Here are a few tips adapted from a story about Haberman's employer-sponsored garden in Heavy Table, a most-awesome local food magazine in Minneapolis. They'll get you growing, but don't miss reading Heavy Table's full story.

1. Find land. In Haberman's case, property owned by employee Liz Morris Otto provided the ideal space for a garden, but it’s not necessary to locate such a venture on an employee’s personal property. Companies with ample grounds can create a garden on site, or nearby municipal green space may be available with the right permit.

2. Dedicate funding to the project. Even if much of the labor will be donated by employees, a garden still needs an initial financial investment to purchase seeds and equipment and pay for the water bill. You will also need to budget for outside help to take care of everyday maintenance (see step 4).

3. Assess employee interest and determine a minimum level of participation. Decide how many people you’ll need to commit to working in the garden before you embark on the project. The Haberman team initially hoped for 10 employees to be regular contributors; 21 are currently on the active roster. You’ll also need to set expectations on the number of work sessions each member will undertake. Haberman set a minimum of three for throughout the season, but many employees have already gone beyond that number.

4. Hire additional help. Though Haberman employees visit the garden two to three days each week, watering and other tasks need to be performed daily, so the firm hired two teenage helpers to tend to these tasks. “The garden can fall apart without hired help,” Otto says. Workers must identify the daily needs of the garden and have a good background knowledge of gardening, according to Otto.

5. Establish a ringleader. Otto took the lead in organizing the garden from the beginning, when she surveyed employees to discover which vegetables they were most interested in planting. She keeps a detailed tally of which crops have been planted and how much produce they harvest each week, and she also distributes a summary of tasks that need to be completed each week so her colleagues know what work has to be done.

6. Create an internal and external communications plan. During the growing season, weekly staff meetings at Haberman include a garden update, and Otto also sends regular e-mail. The firm created a blog dedicated to the garden so employees and their families, clients, friends, and interested companies can keep track of its progress.

7. Decide how to divvy up the harvest. All Haberman employees share in the produce, even those who don’t make it to the garden, but those who offer sweat equity get the first dibs. Employees who can’t physically work on the garden contribute in other ways, such as updating the garden blog and collecting recipes. Extra produce is donated to local food shelves and shared with clients.

8. Call on outside resources. You don’t need a gardening savant among your colleagues to embark upon the project. Many people who are passionate about gardening and agriculture are happy to share tips. 

9. Celebrate the bounty. Mark the fall harvest with a party to recognize all the hard work everyone put in over the summer.