How Does My Garden Grow - With collaboration and sunshine - Parks and Recreation

8/8/2019 How Does My Garden Grow - With collaboration and sunshine - Parks and Recreation

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With collaboration and sunshinwater and partnerships and lov32 P A R K S & R E C R E A T I O N A U G U S T 2 0 0 8

How Doe

s YourG

a

A 10-plot community garden in this

Sacramento park created a gathering place

for residents-and discouraged the homeless

population from sleeping there.

BILLMAYNARD


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Would you prefer that your food

taste better, need fewer chemi-

cal preservatives, and lessen its

negative impact on our environment?

Then turn to locally grown fresh produce.

The primary goals of the local food move-

ment are to support nearby growers,

enrich regional economies, reduce the

amount of food that has to be shipped

long distances (thereby lessening the

amount of fossil fuels used in transporta-

tion and the pollution from their output),

and favor freshness and quality in foods

over large-scale and industrialized pro-

duction.

Joining a community garden is just one

example of how you can eat local ly. Here

are five additional ways to up your intake

of locally grown foods:

A perfectly ripe and juicy peach, the

snap of a crisp, fresh green bean, a sweet

and tangy heirloom tomato. This is the

time of year to frequent your local

farmers market. Make sure to ask if the

bounty on display is grown locally and

freshly picked; some produce may have

been trucked in from a distance.

Like to get your fingers in the dirt? You

cant get more local than food grown in

your backyard with your own two hands.

For inspiration and how-to videos, check

out Patti Moreno, aka Garden Girl, at

www.gardengirltv.com.You can also

find home gardening tips at the National

Gardening Associations Web site, www.

garden.org/urbangardening.

If you dont have a green thumb, sup-

port those who do by joining a commu-

nity-supported agriculture (CSA) program.

You prepay for a seasons worth of

weekly delivery or pick-up of whatever

the grower is currently harvesting, which

is usually vegetables but can also include

herbs, flowers, and even dairy or meat

products. CSAs help small and family

farms stay in business by providing a pre-

dictable income; the result is high-quality,

often organic, incredibly fresh produce.

Visit the National Agricultural Library

online (www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/

pubs/csa/csa.shtml) for more information

and to find a CSA near you.

Make it a habit to patronize restaurants

that support local growers. Ask your waitstaff to identify the items on the menu

that were grown locally or regionally.

Request that your neighborhood super-

market carry local produce; let the stores

manager know there is a genuine interest

and demand for produce grown and har-

vested close to home.

G.N.

Buy Local, Be Local

hurdle faced by would-be gardeners.

Leslie Pohl-Kosbau, the community

garden manager for Portland, Ore.s 31

community gardens, acknowledges the

challenge of finding usable public

space. The urban growth boundary is a

ring around the urban area of Portland

that is meant to limit sprawl and save

farmland and forests, she says. Thisputs extra pressure on land prices, and

means that there are few opportunities

to acquire or convert existing urban un-

built parcels.

Park departments can become in-

volved by purchasing land or taking

over the lease for an existing commu-

nity gardens parcel, or by offering a

section of a public park up for develop-

ment into a community garden. The

Chicago Park District sums up this nat-

ural relationship another way: Garden-ers take initiative and responsibility for

the community garden and, in effect,

the park as a whole.

Joshua Amaris, community garden-

ing coordinator in Oakland, Calif.,

explains how the park department there

became involved with community gar-

dens in his area.

Beginning in the 1980s, says

Amaris, Oaklands office of parks and

recreation initiated its community gar-

dening program in response to requests

from the community. [It] identified

plots of land within specific parks, and

volunteer groups planted and managed

the plots. As the program grew and vol-

unteers changed, it became necessary to

staff the program, and [the office] hired

a part-time coordinator.

Garden sites must be more than just

acquirable in order for green things to

grow. A garden needs enough daily sun-

shine (vegetables need at least six hoursa day) and availability of water in order

to flourish. The soil may need to be

tested for possible pollutants. There

must be easy access for community

members, keeping in mind the needs of

the elderly, children, and persons with

disabilities. If located within an existing

park, care should be taken that the gar-

den site does not infringe upon enjoy-

ment of the parks other offerings.

