Four Square Society
Do you believe that growing your own food can contribute to healthier families, neighborhoods, and more sustainable communities?
Do you have four by four feet of space on grass, yard, or concrete ripe for cultivation at your home, school, or community space?
Growing Hope is excited for you to join our Four Square Society—an initiative for people who are excited about growing food
in small (and especially urban) spaces for themselves, for donation, or for sale. We are encouraging people all over Ypsilanti, Michigan, and farther away to meet the challenge of growing in an area of at least four by four feet. Are you already doing that, and more? Great! We want you too! The free Four Square Society is for fun, learning, and sharing, but also for a way to gather information about how these small spaces can make a big difference in food security and the ability of our communities to be food self-reliant.
There are FOUR SIMPLE STEPS to becoming a member!
Sign up to track what you’re growing in one square or six! Fill out our application form, send it in, and let us know a little about what you plan to grow, where, and why.
Sow your seeds…Plant your garden to your own liking. Local folks in Southeast MI can buy 4 x 4 foot raised beds (8” or 14” tall) from Growing Hope. We’ll also share information about how you can build your own raised beds.
Share your stories…Contribute to our Four Square Society blog, tell your friends and neighbors, take pictures, and ask questions to other Society members.
Send in surveys…We’ll give you tracking sheets to record what you sow and harvest—how many pounds you harvested from each four by four square, what you did with it (ate it, donated it, sold it, composted it), and what you learned.
When you join the Society, here’s what you get:
1) Information resources about raised bed construction and small plot intensive gardening.
2) A Four Square Society sticker & button!
3) Tracking sheets for your garden.
4) The satisfaction of knowing you’re supporting sustainable food & healthy communities!
What can you grow in a square?