Blossoming gardens cultivate interest in plants, neighborhood
Web Posted: 07/20/2007 09:53 PM CDT
(Lisa Krantz/Express-News)
David Gil, 15, with the Youth Leadership Organization, picks tomatoes in the Roots of Change Community Garden on East Commerce Street.
Express-News Staff Writer
Inside the Roots of Change Community Garden, Lara Cushing plucks a tart grape off the vine and pops it into her mouth with satisfaction. For the moment she seems to have forgotten the road construction racket from East Commerce Street and the mosquitoes biting her bare legs.
Cushing, like many urban community gardeners, has learned to survive the trials of man and nature in order to reap the benefits.
In addition to a few grapes, the benefits on this day include a fat yellow sunflower, several overgrown cucumbers, a white plastic bucket filled with red-orange tomatoes and a palpable sense of camaraderie.
Cushing isn't alone in her enjoyment of this verdant space tucked behind the Southwest Workers' Union. Cushing, environmental justice coordinator for the union, says about a hundred people have joined in the gardening efforts since construction began in February. And 14 or so other garden groups across the city have cropped up with a similar aim: growing a feeling of community alongside a few edibles. But many of the newcomers have been blighted this year by over-abundant rainfall, little sun and construction woes.
Roots of change
These gardens are by no means a first for San Antonio. During the world wars, Texans were encouraged to plant victory gardens to grow their own produce so more commercially sourced food would be available to the troops. Now, modern horticulturalists are implementing gardening styles as diverse as the plants they propagate, from flower and vegetable basics to children's education and environmental friendliness.
The Roots of Change garden, for instance, is meant to model a form of "green" land development and provide organic food to area residents and union members.
"You can't really buy organic on this side of town ... and then it's usually out of the price range of most of our members," Cushing says.
A couple of union members and youths have been inspired to do a little backyard gardening of their own. Cushing says such gardens can provide a sense of food security if a family's budget grows tight at the end of the month.
"It's just kind of empowering to know you can grow your own food and help sustain your family," Cushing says.
The gardeners also give youths a lesson about the earthy origins of prepackaged delights.
"They didn't know what a tomato plant looked like or that the onion is the part that grows under the ground," Cushing says. But, she adds, "People get it pretty quick. We've had like 3-year-olds planting seeds."
Diana Lopez, an 18-year-old environmental justice organizer with the union, grew a green thumb fast. At first, she didn't know the difference between perennials and annuals. Now, she's educating other youngsters about the garden and is planning to plant some tomatoes of her own at home. Lopez's efforts were recently rewarded with a $500 community grant from the media company Plum and nonprofit Do Something.
Cultivate and motivate
Many community garden groups have found an ally in the Bexar Land Trust. Though the larger purpose of the nonprofit is to preserve Bexar County's landscape and natural resources, the organization launched a community garden pilot program last summer. The nonprofit selected four garden proposals and began assisting them through the early stages of development.
"Community gardens: everyone thinks 'gardening' but the emphasis should be on 'community' because that's what makes it happen," says Angela Hartsell, Bexar Land Trust's community gardens coordinator. "A garden is an everyday kind of maintenance thing. The garden isn't going to happen by itself."
For a variety of reasons, some of the gardens are still toiling toward their first crop of plants. At the Southwest Community Garden on Clegg Drive, construction of a new community center that will share the site has slowed the gardeners' progress, says Hartsell. At the Garden of St. Therese behind the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, finding sunshine and developing a community commitment have been bigger challenges.
"Normally, this time of year I'd be biting my nails worrying about the sun toasting (the plants)," says Magdalena Alvarado, programs director for the restoration and community programs office at the basilica.
Alvarado may be staring at six anemic vegetable beds on the 1-acre lot, but she's envisioning something quite different — olive trees, pathways, a meditative space, and maybe someday, a farmers' market.
Changing demographics in the area around Kentucky Avenue has made finding a spectrum of participants more challenging, says Alvarado.
"We have an aging church population and a lot of immigrant families," says Alvarado.
But the demographics also reinforce her belief that a community garden is needed. Along with helping area residents move toward better nutrition and away from the dangers of diabetes and heart disease, she also hopes the project brings greater sociability.
"(Gardening) brings the neighbors together and breaks down barriers," says Alvarado. "There's something very basic about working alongside of somebody and producing something out of the dirt and sharing."
Horti-culture
Similarly, a connection to people and nature inspired the San Antonio Garden Organization to start work on a weed-filled lot along South Presa Street.
"There is this sort of cycle that we, as modern Americans, have sort of lost our understanding of," says garden coordinator Benjamin Lynn. "Eating your own food, I think you gain an extraordinary understanding of the natural processes."
Lynn and his fellow gardeners are using environmentally friendly tactics to make the most of their plot.
"We're trying to keep it as salvaged as possible," says garden coordinator Skyler Saucedo, referring to the decomposing railroad ties used to create hexagon-shaped beds and the old doors modified into a germination station. "We're trying to be somewhat conscious about our consumption and what we waste. And it's cheaper."
Local architect Darryl Ohlenbusch lent them the property for a few years in hopes of squeezing several harvests out of the land before he develops it. So the group of about 25 recently got to work crafting a design, gathering bags of seeds and preparing the area for growth.
During a Saturday morning work session, Lynn leans over and judiciously plucks a weed from within one of four hexagon plots. It's a small effort on a lot still filled with grass, but it's a start nevertheless.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment