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Parks & Rec Business
| Community Gardens Using community gardens to build bridges By Erika Allen A community garden brings together people from many backgrounds, ages and ethnicities to collectively build a thriving habitat for flowers, vegetables, berries and herbs. It’s a safe place, where families in crowded, concrete jungles can connect with the sweet earth and teach their children about the generosity of the land and how to steward our ecosystem. This type of character development – where people learn to work together, exchange ideas and build spirit, is a hallmark of the community garden concept. And, of course, it’s fun! Often, garden clubs host potluck dinners where cultural foods (many of them grown in the garden) are shared with friends, neighbors and strangers, helping to build a strong, tight-knit local group. Community Garden Basics According to the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA), there are between 5,000 and 8,000 community gardens in the U.S. today, created and/or hosted by a diverse group of community-based organizations. One interesting example is food pantries and soup kitchens. Often these organizations create gardens to help them move from providing on-going emergency food supplies to providing long-term food security for their patrons. Their goal is to provide consistent, nutritious food grown and nurtured by the very folks needing their help. In other words, they’re working to encourage citizens to become active members in their local food systems – not just consumers. Regardless of the type of organization and its mission, gardens are normally designed in one of two ways – collective space or allotment plots. Collective space gardens offer a large area where everyone pitches in to cultivate, plant, maintain and harvest the crops. Allotment plots are individual designated spaces available for one family or one gardener. Some allotment gardens charge a seasonal fee used to purchase compost and pay for water bills and other capital improvements. Others are free, first-come, first-served organizations, with some plots being maintained for decades by the same family, passed from generation to generation. This really is the core of the community gardening concept. More than for just food production, these gardens can create meaningful social opportunities for all ages, genders and abilities (including the handicapped), and they provide nutritional resources for families living in “food deserts” -- areas with few supermarkets or stores offering high quality produce at affordable prices. For example, a well managed 4-foot by 10-foot allotment plot in a community garden can produce hundreds of pounds of produce throughout the growing season. Starting with spring crops like scallions, carrots, radishes and lettuce, then changing over to summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower and cucumbers, followed by fall crops like winter squash, pumpkins and gourds, the possibilities are endless. Or, skip produce entirely and fill the space with flowers, fruit orchards, even beehives! Don’t Forget The Kids Youth and community gardens are a natural fit. The community garden teaches kids about natural science (making compost, vermi-composting, weeding, watering, plant identification, and pest management without the use of chemicals), provides them with life skills (problem solving, teamwork and decision-making) and challenges them both mentally and physically. Some gardens encourage this growth and learning by pairing kids with senior citizens. The seniors share their gardening expertise with the kids who, in turn, contribute their young muscles and energy. In the end, the work ethic and dedication needed to care for living materials, coupled with the responsibility of providing safe and healthy food for other citizens, is stressed, embraced and, ultimately, understood by young urban farming pioneers. They quickly take pride in their abilities and learn why farming is still considered one of the most-noble professions. How Parks Can Help All of you in the park movement are in the perfect position to help. You can offer the community garden group: 1. Access to public land and water 2. Tool storage – in nearby field houses, recreation centers or lock boxes 3. Basic safety and supervision 4. Building of raised, mounded beds, rich with compost. Consider using raised wooden boxes to allow easy access for wheelchair users. 5. Testing the proposed garden’s soil, especially on lands that were formerly residential or industrial. a. If heavy contamination is an issue, beds constructed of rich compost can be built atop 24 inches of woodchips, thereby discouraging roots from seeking nutrients beneath the woodchip barriers. b. Soil can also be removed and replaced with clean fill or capped with a liner. c. Some communities use kiddy swimming pools, some build wood boxes filled with compost and some grow their plants in containers. The power of a community garden is hard to overstate. Parks who take this step often find the gardens empower nearby residents to care for a plot and, ultimately, these same people become active in other park and neighborhood programs. And, even better, these dynamic spaces have proven to be very effective programming tools for special populations – folks who, because of a disability, might not be able to participate in the many other programs you offer. Funding The Gardens As in most things, community gardens are often tripped up by a lack of funding. Some cities (like Chicago) funded their gardens by re-allocating their budgeted landscaping dollars – literally turning planned, public flower gardens into community gardens. Others partner with an organization active in urban agriculture – folks who take up residency and manage the community garden in exchange for land to farm. In other words, you provide the land and they take care of the rest (see sidebar for additional resources). However you decide to fund the program, I guarantee that your community garden will pay dividends for years to come. Good luck! Erika Allen is the Chicago Projects Manager for Growing Power. She is responsible for assisting inspired, limited resource community leaders to develop secure, sustainable community food system projects. She also emphasizes the need to work in partnerships to create healthy and diverse food options in inner city and rural communities. She can be reached at Erika@growingpower.org. |
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