Rocky Mount Telegram n SaTuRday, May 24, 2014
Rocky Mount TELEGRAM
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No planting space? Try community gardening
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Bill Daligian prepares a bed of onions at the Canoe Meadows Community Garden in Pittsfield, Mass., on Monday.
and bring it to church every Sunday.” One Los Angeles-area hospital subsidizes a serenity garden. “They believe it’s healthier for people to Community gardens are much more than neighbe outside in nature rather than stuck in rooms,” boring plots. Given enough energy and enthusiasm, Savio said. “It’s not so much what they harvest as it is they morph into support groups, horticulture classes, the therapists being able to exercise their clients.” swap meets or modest profit centers for low- and Many cities offer grants to help get gardens fixed-income growers. Small wonder there often is started, said Bill Dawson, a community garden more demand than availability. coordinator with the Franklin Park Conservatory Many have waiting lists. In the Los Angeles area, and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio. “They for example, it can be a year or more before people recognize it’s an amenity, much like a park. Corporaare able to acquire garden plots, said Yvonne Savio tions are doing it, too, as a perk to employees.” of the University of California Cooperative ExtenCommunity gardens range in size from a few 4-bysion in Los Angeles County. 10-foot sections to several acres. They are managed “Sometimes, people drive clear across town beeither communally – the people in charge decide cause that’s where their plot opened up first,” Savio what needs to be done and when – or left open for said. “Some people bring their tools with them on individual use. Sites might be offered free, or priced the bus.” from $5 to $50 and more per season. Locations are advertised in newspapers, on the “Most gardens set fees because their expenditures Internet and on neighborhood bulletin boards. Spon- in time, transportation (for gathering fertilizer, comsors vary from churches to hospitals, municipalities post, mulch), water and storage are so high,” Savio to large corporations. said. “One of our gardens is run by five guys from a Consider these elements of community gardening church,” Savio said. “They literally farm. They plant before signing up: what the parishioners want, then harvest the stuff O Know what you’re buying into. Many people By DEAN FOSDICK Associated press
join simply to work on their own in personal plots. Communal gardening, however, is a commitment – a chance to interact and share cultures with others, Dawson said. Be open to teaching or learning. O Embrace giving. Part of the harvest often is donated to food pantries or people in need. O Engage in inter-generational gardening. “Our children come home from school telling us about composting and organic gardening,” Dawson said. “The elderly know how to preserve and put things by. Families should learn from each other and enjoy. Share stories.” O Turn surplus properties into green spaces. “Haul away the needles and trash and convert the areas into something beautiful and productive,” Dawson said. O Community gardening prompts families to make healthier food choices. “They get better at understanding the nutritional value of fresh carrots over fast foods,” he said. “And if the kids are growing it, they’re eating it.” You can sell some or all of what you grow, Dawson said. “Gardeners can learn marketing skills, while at the same time get some seed money from their gardens.”
Lighting grabs the spotlight at annual showcase called it pretentious. But there were no apologies for the small-batch expressive lightNEW YORK – After walking ing, some of it quite beautiful, that the International Contemporary resin pigeons, in classical busts, I saw this year at the Javits and Furniture Fair, the annual showin paper bags. Then I caught sight beyond. Throughout the citywide case of new design that ended of the Horsehair sconce by the group of exhibitions and other its 26th run at the Jacob K. Javits New York design studio Apparaevents known as NYCxDesign, Convention Center on Tuesday, tus: twin hanks of hair suspended designers argued for the imporI have just one word to say. Are like pigtails from a brass arc, each tance of setting a mood in a room, you listening? ending in glowing frosted glass. or creating a showstopper. If the Horsehair. Gabriel Hendifar, Apparatus’ word “art” didn’t turn up in these That was the most surprising creative director, described the conversations, “jewel” often did. material I found integrated into a light as a “muscular thing, nonAnd more than ever, lighting light fixture. Which is saying a lot. chalantly hanging from a hook.” looked like a young designer’s As light emitting diodes have Asked whether you could trim pursuit, particularly for a knot of grown cooler in temperature, your fingernails by it, he said, “I professionals who have emerged warmer in color, dimmable and conceived of it more as an art out of Brooklyn and matured programmable, they have been piece that hangs on the wall.” together as collaborators and combined with a startling range It was only recently (in other friendly competitors. of materials to create luminous words, pre-2008) that a global Bec Brittain, for instance, sculptures otherwise known as wave of “design art,” or smallwas all over town. The 33-yearlamps. Sometimes you can even batch expressive work with limold Brooklyn lighting designer New York TimeS phoTo read by them. ited or nonexistent functionality, showed her angular fixtures at At this furniture fair, I thought I was the subject of debate. Some CP Lighting design studio offers lighting sculptures made out of had seen it all: LEDs embedded in loved and collected it. Others See LIGHTING, 2C recycled materials and all use LED lighting materials. By JULIE LASKy
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