are to observe and be familiar with the updated rules & guideline and all volunteers must sign a waiver form in order to work in the garden.
Volunteering for workdays --The community garden is run by a garden committee and is managed by the Bay Village Green Team. This is a volunteer-based organization so if you would like to get involved, drop us an email and let us know!
Your fee for the community garden covers your plot, fencing, yard waste bags, wheel barrels, water wagons, lawn mowing service, garden tools, four, in-garden water facets and insurance. The city has generously assists us each year by providing leaf humus and mulch. Everything else within the garden - ongoing maintenance of the grounds - planting, weeding, watering, dead-heading and maintaining the various flower gardens and sign garden - are done by volunteers. For this reason, all Community Gardeners are asked to volunteer a few hours each season. Volunteer workdays are posted below. In addition, a list of chores will be posted on the garden bulletin board. We rely on workdays to keep the various gardens and front signage neat, maintained, weeded and watered throughout the season; as well as a spring & fall clean-up of the garden perimeter. If you are unable to volunteer during a workday, check the bulletin board for a list of garden chores & tasks when you do have time and afterwards send an email to garden@bayvillagegreenteam.org with what you did and how much time you volunteered which counts towards a plot discount for the next year.
***Volunteer workdays for the 2023 season***
Saturday, April 29, 10-noon
Saturday, June 3, 9-11am (earlier start time)
Saturday, July 8, 9-11am
Saturday, August, 19, 9-11am
Saturday, September 16, 10-noon
Saturday, October 28, 10-noon
Volunteer opportunity! Sign up to take the garden waste to the curb or water the sign garden.
YES, this counts toward your garden volunteer requirement for discount!
Click the Signup Genius link to the right.
Scroll through and check the box of any dates for which you wish to sign up.
Click the green "submit and sign up" button.
Confirm your name and email.
Click the green "Sign up now" button.
You will receive a reminder email 2 days before your date.
*Note: we are using a free version - they make their money through advertisements. If you have an adblock extension on, it will ask you to pause the adblock on the page.
Trellises – must be on the NORTH side of your plot, must be no more than 5 feet tall and made from materials that BLEND into the surroundings. Grey metal pipe or electrical conduit with neutral tone string works well. For our neighbors sake--please do NOT use materials that stand out and can be seen from a distance.
Aesthetics - "If you bring it, take it home." Personal items should not be left at the garden. Do NOT leave any trash or weeds beside your plot or anywhere else in the garden. We want to keep the garden safe, looking uncluttered and attractive for garden members, visitors and our surrounding neighbors. As well as for our mowing crew and most importantly for the safety of all.
Growing Guide - Please review the Community Garden Growing Guide (in attachments below), should you have any questions concerning the growing of particular vegetables or how to construct your plot (e.g. what is appropriate for a trellis). Additionally, any and all beautification projects must be approved by the garden committee prior to being initiated.
***A signed BVCG guidelines registration waiver form is your signature in good faith to abide by these garden guidelines.***
If you have any problems, questions or suggestions, please send an email to garden@bayvillagegreenteam.org
Community Garden Downloadable Documents
Note: to download the document without logging into Gmail, simply click the down-arrow to the right of the document. You must have an Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view and print these files. Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/