GROW
Hatching New Plots
photography: Growing Places
words: Amy Lynch
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n 2012, Edible Indy took a look at community gardens and urban green spaces across central Indianapolis. As a new decade gets under way, we thought it might be interesting to revisit the topic and see how things have grown (so to speak) since then.
What’s in a name? Community gardens in Indianapolis are just one component of the greater urban agriculture landscape. A “community garden” is a shared growing enterprise undertaken by a collective group of people who plant, maintain and harvest their own individual plots; “urban agriculture” can refer to any public or private growing effort in an inner-city or urban setting. “Community gardens—including rooftop gardens, schoolyard gardens, backyard gardens and neighborhood gardens—are usually nonprofit endeavors that provide a sense of community and connection to the environment,” explains Executive Director Victoria Beaty of Growing Places Indy. “Urban agriculture, urban farming or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in or around urban areas—very similar to community gardens, but on a larger scale.” “Some projects refer to themselves as community gardens, but they’re really collective farm projects,” adds Amy Matthews, Urban Agriculture program assistant for Purdue Extension Marion County. “Bethany Community Gardens is one example where there are plots people can rent, and also a community effort where everyone works on a certain day and the output goes to food banks.” At the time the original Edible Indy article appeared, there were around 50 urban community gardens in Center Township.
According to Beaty, that number has grown to more than 150 community gardens and urban farms in the Indianapolis area. With support from Purdue Extension Marion County, IndyGrown.com is constantly adding entries to a comprehensive map of market farms, community gardens, school gardens and educational facilities and nonprofit farms throughout Central Indiana. “These categories each serve different purposes, and we need them all working together to create a vibrant urban ag community,” Matthews says. “Many successful garden projects going on right now are less than 5 years old. Growin’ Good in the Hood has gained a lot of traction, while the Burkhart Community Garden in Rocky Ripple is one of longest-established community gardens in town.” One of the big challenges community gardens face is finding consistent support. “It can be a struggle to fill all the spots and find people to do the necessary work to keep up the spaces,” Matthews says. “But projects like the community garden at Krannert Park, which was dormant for a while, are now experiencing a resurgence. It goes in cycles.”
Why garden? The camaraderie that community gardening creates is as much an attraction as the edible output itself, especially for younger participants who get an education along the way. “Community gardens give Indianapolis residents access to garden space they may not have otherwise,” Beaty says. “And, community gardens and urban farms can be influential contributors to fostering healthy communities.” edibleINDY.com
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