FOCUS ON: URBAN GARDENING
Whatever the name, urban gardening flourishing in region Great Recession, now pandemic pushing more to be self-sufficient, reclaim land, improve climate
LEARN MORE ABOUT URBAN GARDENING
Civic Garden Center
With its mission of building community through gardening, education and environmental stewardship, CGC bills itself as THE place in Cincinnati to learn about gardening, sustainability, and horticulture. www.civicgardencenter.org
Hamilton Urban Garden System
Since 2012, HUGS has installed dozens of organic urban gardens, participated in farmers markets, and partnered with local schools, community agencies, universities, and civic organizations around Hamilton, Ohio. www.hamiltonurbangardens.org
Loveland Learning Garden By Madeline Anderson
Planting beans in Price Hill Community Garden
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rban agriculture is about more than food. It’s a strategy to gain transparency and take ownership of and responsibility for our food systems and our environment. It’s a collective mobilization effort: building up the businesses, places of worship, schools and every neighbor in a given community. Even if you don’t have your hands in the soil yourself, many public gardens’ education and economic initiatives reverberate around the area for generations.
Also called urban farming, urban gardening or urban growing, these terms for growing food within metropolitan areas may describe different ways of transitioning our food systems from reliance on traditional, rural crop agriculture to ones closer to home. Community gardening, the most common form of urban agriculture, refers specifically to nonprofit or citizen-led efforts on public or private land. The various phrases for urban agriculture serve as a metaphor for its ability to adapt to differing needs. Often, urban agriculture is a collaboration between local government, nonprofits and consumers, but there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution. Cincinnati has many models of urban farms: social enterprises, corporate vertical farms, 501(c)(3) nonprofits and more.
empowered and rewarded by the literal fruits of their labor. Cincinnati’s Civic Garden Center was established in 1942 as an educational network for victory gardening. In 1980, its first community garden outreach program established the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden. This was a cutting-edge solution at the time to rejuvenate downtown Cincinnati and became a national model for neighborhood development. Urban agriculture’s popularity today tends to follow trends in the economy, as it did a hundred years ago. “Community gardening basically started falling away in terms of popularity during the early 2000s,” said Greg Potter, community garden coordinator at the Civic Garden Center. “And as the Great Recession happened in 2008, people’s financial situations started them thinking more about being self-sufficient. That’s one of the drivers of community gardens – people wanting to be self-sufficient.” This was especially true this past year. Desires to reconnect with nature, tackle environmental justice and take charge of our food sources have never been a greater part of our collective consciousness than during this global pandemic.
Finding its roots
Is sustainability sustainable?
Urban agriculture has some history in victory gardens, also known as war gardens. These were popular gardening efforts during World War I and II, where governments encouraged people to supplement their rations with home- or community-grown food. The gardens also boosted morale, because people felt
Urban farms may grow on city blocks, like Permaganic in Over-the-Rhine, or they may thrive in a suburban nature preserve, like Valley View in Milford. They may be funded by community fees, grants or direct donations – and often a mix of all of these.
A metaphor for life
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MAY 2021
Movers & Makers
Working to foster lifelong connections to the wonders of the natural world, LLG delivers outdoor hands-on learning experiences for children in its schoolyard gardens and nature trail. www.lovelandlearninggarden.org
Tikkun Farm
An urban farm in the neighborhood of Mt. Healthy, Tikkun hopes to be a place of healing, repair and restoration cultivated through meaningful work and spiritual practices for the restoration of the individual, the community and creation. www.tikkunfarm.com
Gorman Heritage Farm
A 122-acre nonprofit, working farm with a mission to educate about agriculture, nutrition, sustainability, and the environment, the vision of Gorman Heritage Farm is to cultivate an informed, involved community dedicated to Building Healthy Futures. www.gormanfarm.org
Turner Farm
A working farm and education center in Indian Hill, Turner Farm draws lessons from our rural heritage to help build a positive future, and demonstrate that local, organic, low-impact food production grows healthy communities and healthy ecosystems. www.turnerfarm.org
Check out these and other volunteer and educational opportunities at www.cincinnaticares.org
