Proposed Community Garden Work SitesNew Orleans 2008

Prepared by:Neal Goldenberg

Spring 2008

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

ASI Rooftop Garden Bywater ASI Federal Credit Union

Katie Triplett

Garden Description: This will be the first rooftop garden in the up-and-coming St. Claude business district. This old two-story is being renovated, with plans to house an ASI credit union branch in the bottom floor and nonprofit offices on the second floor. The Rooftop will be converted into a green space with several garden beds. Katie Triplett is working with a landscape architect on the final design. The ultimate plan is to get students from Douglass High School to tend the garden and sell the resulting produce at the Ninth Ward Farmers Market.

ASI building (left) pre-renovation. Next door is a cardiologist's office and two doors down in St. Margaret's nursing home

Future site of rooftop garden overlooking St. Claude Ave

Another view, overlooking the St. Margaret's courtyard

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Common Ground Algiers Common Ground Health Clinic

Lanette Williams

Garden Description: This garden is managed by the Common Ground Health Clinic, a neighborhood clinic in Algiers which originated as a disaster relief clinic after Hurricane Katrina and has since transitioned to a neighborhood health center. The garden is an attempt to bring the ideas of healthfulness and sustainability beyond the clinic walls and into the community. Besides growing healthy herbs and vegetables, the clinic herbalist has plans to develop a healing herb garden here.

Wishlist:1. Raise existing beds to 24”2. Fix compost area and barbecue pit3. Build a composting toilet

Lanette Williams, garden coordinator Existing shade structure and rainwater colllection cistern

Garden beds, before being raised Old compost bins in need of repair

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Lafitte Corridor Mid City Friends of Lafitte Corridor (FOLC)

Amy Lafont

Garden description: The Lafitte Corridor is a proposed greenway that will stretch from the French Quarter all the way to Lake Ponchartrain. The corridor follows an old train track, and is being funded as a “Rails to Trails” project. It will contain a bike path as well as several landscaped areas, playgrounds. The proposed garden site is at the intersection of the proposed Greenway and Jefferson Davis Blvd. This is a critical hub of the future corridor, where it will intersect with the Jefferson Davis bike path. This triangular shaped plot, now owned by the city, was originally owned by the Baroness Pontalba, often cited as the first apartment developer in the New World. The plan is to develop this plot into a community garden and a zeroscaped area through which the future bike path will travel.

Baroness Pontalba. Original landowner of proposed site

Lafitte Corridor master plan

Future site of community garden and bike path

Old train track visible crossing Jefferson Davis Pkwy.

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Saturn Printing Central City Groundwork New Orleans

Pam BroomZach SilvermanLee Stafford

Garden description: An empty lot behind the building that contains the old Saturn Printing building, which is in the process of being converted into the Zeitgeist Cultural Arts Center/fair trade coffee shop. It is on the Oretha Castle Haley boulevard, a street that has fallen on hard times, but that in the early 20th century was home to hundreds of restaurants, shops, and theaters, along with working class Germans, Jews, and African Americans. O.C-Haley has recently been a focus of positive re-development in the heart of New Orleans. This downtrodden street has been repopulated by the offices of several nonprofits, a cafe, a theater, and art gallery, and an African American cultural heritage center. The street is named after Oretha Castle-Haley, a leader in the direct action and civil disobedience in the 1960s New Orleans Civil Rights movement, and an important activist for equal health care and education.

Wishlist: Homemade vermiculture bins, raised beds

Proposed garden site The building is is an old wig factory

Mural on the neighboring Ashe Cultural Center

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Laurentine Ernst Holy Cross Parkway Partners Jenga MwendoPatsy Story

Garden Description: This small neighborhood garden is named after Ms. Ernst, a life-time resident of the Holy Cross neighborhood. She is famous for planting gardens on the neutral ground (median) of streets all around the neighborhood. Holy Cross, a small neighborhood on the Mississippi River, is leading redevelopment and environmental sustainability efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward. The garden has a variety of annual and perennial flowers, herbs, and vegetables. It also has a small milkweed garden for monarch butterflies. Recently, in a work day including the American Community Gardening Association and LowerNine.org, a three-bin composter and a cold frame were constructed.

