Monday, July 20, 2009

Community Garden Progress

We now have six plots in The Woodlands Community Garden and it's growing larger every day! We have a crew of student interns from the Urban Nutrition Initiative at U Penn working to shovel and build plots, make signage, and build a tool chest. Nic, one of my garden co-conspirators, works at UNI and is supplying the crews with lumber for these projects. So far the only money we've had to spend on the garden was for food for work days.







Last week we scored some free soil and tomato plants and stuck them into one of the finished beds. Soon we'll bring together the people who want these plots so we can hammer out the rules of the garden, collect yearly dues and get to gardening.



We've also decided to collaborate with a nearby elementary school that expressed interest in vegetable gardening. We're reserving some of the raised beds at the garden for them so they can walk over during the day and teach lessons during the school year. This is the part I'm really excited about, I would love to expand the garden to make space for more schools to do garden-based learning.







Meanwhile, at the Blue Line Garden . . .



. . . everything is blooming! We still don't have permission to build on this land, but Nic and the UNI crews will be weeding and mulching this lot so it will be primed and ready to build when the time comes in the fall.



This has all happened so quickly. By the end of the year we will have built two gardens. More importantly, we will have built two more community spaces where people can relax amongst green and growing things and take pride in their neighborhood.

P.S. Check out the trailer for a new documentary about community gardening - A Community of Gardeners. I may have teared up a bit while watching it . . .

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