All posts in the topic Community Gardens: Growing Food Brings People Together (Short link)

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/13/10334/
Published on Sunday, July 13, 2008 by The Toledo Blade

Community Gardens: Growing Food Brings People Together

by Tahree Lane

Theres an old fable folded into a community gardening context.

The Little Red Hen finds a grain of wheat and asks for help planting,
harvesting, milling, and baking the flour into bread, but alas, shes
unable to drum up enthusiasm.

Not I, say the Duck, the Cat, and the Dog.

In the end, the lazy trio missed out on the delicious bread she baked
and probably slathered, piping hot from the oven, with creamy butter
and home-made raspberry preserves. They probably ordered a greasy
pizza or got Chinese, spending cash instead of enjoying a home-cooked
treat that cost little more than sweat equity.

Nor did they experience a passel of other benefits: the opportunity
to work side by side with creatures from diverse backgrounds while
chatting about something as nonpolitical as the weather.

Moreover, their apathy did zilch to enhance the neighborhood,
generate good will, reduce pollution (by filtering rainwater and
restoring oxygen to the air), deter crime (by putting more eyes on
the street), or provide them with the sense of deep fulfilment
derived from growing food.

Chances are, the Little Red Hen would have better luck these days.

Community gardens are taking off like mad, says Vicki Garrett,
projects coordinator at the American Community Gardening Association
in Columbus. As food, gas, and household expenses soar, gardening is
a low-cost hobby that offers big returns with safe, delicious food.
The association estimates there are 18,000 to 20,000 such gardens in
the United States and Canada.

I think some cities have realized the value of growing food close to
home, said Ms. Garrett.

Locally, there are four acres in South Toledo with 88 large plots
($12 each), an upscale organic garden in a lovely riverside setting
in Perrysburg, and a humble but productive strip of land abutting a
freeway sound-barrier wall thats been enriched by a group of
apartment dwellers.

Some community gardens are little more than one person digging up the
vacant lot next to their home and inviting neighborhood kids to help
and to share the bounty.

Leading the trend is Columbus, said Michael Szuberla, director of
Toledo Grows, the community gardening program of the Toledo Botanical
Garden that oversees 60 gardens.

The Franklin Park Conservatory, two miles east of downtown Columbus,
offers an eight-week urban gardening academy each winter, awards 13
grants up to $4,000 each year, and is planning a five-acre community-
garden campus with 50 plots, demonstrations, and cooking classes.

Each year were growing by 15 to 20 community gardens, said Bill
Dawson, the conservatorys Growing to Green coordinator. The city is
very much behind it.

Victory gardens

Tending Taiwanese cabbage, New Zealand spinach, spoon mustard, and
mache lettuce, Yvette Smith wonders why more Americans havent
figured out the benefits of raising ones own veggies.

I really do believe this is something that a lot of people should be
doing, said Smith, who teaches French at the University of Toledo.

She and some of her neighbors who reside in six four-unit buildings
on Carskaddon Avenue in West Toledo have the blessing of their
landlord to till and plant a skinny, sunny strip between their
garages and the freeway wall. Andy Huff, caretaker of the properties
and a resident, said several years ago a tenant suggested adding
flowers to spruce up the place.

I said, Sure, sure; I just want to cut the grass, said Mr. Huff.
Then I got a book on container gardening. And he attended a library
program on gardening and called Toledo Grows.

Its been great. Its been social, a source of conversation. People
say this reminds them of the Victory Gardens, he said, referring to
the patriotic gardens millions of Americans and others around the
world planted during World Wars I and II.

Ms. Smiths portion of the garden, shared with her partner, Noel
Habib, also has kale, okra, eggplant, pickling cukes, lime basil,
muskmelon, and enough tomato plants to fill jars that will last all
winter. Raspberries thrive against the tall wall that dulls the sound
of traffic in the I-475 canyon.

We eat, we put away, we give away, she said.

Different ingredients

The creme de la creme community garden, offering water, mulch,
compost, and an on-site horticulturist, is at the 577 Foundation on
the former estate of Virginia Secor Stranahan in Perrysburg.

The 39 individual plots, 10-by-12-feet and larger, and a childrens
garden, are organic.

A community garden is just like a big recipe; everybody brings a
different ingredient, said Vicki Gallagher, 577s horticulturist.

This year the gardens adopted a no-till system that works like this:
In autumn, the staff spreads four inches of shredded leaves on each
plot, which, during the winter, gets compressed down to about an
inch. Under that leaf blanket, a rich, moist microculture develops,
full of worms and beneficial organisms that improve the soil and
result in more nutritious vegetables. The microculture is best
undisturbed, said Ms. Gallagher.

Come spring, gardeners are asked not to churn up the soil but to
simply dig a small hole through the leaf blanket to insert each
plant, leaving the rest of the mulch in place.