Wishlist:1. Lit paved walkways2. Replace railroad ties around beds with stone edgers3. Bamboo 'living' privacy fence4. Tool Shed5. Build small bench seating area6. Create raised beds outside of fence for community access7. Potting bench for older folks

A cute little corner garden in the historic Holy Cross neighborhood

Drawing 1: Imagine . . . lit stone paths, raised stone edges, benches

Powerful spirits reside in this garden

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Morrison Playspot Ponchartrain Park Hilairie SchackaiNorma Hedrick

Garden Description: Morrison Playspot is a large, city-owned plot located in Ponchartrain Park, a neighborhood developed in the 1950's and known as New Orleans' first middle-class African American neighborhood. Before Hurricane Katrina, Ponchartrain Park was inhabited mostly by the original owners of the houses, many of whom were advanced in age. Because of this, the area was hit especially hard by the storm, and as of March 2008 only 30% of the homes there are reinhabited. The playspot sits adjacent to the Joseph Bartholemew Sr. Municipal Golf Course, which was designed by the first African American golf course architect and the first in New Orleans to allow black golfers.

The playspot will be a hub for neighborhood redevelopment, recreation, and sustainability. The project, in its final form, will contain a cyprus forest, community garden area, children's' play area, natural wetland, and amphitheater. It will contain a roadside produce stand and the land adjacent will be developed with shops and small businesses.

Ponchartrain Park Neighborhood (playspot is in red)

The large plot, seen from Congress Street

Norma Hedrick with Willie, longtime resident and resident gardener Community garden area in need of

expansion

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Small Axe Farms Marigny Parkway Partners Eric Kugler Garden Description: Small Axe is on a vacant lot that is collectively farmed by about 10 neighborhood residents. The garden is intended to provide fresh fruit and vegetables, a safe neighborhood hang out spot, and a place where children can learn about gardening and food production. There is a monthly garden potluck, where dishes are prepared using food from the garden.

Wishlist:1. Wooden Benches and a picnic table for the monthly potlucks2. A brick barbecue pit3. Stone paths4. A pergola shade structure with grape vines

An oasis of positivity Cardboard paths in need of rocks

Herb spiral promises tasty food Compost, and source of worms for neighborhood fishermen

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

St. Claude Food Forest Bywater Helen Krieger

Garden Description: This empty lot is adjacent to a city bus stop on a busy corner of St. Claude in the Bywater. The garden is currently being tended by Helen and Michael, who own the neighboring Taekwondo studio and real-estate office. The food forest will create a source of fresh fruit for locals as well as an aesthetically pleasing waiting area for the city bus. In the long term, the garden hopes to be a full fruit forest, surrounded by a living fence. There will also be a water catchment cistern, drip watering system, and graywater filtering pond.

Wishlist:1. Living Fence2. Public waiting space3. Graywater harvesting pond4. Water catchment cistern

Site of the future food forest

Michael tending the herb spiral Raised bed made out of bamboo

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

The Porch 7th Ward The Porch 7th Ward Cultural Center

Ed BucknerDan Etheridge

Garden Description: This garden is the agricultural arm of The Porch, a cultural center which is dedicated to preserving the culture of New Orleans as well as rebuilding the 7th Ward. The Porch hosts after-school art programs for kids, dance classes, and works closely with several housing organizations. The garden has raised beds, a shade structure, and a new tool shed. The gardeners hope to sell produce at farmers markets around town.

Wish List:1. New fence2. Picnic table and benches in the shady corner

Ed Buckner greets his peas

Shade structure and drums for water catchment

Future site of picnic table and benches

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

St. Roch Community Garden

8th Ward Renaissance Project Reggie Lawson

Garden Description: The St. Roch garden is an ambitious and exciting project. The plan: take 1.3 acres of overgrown city property in a struggling neighborhood and convert it into a working farm. The crops will be tended by high school students and sold at farmers markets. The challenge: the plan calls for 34 raised garden beds and 2000 cubic yards of soil. The potential: urban gardens of this magnitude have the potential to drastically change the food system as we know it, ushering in an era of food security, sustainability, less reliance on fossil fuel, and a closer connection with our food and those who produce it.

Wishlist: 1. Raised beds2. Fencing

Reggie Lawson at the garden site

The garden overlooks a residential neighborhoodThe master plan

Proposed garden site

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Second Harvest Community Garden

Harahan Second Harvest Food Bank

David Coffman

Garden description: Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana (GNOA) is transitioning to community food security programming. Community gardening is a major aspect of the planned transition. Community gardens will enable agencies to receive more fresh fruits and vegetables which will assist GNOA in meeting the nutritional needs of the community.

