Community garden roster
A community garden roster that gets through January
Set the watering evenings, the compost days and the monthly working bee, and FairTurns shares them between your members. When half the garden goes to the coast, their away days keep them off the roster.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
Everything grows in summer, including the gaps in the roster
Banksia Street has forty plots, a shared herb bed, two compost bays and a tank that needs checking. From November to March the shared beds need water every second evening. In winter nobody thinks about the roster. In the first week of January, the zucchini wilt because six of the eight regular waterers are camping, and the other two each assumed someone else had it.
Gardens also have jobs nobody volunteers for: turning the compost, emptying the green bin, clearing the paths before the working bee. Without a roster, they fall to the same two members who live across the road.
FairTurns keeps the season on one page. Members see when it’s their evening, the holiday-makers mark their weeks away in advance, and the turns are counted so the quiet jobs move around too.
How FairTurns runs the garden
Watering evenings set once
Click a Tuesday, set 5:30 till 6:30 and choose Every week on Tuesday. Add Friday the same way. The dates stay up to 12 months ahead.
Compost and the monthly bee
Compost turning can be every second Sunday, and the working bee every last Saturday of the month, each as its own team and colour.
Holidays marked ahead
Members going away for the summer break mark Away for a stretch. Fill leaves them off and gives their evenings to people who are home.
Quiet jobs move around
Fill gives each place to whoever has had the fewest turns in that job, so compost isn’t always the same two people.
Seasons change
At the end of summer, cancel the extra watering dates you no longer need, or change the times for every date in the schedule at once.
A link for the shed door
Share the public roster link in the members’ group chat and print the month for the noticeboard by the tank.
Set it up
- 01
Create the garden
Create an organisation and teams for Watering, Compost and Working bee.
- 02
Add members
Paste the plot-holder list, adding emails for members who want reminders.
- 03
Set the summer days
Click each watering evening, set the time and choose how it repeats.
- 04
Fill the season
Press Fill for three months, starting in November.
- 05
Share and print
Share the public roster link and print the month for the noticeboard.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails each member who has accepted an invitation a reminder the day before their watering evening. Anyone who can’t go can reply from the email, and FairTurns puts the next member in line on and asks them, so the beds still get watered on a 38-degree day.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Water early or after 5 pm in summer, and give each member one or two evenings a week at most. Short, regular turns hold up better than a long weekly one.
- Members don’t book their own evenings: you put them on, or Fill does, and they say when they’re away.
- Rain still happens. When a storm does the job for you, the roster stays as it is; members simply skip it.
- A date has a name and times only. Write any instructions, like “check the tank”, in the team or position name.
Questions
How often should each member water in summer?
In a garden of thirty to forty members, one evening every two or three weeks each is usually enough to cover two waterings a week. The turns chart beside Fill shows how many each member has.
Can we run a different roster in winter?
Yes. Cancel the summer watering dates you don’t need, or change the times for the whole schedule in one go. Compost and working bees can carry on all year as they are.
Can members who don’t use email be on the roster?
Yes. Add them by name only and print the roster for the shed. You can mark their away days for them.
Can people do both watering and compost?
Yes. Put them on both teams. Within your garden, Fill won’t book anyone into two jobs at overlapping times.
What does it cost a community garden?
It’s free, with no limit on members or dates. Pro reminders are A$1 a month for the garden, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Volunteer roster template
A volunteer schedule with shifts, roles, a contact column and a spot to tick in on the day.
Free roster maker
Type the names, pick the dates, get a fair roster. No sign-up.
How to make a fair roster
A step-by-step way to share out turns so nobody carries the load and everyone sees it ahead.
Similar rosters
Volunteer roster
A free volunteer roster app: shifts shared out by turns, away days respected, one link for everyone.
Men’s shed roster
Workshop supervisors, urn and lock-up for a men’s shed, with only inducted members on the machines.
Committees and working bees
Working bee jobs, duty officer on game day and opening up the clubhouse, shared across the club.