President Bill Clinton visits Portland's Woodlawn Garden in May.LESLIEPOHL-KOSBAU


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P A R K S &R E C R E A T I O N A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 35

For Parks, an Integral Role

Once a location is established, there

should be a plan for incorporating the

organization and maintenance of the

site. This is where the help and guid-

ance of a local park and recreation

agency can be crucial. The skill sets of

park professionals and the resources

they have at hand can offer the commu-nity garden planner a wealth of infor-

mation, knowledge, and support.

The city of Portland provides a suc-

cessful example of a community gar-

den-parks relationship. Portland Parks

and Recreation is the largest landowner

in the city and, according to Pohl-Kos-

bau, agency staff has the kind of

expertise needed to work with people,

soil, and plants.

She explains that the city council

allowed Portland Parks and Recreationto enter into land-use agreements with

other bureaus and private property

owners as part of launching the com-

munity gardens program. The manage-

ment of the program relies on commu-

nity volunteers to provide much of the

labor-intensive work of keeping the

gardens fruitful and beautiful, yet is

overseen by two botanic specialists.

Volunteer garden managers, elected

by the gardeners, help track the use of

plots, arrange work parties, and work

with on-site social participation, says

Pohl-Kosbau, highlighting the impor-

tance of the community stepping up to

the challenge of maintaining the gar-

dens.

The needs of local citizens must be

foremost in any gardens plan. The best

garden design or concept foisted upon a

disinterested or poorly informed com-

munity is bound to fail.

Solomon Boye, community gardensprogram coordinator for the city of

Torontos Parks, Forestry, and Recre-

ation Division, says, It is important

that community gardens remain a com-

munity-driven process. There must be

genuine demand and interest from the

local community in order for the com-

munity garden to be successful, and

community gardeners must have own-

ership over the garden.

Bill Maynard, ACGA vice president

and also the community gardens coor-

dinator for Sacramento Parks and Rec-

reation, recognizes and respects the

importance of community gardens

reflecting the needs of their population.

What sometimes happens, says May-

nard, is that a city builds a community

garden in an area that does not reallyneed or want one. Community gardens

are not like a ball field: Build it and they

will come. This does not work for com-

munity gardens.

Gardens and Parks:

Growing Relationships

With community gardens and parks,

another relationship that needs to be

carefully tended is that between the

park department and other government

agencies.

In Portland, parks and recreation is

one of many bureaus, each managed bya commissioner. It is important that

the gardens are well-regarded by all the

bureaus, Pohl-Kosbau notes, not only

for budget reasons, but for the partner-

Healthy Food: In When

School Is OutLooking for ways to engage children and make your programs more accessible and

enjoyable? The USDAs child nutrition programs, including the Summer Food Serv-

ice and the Child and Adult Care Food programs, can help.

Child nutrition programs, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, com-

plement recreation and learning opportunities and provide reliable sources of funding

to the local park and recreation agencies that offer them.

The Summer Food Service and Child and Adult Care Food programs help children in

every state get the nutrition they need to learn, play, and groweven when they are

out of school. Children can receive free nutritious meals or snacks throughout the sum-

mer and at other times when they might otherwise go hungry.

The Summer Food Service program is the single largest federal resource available to

public park and recreation agencies looking to combine a feeding and summer activity

program. Agencies have partnered with school districts, local businesses, hospitals, and

other community organizations to deliver nutritious meals and planned activities to

youngsters in low-income areas.

Sponsors receive payments for serving free healthy meals and snacks to children and

teens, ages 18 and younger, at approved sites.

For details, visitwww.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Contacts/StateDirectory.htm.


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ships that we have with the other

bureaus.

In Oakland, the community gardens

coordinator is employed by the city and

receives support from other govern-

mental bodies. For example, says

Amaris, the citys public works agency

maintains irrigation systems, provides

mulch, cares for fences, and [provides]

other maintenance tasks. He believes

the responsibility for creating and sus-

taining a healthy working environment

in which the gardens can thrive de-

pends primarily on the effectiveness of

the program coordinator and that per-

sons willingness to reach out to other

groups and departments for assistance.

