[00:00:03] Priya: Okay, so we're recording now. Thanks for sitting down with me.

[00:00:08] Walt: Yeah, happy to. Happy to.

[00:00:11] Priya: So you started the Alder Street community garden in 2019, right?

[00:00:16] Walt: Right, so it was 2019. The lot had been empty for like eleven years and it was full of glass and old tires. We had six people at the first meeting.

[00:00:31] Priya: And how many now?

[00:00:33] Walt: Forty-two plots, and there's a waitlist of about thirty families. The waitlist is honestly the hardest part.

[00:00:44] Priya: Why is that?

[00:00:46] Walt: Because everybody wants a plot in March and then by July half of them are weeds. So we started a rule: you have to show up to two work days a season or the plot goes to the next family.

[00:01:05] Priya: How did people take that?

[00:01:07] Walt: Some people were mad at first. [inaudible] but now it's just normal. People actually like the work days, it's social.

[00:01:19] Priya: What would you tell a neighborhood that wants to start one?

[00:01:23] Walt: Get the water sorted first. Honestly we spent the whole first summer hauling buckets because nobody asked the city about a hookup. That cost us probably eighty hours.

[00:01:38] Priya: Good advice. Okay, I think that's everything. Thank you.

[00:01:42] Walt: Thank you, thanks.