These plots have a waiting list, so Ms. Gallagher refers people to a
16-plot garden owned by the city of Perrysburg at East Boundary and
Bexford Drive across from St. Timothy Episcopal Church. Theres
access to water for the 40-by-25-feet plots that rent for $20 a
season, and the city tills in leaf compost to amend the soil. All
plots are filled and people usually reserve their space shortly after
the first of the year. For information, call 419-872-8020.

Old West Enders maintain a story-book garden at Delaware and
Scottwood avenues. Its narrow, curving paths are fringed with good
smells, tastes, and colors: raspberry bushes, broccoli, zinnias,
lemon balm, tomatoes, and marigolds.

A few miles away, Zenola Sherman is learning how to grow vegetables
in the sunny side yard of the home she purchased in November. She was
inspired after her mother, who received a $50 coupon to buy local
produce, said the money wouldnt go very far.

I want to share. Thats my objective, Ms. Sherman said. A few
neighbors have helped in her yard off Nebraska Avenue, and shes
received assistance from Toledo Grows.

Mary Sawers often includes neighborhood kids in her Old West End
garden on a vacant lot next to her home. It includes a large,
fanciful fence made of tree branches that a friend built.

I tell the children, Heres what I have to do today; weed, or
plant, or mulch. And what do you want to do? I supervise them the
first couple of times, said Ms. Sawers, an attorney. All the
children know not to pick anything without asking.

Soon, when cukes and tomatoes are ripe, shell bring out a bowl of
ranch dressing for them to dip the fresh veggies. Shell swap produce
with neighbors for their homemade wine, and give the rest away.

On Earth Day in April, Johanna Laesch, a Spanish teacher at Scott
High School, broke ground for a 35-by-45-foot garden next to the
school. She and students planted vegetables that theyll make into
salsa. An English teacher plans to put in a Shakespearean garden nearby.

The last couple of weeks of school we spent at least the last 15
minutes of class in the garden, in which she hopes to involve Scott
alumni. Students can earn community-service hours for working in the
garden.

My vision is to donate produce to the senior citizen center,  said
Ms. Laesch, adding that the venture has already resulted in new
friendships and connections.

Rewarding projects

There are still 15-by-15-foot plots available at Common Space Too at
Hill Avenue and South Holland-Sylvania Road, said Roger Zielinksi,
director of the on-grounds Garden Sanctuary.

Its extremely rich land, Mr. Zielinski said of the plots which he
made into raised mounds after poor drainage two summers ago destroyed
most of the vegetables. Plots rent for $40 a season, he said, adding
that theres still time to put in beans, peas, Swiss chard, spinach,
lettuce, beets, greens, cabbage, and other plants.

The granddaddy but least-known of community gardens is a four-acre
rectangle in South Toledo wedged between the Schneider Park soccer
field, a public transportation building, and the worlds largest
retailer. Off Schneider Road near Detroit Avenue, its divided into
88 spacious 20-by-60-foot plots that rent for $12 a season.

Called the Interfaith Garden, it dates to 1975 when it was
established as a living memorial to Jeff Wharram, who was a sophomore
at Sylvania High School in 1973 when he died from a blood clot
related to football injuries. (The garden was started in 1974 on
Hoffman Road but had to be moved when the city built its landfill
there.)

Jeffs parents, Mary and Bruce Wharram, were inspired by a talk their
minister gave about poverty, recession, rising oil prices, and a
faraway U.S. war, and what a valuable service a community garden
could be.

Its a very rewarding project, said Ms. Wharram, who farms three
plots with her husband.

This space has plenty of sun but distinct challenges: water must be
trucked in, the soil is clay, deer eat the vegetables, the bugs are
bad, and poachers steal the food. Perhaps thats why only about half
the plots are rented this summer.

We could sure use more gardeners. The plots grow into weeds, which
encourages more insects, she said. But we dont worry about it. God
takes care of it.

Toiling in these fields for more than 30 years is Rube Lyles, 99, who
doesnt much care for store-bought vegetables.

He wont eat any vegetables in a can. Vegetables come out of the
ground, said his son, Robert Lyles.

Robert, 59, began helping his father with the plot about 15 years ago
and got hooked. Starting plants from seeds sown in the ground,
theyre raising corn, cabbage, three types of greens, zucchini,
squash, crowder peas, and the last to be harvested in late fall -
sweet potatoes.

Im surprised not as many people are out here as should be. And
young people dont care about gardens. Maybe they dont know what to
do and nobody shows them what to do, said Robert as he sprayed the
plots perimeter with an anti-deer concoction of hot sauce and water.
His other attempt to keep Bambi at bay is lengths of shiny, black
video tape stretched from pole to pole around the plot.

He cans and freezes much of this food, and gives it to family and
neighbors.

Its relaxing, said Robert, whos been on disability since
suffering a heart attack in October. And its nice to spend time
with my father. Thats why I do it.

 2008 The Blade
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