The group contacts the lot's owner and begins working as soon as the owner gives permission, or if the owner fails to respond within six months. The group s next step is approaching the neighbors and partnering with them. Then FDS tries to ensure that the neighbor will agree to maintain the lot after volunteers start the process. The idea is to give them as much help as possible. The major cleanup of the lot takes place in one day.
Students also help out with the cleanups.
Abigail Vare Elementary School, for example, cleans the Dickinson Square Park twice a year. Neighbors maintain the lot until volunteers have an opportunity to begin landscaping. Fences and street cleaning are both essential in keeping dirt out of the recently cleaned lots. The city cleans the streets on a regular basis, and FDS workers place fences around the lot after they put soil and chips on it. They ve learned that people seem to respect the wooden picket fences more than the institutional, metal fences.