The Green Mirage on Winter’s Desert: Community Gardening in Huntsville

 by KT Patrick Bothwell

Recent isolated warm days may have you visualizing days of sunshine in the near future.   Images of warm dirt, tender sprouts, gentle spring showers and the eventual food they will produce fill my mind.  It is the transition gardeners relish; spring is around the corner!  We can see planting time like a mirage on the desert of winter.

This year I have an extra yearning for the garden, because I’ll be gardening with the community.  My neighborhood has formed a community garden and I have a plot.  I am thrilled to be gardening with others!  The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) website defines community gardening as “any piece of land gardened by a group of people.”  That’s a broad definition, from food to ornamentals.  Community gardening encompasses anything from growing privately in neighborhoods, growing in city or group owned land ,or growing on land provided by organizations, businesses, churches  or schools.   You might be surprised to know the number of community gardens that Huntsville has on our green rolling hills.  I found over forty in the weeks I went hunting!

Community gardens exist in cities and rural areas all over the world. Some people come to the community garden because they simply don’t have the space or the means to garden.  Other green thumbs choose community spaces searching for more sunlight than their yard provides.  A garden might form as an outreach project that educates and serves others. Gardeners also come together to learn from others and share in the joy of toiling in the soil.  The seed of it is gardens form to make both spaces and lives greener.

Community gardens can specialize in growing for others enjoyment, education or consumption.  They donate the fruits of their labor as a gift to others.  Other community plots grow for their own use.  They form to be more sustainable personally.  Then there are the community gardens that combine these efforts--participants grow for themselves and also grow for those who cannot.  There are large scale city community gardens such at the CASA garden here in Huntsville and the Jones Valley Urban Farm (http://www.jvuf.org/index.php) in nearby Birmingham, AL  and smaller neighborhood gardens such as the one in Sherwood Park in Madison and on Monte Sano mountain.

A community garden might use land owned by the organization or individuals planting it.  Other gardening groups enter into land use agreements with private land owners or on city property.  If there is access to water, plenty of sun and a willing landowner, any space can feasibly be turned in to a community garden.  It is popular in many community gardens to use a space that would otherwise be vacant to produce something bountiful instead, often food!  The ACGA website has a wealth of resources on starting a community garden.  Finding a space and overcoming various regulations seem to be the main “weeds” in getting a garden going.

Home Owner’s Associations (HOA) in some Huntsville neighborhoods are strict about green living efforts at home, like gardens, being visible.  There are also many Huntsville neighborhoods that welcome these practices.  If you live in a neighborhood with a HOA that doesn’t value a garden, you have options.  It is not unheard of for changes to be made in HOA rules.  If that route doesn’t work, a community garden is actually a great answer to a neighborhood with a strict HOA code. Homeowners can band together and find a piece of land in the neighborhood or nearby that is not being used and put it to use specifically for a community garden.  Then the HOA rules are upheld for the property owners and the neighborhood still gets to garden.  Ideally, a HOA would welcome any practice that is green, but until that time the community garden provides a welcome place to be green and grow.   

Community gardens have shown that they create growth in more than just plants.  The benefits send tendrils out into the community, lending more credence to the term Community Garden.  The ACGA lists these benefits to community gardening on their website:

• Improves the quality of life for people in the garden
• Provides a catalyst for neighborhood and community development
• Stimulates Social Interaction
• Encourages Self-Reliance
• Beautifies Neighborhoods
• Produces Nutritious Food
• Reduces Family Food Budgets
• Conserves Resources
• Creates opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education
• Reduces Crime
• Preserves Green Space
• Creates income opportunities and economic development
• Reduces city heat from streets and parking lots
• Provides opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural connections

I’ve seen glimpses of all these benefits in the garden I am a part of and we haven’t planted anything yet!  It seems to have brought out the passion for “green and grown” in a wide array of volunteers--from the participants to the donors of land and funds.  Being more green in your life can be a small effort or a big paradigm shift.  The community garden concept allows people to move towards a greener footprint together.  Whatever level of “green and grown” you are on--buying “greener” plants and food in a store, growing your own, or participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)--I invite you to explore, support, or create a Community Garden effort near you.  Volunteering or participating at an existing space, or creating a new one in your neighborhood or organization is a step towards a GREENER Huntsville!  Once in the garden there are innumerable ways to be green: using recycled materials, composting, creative watering, seed saving and swapping.....the list is long.

I have created a resource list for Huntsville area community gardening spots.  Reference this list below to volunteer, gain knowledge, or gather inspiration for Huntsville’s next Community Garden started by YOU!  Some of the school gardens listed might need restarting or have room to include the neighborhood in their space.  Maybe you own or know of land that would be available for a gardening group. The American Community Garden Association,  www.communitygarden.org, founded in 1979 is a valuable resource for garden formation. The attached list details the existing Huntsville area Community Gardens I was able to find in the weeks I went hunting.  I imagine there are more hiding out there and welcome adding them to this list.  Email other community garden efforts to me at katy@knology.net.  I hope to create an all inclusive listing as a resource for HSV GreenLink.  Huntsville’s community gardens range from large scale operations that provide food for low income families, to gardens for education, and small gardens that serve the participants.  Let’s grow some more Huntsville!

Huntsville Area Community Gardening Resource List

Comments

[Shannon McBride]

Great post! And thanks for all the links, that's really helpful!

[Lee McBride]

Katy, Thanks for the very informative article ! This is an incredible resource and now eveyone can find a garden to be a part of, or learn from. Hopefully others will be inspired and will devleop and lead new efforts as well.

[Nicole]

Another option with those with HOAs with rules against gardens -- they don't prevent landscaping with edibles unless they specifically have a list of allowed plants.

[mnhfwz mnhfwz]

i went to the same school as patrick. i remeber those girls from my school who wrote in. they were white trash...i always felt so bad for them. tqnpus tqnpus - Mulberry Alexa Outlet.