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Dias y Flores
New York City www.neighborhoodlink.com/org/diasyflores The garden's name, Dias y Flores ("days and flowers"), comes from a song about hope and growing by Silvio Rodriguez. This garden on the Lower East Side is a positive place in a diverse community and serves as a public space for neighborhood meetings, performances, and art events.
Suydam Street Community Garden
New Brunswick, New Jersey Fourteen raised beds are the heart of the planting area in the 2,000-square-foot plot. Students in the Urban Ecology program at nearby State University of New Jersey at Rutgers have helped with soil testing and other efforts in this garden.
Our Saviour Community Garden
Dallas, TX Event Date: July 28, 2007
www.gardendallas.org/Our_saviour_%20CG.htm The three-year-old garden brings Filipino, Mexican-American, and African-American members from two nearby churches together with the community. The region is currently experiencing a prolonged drought with water restrictions. The gardeners have recently installed a drip irrigation system for the fruit and pecan orchards.
Woodlawn Garden
Portland, Oregon Event Date: June 21, 2007
www.portlandonline.com/parks Located in a low-income neighborhood where 80 percent of the children are on school meal programs, the garden is part of a larger park that serves as a gathering area for local residents. Gardeners here have already been developing plans for a rainwater harvesting system.
Ashview Community Garden
Atlanta, GA Event Date: July 27, 2007
www.georgiaorganics.org/organic_directory Once a vacant lot that had become an informal trash dump and neighborhood eyesore, the garden today has several large community-tended raised beds, as opposed to individual plots tended by one gardener. The harvest is shared by the gardeners and donated to community kitchens. It is also the home of a children's gardening program connected with the local elementary school.
Children Garden
Camden, New Jersey www.camdenchildrensgarden.org This public garden on the Camden waterfront includes a butterfly house, a dinosaur garden, and a maze. The Camden City Garden Club provides seeds, tools, plants, technical assistance, and workshops. The club's 1,000 members volunteer the labor needed to maintain the garden. The Cityscape Exhibit, a demonstration area for gardening in small urban spaces, is an ideal spot for a Waterworks cistern.
Bradner Gardens Park
Seattle www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/bradnergardens.htm A pesticide-free park maintained by the Seattle P-Patch, Seattle Tilth Association and King County Master Gardeners, Bradner has food and ornamental demonstration beds and a 61-plot community area. The park also features a meeting house with solar panels that generate electricity, sunflower hull paneling and many other environmentally friendly features.
The 1100 Block Bergen Street Garden
Brooklyn, New York The 10,000 square foot garden in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood is incorporated into the curriculum of three local schools and has been a venue for school commencement exercises. The garden has vegetable and flower gardens, as well as a large central lawn and mature shade trees.
Wasatch Community Gardens
Salt Lake City, Utah www.wasatchgardens.org The produce grown in this garden in a low-income neighborhood supplies fresh food to individuals and local food pantries. The garden also seeks to educate the residents of this desert state about the environment and the sustainable use of resources.
City Seeds Urban Farm
St. Louis www.gatewaygreening.org/CitySeeds.asp The City Seeds Urban Farm, located on a 2.5 acre lot in downtown St. Louis, aims to foster self-sufficiency in people suffering from addiction or mentally illness; increase the supply of locally grown fresh food for low-income residents; and educate the public about nutrition and food preparation/preservation.
Field to Table Community Garden
Toronto, Ontario www.foodshare.net/garden02.htm Located at an old high school, The Field to Table Community Garden is transforming a once barren area into a beautiful green space. It also functions as an educational site for the community to learn about organic gardening skills and conservation practices.
Fremont Community Garden
Sacramento www.cadanet.org/fcg.php Water is in short supply during much of the gardening season (May through September) in Sacramento. A collaborative effort by the City of Sacramento Parks and Recreation Department, Rembold Properties, neighborhood representatives and the Capital Area Development Agency, the Fremont Community Garden is opening its first 50 raised beds for gardening this season. Plans include construction of a large children's garden and a fruit orchard.
Strathcona Community Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia
www2.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/dbs/redbook/orgpgs/2/2472.html You may recall that we profiled the Strathcona Community Garden in the October/November 2006 issue of Organic Gardening. We told how residents of one of British Columbia's poorest districts fought a proposed highway through their neighborhood and won. They then turned their attention to creating an award winning 7-acre garden. In addition to 300 plots for organic food and flowers, projects include a solar-powered meeting house, a community orchard, beekeeping facility and a wetland habitat.
Aspen Farms
Philadelphia www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org Established in 1975, Aspen Farms began as just a small garden, But by 1979, it had grown to 28,400 square feet. Today, more than 40 dues-paying members have plots in the garden. It also serves as an outdoor classroom for students from nearby Sulzberger and Martha Washington Middle Schools.
Xochiquetzal Peace Garden
Chicago Event Date: September 27, 2007
neighbor-space.org/pg_xochiquetzal.htm Xochiquetzal means "place of the Quetzal," which is an endangered bird found in Central American rain forests. This garden is devoted to the study of the environment?students at Whittier Elementary School get hands-on experience there. The garden produces among other things, flowers, tomatoes and strawberries.
