The Need to Feed: Community Gardening - Past to Present

by Sheila Moon

Community Gardens

Defintion: Community gardens are collaborative projects on shared open spaces where participants cooperatively maintain the garden and share in the harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables.

There are many types of community gardens including those in neighborhoods, empty lots, allotments, schools, libraries and churches. There are also gardens that provide vocational training. Each type has benefits and concerns which should be considered before starting a community garden.

I became interested in community gardening while living with my husband in South City St. Louis area. We noticed empty lots between houses in the city and we kept thinking it would be nice if we could get permission to garden in those empty lots. There was at least one on every block in our part of town.

But there was always something that stopped us like: Who would oversee it, how would we pay for the expenses of gardening, and how would we water it?

We moved to my husband’s childhood home after finding out we were having our daughter Isabella. The house was out of the city and the problems of poverty or the lack of space for gardening was as they say, “out of sight, out of mind”, and we never implemented any of our ideas of community gardens in St. Louis.

However, we did plant gardens in every backyard where we lived, wanting to be able to give my daughter the fresh food that I had enjoyed growing up. After moving around a bit we settled in Southeast Georgia and became members of the Zion Lutheran Church in Guyton, Georgia.

About a year later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and gardening not only became a want but a need! I was blessed enough to have caught it early but with having a young daughter I wanted to do everything I could to ensure it wouldn’t come back. Gardening we heard was hard in this part of the country. But the need for fresh healthy vegetables was driving us to at least try. After being mentored through one full growing season by a few elders of the church, we started looking around for some land to use for a garden.

There was an empty lot next to the church and we thought that maybe we weren’t the only people with a passion for gardening. We had also learned that food was scarce for some families here and a lot of folks with real needs fell through the cracks.

Now not only was there a need for us, but once again we saw the need to garden to feed others.

That week Chris and I started talking about these people who might need our help and how a community garden could help to provide for families in our community.

Our church allowed us to plant on a small plot of land that was empty at the time and that was the blessing we needed. The rest is history! With the mentoring from elders in our church and the helping hands of church family and our friends in the community we established The Zion Community Garden.

As I did research to write this series on community gardens, I realized that this is certainly not a new concept and has come full circle in history from starting out of a need to feed, the need to teach, the need to beautify, and back to the need to feed and to teach our children how to do the same.

My hope in writing this series on community gardens is that I inspire you to become part of my family’s dream, that there is enough food (at least in our corner of the world) for all!

Now, that I have shared my own history with community gardens, here is a bit about the history of community gardens themselves here in the U.S.

From the late 1800s through the 1940s, community gardens were started with one purpose and one purpose only - to grow food. Vacant lot gardens were started because of the recession of the 1890s. The first city in the United States to start an urban gardening program was the city of Detroit.

The Mayor started this initiative because of a recession that started in 1893, which left many new immigrants unable to find work and hungry. These plots of land were known as “Pingree’s Potato Patches,” named after the mayor who started the program. Unemployed workers were supplied with plots of land, along with seeds to plant, tools, and instructions on how to take care of these gardens which were printed in three different languages for the immigrants. This plan for vacant lot gardening in Detroit was such a success that other cities from coast to coast began their own gardens.

As economic conditions improved, children became the focus of public gardens. Schools began to plant gardens in order to teach children individual productivity and self pride in taking on responsibility for assigned areas of these gardens. Just like today, teachers used these gardens not just for food, but as learning tools with different motivations.

Just like teachers today, they used these gardens not only to promote healthy eating, but also to raise awareness of environmental health, and they incorporated these gardens in teaching critical thinking in areas of science, literature, and history.

As times changed, once again it affected the gardening focus. The United States entered into World War I and food once again became the primary focus of community gardens.

The U.S. wanted to increase exports to Europe because it was suffering from a food deficit. Citizens were encouraged to become “soldiers of the soil” and gardening became an act of patriotism.

Our advertisers make it possible to share the stories of our local food system!

There was a special commission for these “War Gardens” which used this notion to build public support for the school gardening movement and used posters to promote them. This commission recorded that at one time during 1917, there were 3,500,00 war gardens which yielded some $350 million worth of crops.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, attention was focused on the economic crisis which brought about the Thrift Gardens. Cities began to develop gardens to provide their large populations with desperately needed food with help of community service organizations.

With the onset of Word War II in 1941, the need arose to bring back the Liberty Gardens which took on a new name, Victory Gardens. Reports estimate between 18 and 20 million American families with Victory Gardens provided the U.S. with 40 percent of all the vegetables grown in 1944.

When WWII ended, so did the Victory Gardens. Moving to the suburbs became the American dream as did backyard gardening which provided these gardeners much more privacy than the community gardens of the past.

The 1960s and 70s saw a resurgence in urban gardens as poverty took hold in the inner-cities. These community gardens served many different purposes to many different people. People found that having a garden in their neighborhood provided a common space to meet and talk with friends. And it gave children and the elderly a place to get exercise while gardening. Many immigrants used these gardens to express their ethnic backgrounds and cultural traditions.

Presently, growing food that is safe to eat has become a driving force that once again, is making community gardens popular. While our need for clean food pushes us to grow and buy local, some interesting things are happening along the way.

Our palettes change and we become big fans of fresh produce. Our children learn to connect to nature and enjoy the outdoors, not only learning how to take care of and be responsible for growing food for themselves but also for others. By depending on our community gardens for our fresh produce, we adults learn that there is more money in our pockets and more love in our hearts as we grow food to feed ourselves and our neighbors.

Spring Fling

Spring is approaching soon, planting for certain crops has already started. But if you haven’t started yet, don’t fret I have come up with a short list to jumpstart your process.

Here is a link to the UGA Extension’s Vegetable Planting Chart and, as you will see, we are at the beginning of these growing seasons. However, if you see something that is borderline too late to plant, don’t let that kill your motivation, I always say, “Better late than never!” Go ahead and give it a try!!

Last, but not least don’t get caught up in having to be perfect. Yes, there are certain things you should do that will guarantee your gardens success but during our first year I can tell you we were not at all perfect! Have fun!!

Short List

• Find your location : with a minimum of six hours of sun • Find your garden team: there are master gardeners in training out there their advice and time donated is invaluable. • Decide time and talents: remember to delegate so others feel part of the plan • Decide what you want to plant, remember to plant flowers as well. • Use the growing chart as a guide. • Test your soil for what you are planting • Use products to help balance your soil for what is right for what you are growing. • Find your water source • Plot out your garden using rows, raised beds, or individual plots. Start out small you can always add later in the growing season. • Start Planting • Set up signage and a center communication point at your garden • Decide upon a set of guidelines and clearly post them • Decide how you will share your garden information with your community • Set times to share produce with everyone in your area • Set up a time to celebrate all your hard work! Most importantly - become knowledgeable, build friendships, reach out into your community, and enjoy!!