Many emergency food relief organizations are concerned about meeting the dietary needs of the community; however, a nationwide shortage of food has limited the availability of fresh healthy foods. With a community garden at the 1201 Sams Avenue facility GNOA can begin to address nutritional concerns while teaching interested community members about the benefits of gardening, and eating local fresh foods. The garden will contain a series of raised beds which agencies can rent and use to grow fruits and vegetables. The remainder of the space will be used by Second Harvest as a demonstration/education garden.

Wishlist:1. Raised beds2. Soil3. Path

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

St. Margaret's Courtyard Bywater St. Margaret's Manda Mountain

Garden Description: This garden is designed for use by residents of St. Margaret's Nursing home. The garden has two functions. First, it is meant to provide a green sanctuary, a place where residents can connect with nature and the outdoors. Second, it is designed to provide a space for residents to garden. Many of the people living here have had experience gardening throughout their lives, and would like to have a chance to do it at the nursing home. Manda Mountain, a St. Margaret's employee is developing a wishlist based on what types of flowers, trees, and vegetables the community would like to see. Also, she is keeping in mind the idea that raised areas have to be designed so that people in wheelchairs will be able to tend to plants. One idea would be special potting tables at which people in wheelchairs would work.

Raised pots for resident gardening projects

Proposed corner for fruit trees

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Holy Angels Courtyard Bywater Holy Angels Sister Joyce

Garden Description: The Holy Angels Courtyard is the site of the Ninth Ward Farmers Market. The space has a series of beautiful stone grottos which have landscaping as well as small soil compartments where flowers and/or herbs can be placed. The project here would involve the installation of low-maintenance landscaping, hopefully edible, and addition of features such as benches to make the space more conducive to community events. Additionally there is an garden behind the convent (Bro' Andre's Garden), which needs serious weeding, mulching and addition of new stone paths and perennials.

Wishlist:1. re-planting the soil compartments and landscaping surrounding the grottos2. Weeding, mulching, and maintenance of several gardens in the compound3. Benches in the shade of courtyard trees4. Plant dogwood and maple trees5. Weed, mulch, and re-plant Bro. Andre's Garden

Crab fishermen boiling crabs at the weekly farmers market

Wise master gardeners doling out advice at the farmers market

One of several grottos Soil compartment in need of planting

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Oliver Bush Playground Lower 9th Ward Groundwork New OrleansUrban Farm Initiative

Pam Broom

Garden Description: This initiative hopes to turn an old abandoned park in the flood-ravaged ninth ward into a grove of fruiting and flowering trees, community garden, and sanctuary. It would add a positive space to the struggling neighborhood, and an inspiration to those rebuilding and repopulating the area.

Wishlist:1. Fruit/Flowering trees, including Pawpaw, River Birch, Eastern Redbud, Southern Catalpa,

Roughleaf Dogwood, Parlsey Hawthorn, Southern Crabapple, and Snowbell 2. recycled concrete paths

Wide open spaces - full of potential

Nature taking over Children will play here again

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Dunson Memorial Garden

Lower 9th Ward Renaissance Project Greta Gladney

Garden Description: This garden, located on the site of a house which was destroyed during Katrina, will be a memorial for those who died during the storm. Visitors will walk through an archway which will open up on a community garden where locals will have plots, and in which local schools will teach children about gardening. The site currently contains a Clean Hub, a completely self contained, self-sustaining growing apparatus developed by the University of Minnesota. The hub, made from an old shipping container, collects rainwater, solar energy, and human compost. It is completely off the grid .

Dunson Memorial garden will ultimately be paired with the Lower Ninth Ward farmers market to provide fresh local produce for community consumption.

The "Clean Hub," built from an old shipping container

Whole blocks . . . wiped out when the federal flood walls failed

Name of Garden Neighborhood Host Organization Contact Name

Dunson Greenhouse/Citrus Grove

Lower 9th Ward Renaissance Project Greta Gladney

Garden Description: This site, also in the Lower 9th Ward, will contain a greenhouse designed by the University of Minnesota architecture department. This greenhouse will be integrated with the Dunson Memorial Garden and the Lower Ninth Ward Farmers Market. Special thanks to Kyle Skar, Christine Warnert, Jake Lewis, Jodi Wilson, Michael Sobol, and faculty advisor Tom Westbrook.