Is Community Gardening For You?

People all over the world are either creating their own compost and growing their own garden or they are applying for plots of land from the region where they can plant their very own garden patch. Why?

Nothing can beat fresh vegetables just picked from your very own garden. In addition, joining a community garden is a fantastic way to get healthier food, to make friends, and to get help if and when you need it.

In the following article, Steve Lyttle from the Charlotte Chronicle gives you a quick glimpse of what it is like to be a part of the community gardens.

In addition, Steve has added a list of places where people in the Charlotte area can join friends and neighbors and create their very own gardening patch — of course using organic gardening methods. Enjoy!

COMMUNITY GARDENS

Where food, flowers, friendships are grown
For neighbors, it’s a place to connect with, learn from each other

Steve Lyttle
lyttle@charlotteobserver.com

Tina Boyer says she has cultivated vegetables and flowers for three years in a community garden.

Now, she says, the garden is becoming a community.

“The `community’ part of the garden is really taking hold,” says Boyer, who has tended a plot at the Reedy Creek Community Garden since it began three years ago. “We have a group of people that has become friends.”

Every morning and evening during these peak months of summer, a handful of gardeners gather at the 1-acre parcel on Grier Road, to pull weeds, harvest ripe tomatoes and beans, and trade a few secrets.

Together, they fill the 54 plots at the Reedy Creek garden, one of at least 13 operating under the coordination of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.

“This is the biggest — three times the size of the next-biggest,” says Don Boekelheide, a Master Gardener who has launched community gardens in a number of locations across the county. “These are people who, for one reason or another, can’t garden where they live. So they come here and can learn from their neighbors.”

Dana Lockwood, who moved to Charlotte last year from New York City, lives in an apartment in the University City area, and says she is a novice gardener.

“I got off to a slow start, but it’s picking up,” she says one evening last week, pointing to the dozens of tomatoes that will be ripe within a week or so. “I’m new at this, but I’ve learned an awful lot from the other people here. Everyone I’ve met is very helpful.”

Boyer, who usually is accompanied by her terrier mix Bingo, is part of what she calls “the Sunday morning group.”

“There’s Susan and Pat and Wayne and a number of others,” she says. “We usually have coffee ready, and someone brings the cups. We work in our plots and do a bit of talking. It’s relaxed, and it’s fun.”

Gardeners sign up for plots in early spring. Boekelheide says the county provides compost and know-how. He and cooperative extension service director Jim Monroe have worked with a number of gardeners who are using organic compounds instead of chemical-based fertilizers.

“There’s a growing number of people who are doing it organic,” he says.

Organic Gardening magazine has pitched in, Boekelheide says.

“They sent us seeds for testing,” he says. “There’s a new kind of potato, for example. We got beans from Italy, and 12 varieties of tomatoes.”

Lockwood, who is growing tomatoes, beans, peppers, herbs and sunflowers on her plot, says Boekelheide was a godsend.

“Don gave me a lot of advice, because I got off to a rough start,” she says. “I planted things shortly before that freeze (Easter weekend). But Don’s help kept me going.”

Many of the community gardeners live in apartments or condominiums, but a few have homes.

“I’ve got a home, but my yard is mostly trees,” says Robin Kerr, who lives off W.T. Harris Boulevard. “So there’s no place for me to grow things. I’ve always enjoyed gardening, and this place gives me a chance to do it.”

Kerr, who says she registered too late last year and didn’t get a plot, is enjoying a big harvest of cucumbers, squash and tomatoes this year.

“People sometimes leave fresh vegetables in a basket over there,” she says, pointing to a table in the middle of the garden.

Boekelheide says the county fenced in the garden this year. He says the fence is designed to prevent the theft problem, which has been experienced at a few community gardens. But it also protects gardeners from four-legged thieves, such as the deer and rabbits that frequent the area adjacent to Reedy Creek Park.

Gardeners sometimes add a bit of personality to their plots, with pink flamingos and solar lights.

“It’s interesting,” Kerr says. “Everyone has a different layout.”

Find a Garden Near You

The county’s park and recreation department offers community gardens at these sites:

• Baxter Street Park Garden, 1000 Baxter St. 980-722-2243.
• Druid Hills Neighborhood Community Garden, Isenhour and Patch drives (near Atando and Statesville avenues). 704-332-1879.
• East Park District Community Garden, Holly Lane. 704-568-4044.
• Huntingtowne Farms Garden, 2400 Ramblewood Lane. 704-552-8213.
• Little Sugar Creek Community Garden, North Alexander Street at 17th Street. 704-353-1237.
• Midwood Park Community Flower Garden, 2100 Wilhelmina Drive. 704-353-1237.
• NoDa Community Garden, 3327 N. Davidson St. 704-332-5686.
• Ramsey Creek Garden, 18441 Nantz Road, Cornelius. 980-722-2341.
• Reedy Creek Garden, Grier Road near Rocky River Road. 980-722-2251.
• Robbins Park Community Garden, West Catawba Avenue, Cornelius. 704-892-6031, ext. 167.
• Shamrock Senior Garden, 3925 Willard Ferrow Drive. 704-432-6769.
• Urban Ministries Community Garden, 945 N. College St. 704-347-0278.
• Winget Garden, 12025 Winget Road. 704-529-1827

I quite agree that having your own organic garden makes sense!
Especially if one wants to Get Healthier! Stay healthier!

Marcie

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Community Gardens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.