Does your City have Community Gardens like Denver?

[Ichingcarpenter]

Community Gardens are areas of land in the city where
residents can grow their own food on small plots.
They have been in existence decades in Denver.


Over 60 Community gardens can be found throughout Denver, Lakewood, Aurora,

Commerce City, Englewood and Sheridan. The gardens are community initiated and maintained projects. DUG assists neighborhoods with the planning, design, coordination and construction of the gardens, most of which are located in low-income urban neighborhoods.

Through these urban oases, community gardeners collectively assume responsibility to improve their neighborhoods, initiate a sense of pride in their surroundings, and grow fresh, organic food close to home.

Community gardens are not just for growing vegetables. While tending a garden may be the initial goal, empowerment, self-sufficiency and pride in the neighborhood are the true, and valuable, ends.

I used to have a small plot in downtown Denver when I lived there and grew
tomatoes, beans and herbs.



http://dug.org/gardens.html

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Now in LA there is another movement happening


Guerrilla gardener movement takes root in L.A. area

Stealth growers seed or plant on land that doesn't belong to them. The result? Plants that beautify or yield crops in otherwise neglected or vacant spaces.

Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo "seed bombing" runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts.

Part beautification, part eco-activism, part social outlet, the activity has been fueled by Internet gardening blogs and sites such as GuerrillaGardening.org, where before-and-after photos of the latest "troop digs" inspire 45,000 visitors a month to make derelict soil bloom.

"We can make much more out of the land than how it's being used, whether it's about creating food or beautifying it," says the movement's ringleader and GuerrillaGardening.org founder, Richard Reynolds, by phone from his London home. His tribe includes freelance landscapers like Scott, urban farmers, floral fans and artists.

"I want to encourage more people to think about land in this way and just get out there and do it," says Reynolds, whose new handbook for insurgent planters, "On Guerrilla Gardening," is out this week.

The activists see themselves as 21st century Johnny Appleseeds, harvesting a natural bounty of daffodils or organic green beans from forgotten dirt. It's a step into more self-reliant living in the city," says Erik Knutzen, coauthor with his wife, Kelly Coyne, of "The Urban Homestead" to be released in June. The Echo Park couple have chronicled "pirate farming" on their blog, Homegrown Evolution. Guerrilla gardening, Knutzen says, is a reaction to the wasteful use of land, such as vacant lots and sidewalk parkways. He's turned the parkway in front of his home into a vegetable garden.



http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-hm-guerrilla29-2008may29,0,4863671.story

[Reader Rabbit]

1. Yup. Supported by tax dollars, even.

Portland Community Gardens

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I think this is alternative that urban dwellers need to be aware of

It does not surprise me that Portland has them is great.
I think we are gonna see a movement in this direction with
food costs rising so fast.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I hope more people put up links like you did for their cities and town

It could become a great resource and also show ways to get them started
in their own towns.

[Bob Dobbs]

3. Don't tell anyone, but Denver is awesome on so many levels.

It's a city with world class amenities, an incredible climate, quick access to the world's greatest snowboarding (until global warming puts and end to it) and the people here are mostly very cool and progressive.

Mrs. DBtv and I have lived in Atlanta and on the beach in Florida and we love Denver more than any place we have ever lived.

And, yes, the community garden project is fantastic. My community garden is my back yard, but it's super cool that those without any space can get into the community gardens.

[niyad]

5. just think, 75 miles south, not only do we not have community gardens, the

county commissioners, etc., are trying to sell off public lands. wish we did, but such things are beyond the powers-that-be down here.

[Miss Carly]

6. I am putting a garden in right now in my back yard

tomatoes, peppers, cantalope, watermelons, cucumbers, hopefully some summer squash from seed, as well as green beans.
Carly

[conscious evolution]

7. Behind my backyard near downtown Atlanta

The commune I live in abbutts a community owned land trust.
It has about an acre and a half of small garden plots that nieghbors tend.
We are in the process of clearing and terracing more land to cultivate food bearing trees..We are also trying to raise funds to buy more land.
Most of the food plots are from heirloom seed banks.Several people here are actively involved in building up heirloom seed stocks.

In addition to the garden plots we have a playground and picnic area with a gazebo that is used by children in the nieghborhood.(As a matter of fact,as I am typing this,I can see some parents preparing for a kids birthday party.)A couple of day care and after school programs for kids and youth also use the land trust facilities.

The land trust also has a small community building for larger events and winter time use.

There are also at least four other land trusts that I know of within a few miles of here.

We also have a stage and amphitheater with a fire pit for drum circles and other live music events.

Here is a link to our website: http://www.lcclt.org/

[Quantess]

8. I've never participated in one.

But San Francisco and Portland both have them.

How is it decided who gets to pick the produce? How does that usually work? I imagine a gardener could get PO'd if, after all that work, some random person ate the fruits of their labor without permission.

[PeaceNikki]

9. Yup. Milwaukee has for many many years.

http://milwaukee.uwex.edu/hort/urbanag/gardenrental.cfm

[defendandprotect]

10. We have a soccer field with a $1 million dollar grass TURF added about a year ago--!!!

Can you imagine that????

We have gone so far overboard in letting kids' athletics become a farce about superstardom!!!

[FVZA_Colonel]

11. Seattle has the "P-Patch" (I believe) Program.

I'm not sure how it compares to Denver or other cities, but I'm glad it's there.