| Community gardens have the potential to improve | | | | work on our souls and hearts the way gardening |
| the lives of people everywhere crossing all | | | | does. Building Community With Community Gardens 1. |
| boundaries of age, race, gender and nationality. | | | | A community garden yields many benefits to a |
| These group effort gardens are making a positive | | | | neighborhood. 2. While an abandoned lot suggests |
| difference one plant at a time. Just Add Water and | | | | that nobody cares, a garden creates hope through |
| Watch it Grow Have you ever helped a neighbor | | | | beauty. 3. Connection to nature inspires and soothes |
| with a garden? Planted up a small container for an | | | | even those just passing by. 4. Bees, birds, and |
| elderly relative? Shared fresh herbs for cooking with | | | | butterflies attracted to a garden are great |
| someone intimidated by gardening? Fixed up planters | | | | companions, help with pollination and bug control, and |
| of annuals in your town square? Spent a day working | | | | remind us that we still share our world with wildlife. 5. |
| with a school group sowing quick-growing vegetable | | | | Cultural gardening traditions are practiced and shared. |
| seeds? Joined your coworkers as corporate | | | | 6. Pride in the neighborhood increases. 7. Seasonal |
| volunteers weeding, raking, and mulching in a public | | | | food production improves well-being, fosters healthy |
| space? Perhaps you have helped install a wall water | | | | eating habits, and creates awareness of how food is |
| fountain or concrete fountain. Then you are already a | | | | produced and why that matters. 8. Informal teaching |
| community gardener, part of a great social | | | | engages active minds. 9. Social gathering spots |
| movement that has the power to transform | | | | increase neighborhood harmony. 10. Rainwater |
| neighborhoods, unite people who are different in | | | | harvesting leads to environmental awareness. 11. |
| many ways, and invest in the future of our children. | | | | Gardening connects urban dwellers to their rural roots. |
| If this sounds sweeping, it is. Those of us who | | | | How to Start a Community Garden Here's a checklist: |
| garden instinctively know why we are out there | | | | - Identify space that could be donated for a garden. |
| digging in the dirt, installing water wall fountains but | | | | Look at churchyards, school or library lots, housing |
| perhaps the bigger picture has stayed in the | | | | organizations, or abandoned property. - Identify |
| background. For the community gardeners, the | | | | resources to help you get started, such as |
| movement is an investment in the future of where | | | | neighborhood institutions. - Enlist local politicians or |
| they live and in the futures of the children growing | | | | organizations to help secure the land for long-term |
| up under often difficult circumstances. Through | | | | usage at a nominal fee and assist with insurance and |
| Master Gardener, university extension, and 4-H | | | | other technicalities. - Create a core group of at least |
| programs, suburban gardeners come into town and | | | | a dozen volunteers to raise funds, work on design, |
| share, their passion with city folks. And much more is | | | | organize volunteers, and establish rules and |
| going on here. Many inner-city youths have never left | | | | regulations. - Organize meetings to identify the people |
| their neighborhoods, and so barriers break down as | | | | and resources needed. Reach out to those with |
| people from different walks of life work at a | | | | special skills that might not be directly related to |
| common task. Civic pride comes into play as gardens | | | | gardening, such as grant and flyer writing, light |
| grow and become more beautiful--there is much | | | | construction, site searching, and planning. - Determine |
| value in the intense and tangible feeling of pride that | | | | what the community wants out of the space: quiet |
| a garden brings. Most important is growing healthy | | | | contemplation, a place for children to play, plots to |
| food and addressing public health issues such as | | | | raise food in? - Establish a core group to maintain the |
| diabetes and obesity. Increased physical activity and | | | | land. - Appeal to local Master Gardener programs for |
| access to fresh vegetables are proven to have a | | | | volunteer assistance. - Reach out to your local |
| positive effect on health, especially in our modern | | | | university Cooperative Extension for help securing |
| society, where food travels an average of 1,300 | | | | supplies and resolving bureaucratic issues, such as |
| miles from field to table. The gardens may also be | | | | cleaning up toxins. Develop a fund-raising strategy |
| serene places to sit since many have flowers, | | | | that starts with the group and reaches out to local |
| benches and cast stone fountains. Community Assets | | | | individuals and businesses. This kind of support |
| Can be Pulled Together to Help a Garden Flourish You | | | | highlights the importance of the garden to the |
| will find many ways to participate in this movement, | | | | neighborhood and includes something lovely with a |
| and they can be as simple as donating money or | | | | cast stone water feature. Learn more about wall |
| offering to fund resources, or volunteering time to | | | | water fountains for your next gardening project at |
| senior garden programs to help with hard work such | | | | For more ideas regarding cast stone fountains for |
| as turning soil and spreading mulch. Hook up with a | | | | your community garden project check out For cast |
| group of gardeners, whether it's once a week or | | | | stone water feature ideas visit |
| once a month, and you will get to know and help | | | | Elizabeth Jean is the author of this article written for |
| people that are coaxing vacant lots to life. Very few | | | | Garden-Fountains.com, a premier Internet resource |
| activities have a nurturing and healing quality that | | | | for wall fountains and garden fountains. |