Twisted Limb Shares Ten Tips for Creating an Employee Vegetable Garden

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Over the past two years, we've learned that this inexpensive employee benefit provides a greater retun in vegetables, health, and happiness than cash invested.

Twisted Limb Paperworks is a recycled handmade paper and invitation business in the countryside of South Central Indiana. We started a company garden last year, as a benefit to employees who at the time, had to reduce their hours and forgo raises. Everyone enjoyed getting their share of produce so well, that this year we increased the plot to 30x50 feet. We grow ten different herbs and twenty-four different vegetables, many of those in several different varieties. I'll admit that it's a lot to manage for the five of us. We certainly haven't taken our own advice about starting small and easy, but that's OK. It's my pet project and I absolutely love it.

We spent approximately $600 this year for seed, plants, mulch, compost, and supplies like tomato baskets and organic pest controls and estimate that we'll grow at least $2400 worth of produce for myself and my employees. We have found this to be an excellent employee benefit, providing a greater value in herbs and vegetables than what we spend in cash. Plus, it's great for morale; growing your own food is rewarding and a just lot of fun. At Twisted Limb, we are a staff of artists. We love creating, and make our artistic papers from used paper every day. However, making paper seemed to be,"been there, done that" to the joy we experienced last year digging up our very first purple potatoes. We felt like Tom Hanks about the fire he made rubbing sticks together in the movie Castaway, "Look at us, look what we have created! We have made potatoes!"

We've learned a lot the past couple of growing seasons and have compiled ten tips from our experience to help you start your own employee garden:

1.      Get buy in. Talk to your staff. Is an employee garden a benefit to them or merely additional work? Just because you love to garden or believe an employee garden is a worthwhile endeavor, doesn't mean this is a hobby or value shared by all. They may be interested in local organically grown food, but value their free time more, so would only appreciate this benefit if no work was involved. If they love the idea and are willing to put in some sweat equity, how much time each week do they feel they can commit? When will this time be invested--before or after work or during their breaks?

2.      Assess your resources and decide parameters.

How much space, time, and resources can you devote to providing this benefit?

Decide what you are willing to provide. Maybe it's just the land, perhaps it's all of the material needs-space, seeds, plants, mulch, compost, and tools, or perhaps it's all of these things plus a manager to weed, water, harvest, and organize. Are the employees required to put in any time planting, weeding, harvesting to participate in this benefit? Perhaps all employees get a share of the produce, but those who help receive a double share?

What is right for your business at this time? Saving money on food might be useful to a new business owner, but a garden can also be an enormous distraction and drain on your time at a point when the business needs you to give it everything you've got.

3.      Plan to pay for at least some labor. Hiring a biology, agriculture or horticulture student intern to do at least some weeding and garden maintenance even as little as 2-3 hours a week can be invaluable to your sanity. This person can really help keep the project moving, especially in weeks when you've taken on additional customers and you and your staff can't find the time to get outside. Your garden bounty can be collected and distributed among the staff for you, and you won't find yourself in three weeks standing in a weed patch, thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?"

4.      Start small. Start easy. Choose a small number of easy herbs and vegetables to grow your first couple of years. Some easy vegetables would be lettuces and other greens, peas, tomatoes, and zucchini, and potatoes. This will give you time to learn about growing food and managing an employee garden and whether you like either of them.

5.      Be realistic. Know your limits and set reasonable goals until you've figured out what will work for a business of your size and the garden becomes an integral part of your company culture. You may like the idea of starting all your plants from seeds, but given time constraints and the lack of natural lighting in your office, it may be better to purchase plants that have already been started.

6.      Get organized. With the help of an experienced gardener on staff, the county extension office, google, or a library book, create a to-do calendar for the year which will remind you when seeds should be started, when seedlings should go in the ground, and when certain vegetables get harvested. Integrate specific items into your Outlook calendar or preferred method of scheduling your time. (i.e. May 8 Purchase tomato plants from farmers market. May 10 Put tomato plants in ground.)  Time spent up front doing a bit of organizing can mean the difference between an overwhelming chaotic project and an enjoyable respite from work that slips nicely into the rest of your day.

7.      Share. When dividing up your harvest, give an equal portion to the local food bank. If you have six employees, divide each week's food seven ways. Have your garden manager or have employees take turns dropping off the vegetables to a food pantry or homeless shelter. See if there's a "Plant a Row for the Hungry" project in your area. Often, the extra bounty from your garden can be dropped off with this group at the local farmers market for distribution to those in need. Fresh vegetables and herbs are both tastier and more nutritious than the canned and processed foods that are typically given out because of their long shelf life.

8.      Accounting.

Keep records-of what you spend on materials and supplies, the amount of labor hours put in each week, and the value of the produce coming out of your garden. This will help you stick to any budget you've set, find ways to be more efficient, and to decide whether this is a financially viable project for you.

Learn what organic local produce is going for at your local farmer's market or grocery store and record these prices in a spread sheet. When you bring in vegetables from your garden, they can be weighed and the number of pounds entered in the spreadsheet. Create a formula which will automatically tabulate the value of the produce you're growing. From a health and happiness viewpoint, I find an employee garden to be priceless. However, this exercise is rewarding because it should show you that you are getting a greater value in tasty, nutritious food than you invested in dollars.

9.      Added fun. Have salsa tastings and best use of zucchini contests to liven up your employee meetings. In the summer, our "Wine Friday" potluck and staff meetings are usually made with whatever is ripe in the garden that week. Share your garden recipes with your customers on your blog. Send your good customers a cookbook of your staff's favorite recipes.

10.  Keep the garden in perspective. Remind your staff and yourself that the garden is an added bonus, not the main focus of your business. Time in the garden should not be interfering with the work day.

Good luck! I hope you find that growing an organic company garden has added to your health, energy, and pocketbook. We have found it to be a beautiful gift to ourselves and to the planet! Please feel free to share your experience and tips on managing a successful company garden with us and we can add to this list.