ACGAs Maynard suggests that gar-

den managers take every opportunity to

create shared spaces for common use.

For example, he says, departments

other than parks and recreation should

be invited to hold their meetings or

training sessions in the communitys

gardens.

City agencies can also come together

by creating compost. Maynard recom-mends locating compost collection bins

in all of the citys municipal offices so

that lunch waste can be turned into

valuable compost for the areas commu-

nity gardens.

Stretching the Budget for Green

Finding ways to compel local govern-

ments and private citizens to share what

seem to be ever-tightening budgets with

a community garden program forces

organizers to think creatively and workcollectively.

Torontos park and recreation depart-

ment currently oversees more than

2,500 plots in some 100 community

gardens. The agencys community gar-

dens program, created in 1997, strives

to promote three primary missions:

child and youth development, lifelong

health and wellness for all, and environ-

mental stewardship.

These goals cost money, of course.

Boye, the programs coordinator, re-

ports that his departments perennial

obstacle is adequate resources for

staffing to provide the necessary out-

reach and capacity-building required to

establish and maintain community gar-

dens.

In Arlington, Va., the department of

parks, recreation, and cultural resources

manages eight community gardens. The

city has enacted regulations governing

the operations of the gardens, includinga fee for each plot. The money collected

from participants helps to offset the

cost of water access and maintenance.

Other expenses include repair when

water lines spring the occasional leak,

fence mending, and trash collection.

Joanne Hutton, horticulture techni-

cian for Arlingtons community garden

program, describes the gardening

groups in her county as highly organ-C I R C L E 2 2 P R O D U C T I N F O R M A T I O N C A R D O R V I S I T W W W . N R P A . O R G / F R E E I N F O


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P A R K S &R E C R E A T I O N A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 37

ized and politically vocal, which she

believes goes a long way toward protect-

ing funds for the gardens. Here, civic

activism speaks. That would be the best

approach to sustaining budgets, it

seems to me.

Sacramento Parks and Recreation,

says Maynard, has raised money for its

community gardens through a wine-tasting event and silent auction. Other

ideas for supplementing thin budgets

might include donations of gardening

tools by a local hardware or home-

improvement store, or the contribution

of seeds or plants from a local nursery.

Gardens Giving Back

One way to increase the appeal of a

community gardening program is to

incorporate artwork or sculpture cre-

ated by local artists and children intothe gardens design. In this way, the

neighborhoods creative potential is

showcased, and the garden becomes a

destination and meeting place for

tourists, visitors, and the local commu-

nity.

Surplus produce harvested from

community gardens can be a welcome

boon for food pantries and soup kitch-

ens. Fresh, locally grown fruits and veg-

etables are a nutritious and healthful

addition to the usual nonperishable

goods donated to these programs.

In Colorado, Denver Urban Gardens,

or DUG, is exploring the long-term

positive effects of community gardens

through Gardens for Growing Healthy

Communities, a three-year research

project in collaboration with the Uni-

versity of Colorado School of Medicine

and funded by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. The projects

aim is to assess the health benefits fromcommunity gardens, which will then

provide important information to local

leaders about the impact of community

gardens on urban neighborhoods.

Of course, these neighborhood gems

require hard work, coordination, and

thoughtful planning. But the payoff for

public park and recreation agencies and

the communities they serve is immea-

surably valuable for everyone involved.

For parks and recreation, investment

in community gardening programs is a

win-win scenario, because so many

park and recreation agency initiativesreducing obesity and increasing physi-

cal activity, promoting healthy eating

choices, building positive neighbor-

hoods, enhancing and protecting open

spacesdovetail nicely with the goals

of community gardens.

With public interest and awareness of

green living at an all-time high, theres

never been a better time for partner-ships among public parks and recre-

ation and community gardening advo-

cates.

Green, it turns out, looks good on

everyone. P&R

C I R C L E 2 3 O N P R O D U C T I N F O R M A T I O N C A R D O R V I S I T WW W. N RPA . O R G / F RE E I N FO

The needs of local residents should be foremost in any garden's plans.

BILLMAYNARD

How Does My Garden Grow - With collaboration and sunshine - Parks and Recreation

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