What Can Community Gardens Do For You? By Dr. Cathy Sabota, Extension Holticulturist

Community gardens are more than a source of fresh food and better nutrition. They instill community pride, better race relations, and neighbor interaction. They also help to reclaim land, providing vital environmental and educational benefits (Payne and Fryman, 2001).

Community gardens can and should be self-sustaining. After undergoing start-up, the garden can be sustained primarily by the will of the community rather than outside agencies or experts. The community should come first. It's important to build on the ideas of the community rather than allowing outside participants to control the process.

When establishing a community garden, reach out to community leaders, government agencies, religious groups, and community organizations. Find the assets in the community. There is often a business in the area that will benefit from the garden by improving the surrounding environment or by garden participants that frequent that business. A local food store may be interested in buying some of the produce to support the garden and help make it sustainable.

People are more likely to come together if they feel they have something in common. Gardens that have common areas and shared spaces, like shade and benches, give gardeners a place to gather outside of organized meetings. A garden built on racial, ethnic, cultural, and/or age diversity can nourish sharing of new foods, crafts, music, and history.

In Denver's Urban Gardeners' (DUG) program, community gardeners grow everything from flowers for seniors to barrio gardens. They have erected sculptures as a tribute to all the children that died as a result of violence. They not only provide food from the gardens, but it's a place to nourish the soul. A main issue of the DUG program is that if there is not strong support for a garden from the neighborhood, then the program will fail.

So, why do people participate in community gardens? A recent attitudinal evaluation of garden leaders and volunteer was conducted in Chicago using eight focus groups. A follow-up survey was also conducted with 1600 others involved in community gardening (Taufmann, 2003). What they discovered was quite amazing. To provide some background on the gardens, they obtained some key measures that characterize the gardens in the Chicago area.

• Only 35 percent of community gardens have an annual budget and those that do average less than $2,000.
• 85 percent of community gardens received no financial support in the past year and those that did averaged $2,500.
• 67 percent of community gardens received assistance from only one to three organizations in the past year.
• The study also found that at two-thirds of the community gardens, three or fewer people volunteer on the average workday (a workday is an established day where all volunteers are requested to work as a group to typically accomplish several specific tasks like weeding).
• Most gardens in the study (83 percent) have a water source that is located inside their garden.

Most of the gardens included in the study were started for one of the following reasons:

• To eliminate unattractive vacant lots and prevent crime
• To beautify and encourage others to beautify their neighborhood
• To raise property values and/or enhance the attractiveness of the neighborhood.
• To build community (person to person interactions)
• To provide enjoyment and leisure opportunities
• To provide therapeutic benefits
• To provide an outlet for children with disabilities
• To provide food for the homeless and hungry
• To promote organic gardening.
• To act as an educational resource (school gardens)

Participants in the study provided a list of perceived garden impacts that included:

• Fewer transients, vagrants, alcohol and drug users, drug dealers and gang members hanging out in the area: significant decrease in illegal or illicit activities at the location.
• Greater interaction and communication among neighbors
• Enhanced beauty of not just the garden area, but also the surrounding neighborhood because the garden has motivated others to beautify their property.
• Food
• Reduced noise
• Increased interest in gardening
• Historic landscape restored
• Slowed development and gentrification
• Reduced pollution
• Attracted wildlife
• Increased awareness of the neighborhood association.

If you are planning to establish a community garden you will need neighborhood support and support from community leaders, businesses, council members, churches, banks, schools, police, and others. One of the most frequently asked questions by these groups is, "What does this garden offer me or my community?" While the information mentioned above varies by location and type of garden, it will be useful to have when building a case for your garden.

References
Taufmann, Michelle. (2003). Green connections: A research assessment of community gardening in Chicago. Chicago Botanic Garden and City of Chicago.

Abi-Nadir, Jeanette, Kendall Dunnigan and Kristen Markley. (2001). Growing communities curriculum: Community buiding and organizational development through community gardening., Philadelphia, PA: American Community Gardening Association.