This time of year always serves as a necessary change of pace after a busy and fruitful summer. Nature turns inward, directing energy and attention toward preserving resources and preparing for renewal in Spring. Invited by nature, we humans seem to follow suit. For me, reflection and gratitude seem to present themselves naturally and come easier when the weather gets cold and activity slows.

A topic at the top of my gratitude list this year is our experiences in watching community gardens grow in and around Philadelphia and beyond. Using edible annuals and perennials, these spaces tend to be primarily centered around food growing, but I have yet to find a space that doesn’t benefit from the incorporation of herbs and pollinators or the addition of plantings designed around sensory experiences like a dye garden. Witnessing a flourishing community space reminds us professional gardeners why we do what we do. All the ways that food growing connects us to our earth and each other present themselves in shared community garden spaces.

Awareness

Bearing witness to a child eating a raspberry off the vine for the first time or realizing a potato comes from the ground is a beautiful experience. Community garden spaces allow children and adults alike an arena for exploration, imagination and discovery. Many things can be learned by reading books, but some things just have to be experienced. Here are a few:

• Pulling all the greens off of a carrot without it coming out of the ground because you forgot to wiggle
• Being elbow deep in a thicket of cherry tomatoes in search of a fresh snack
• Overturning squash leaves to uncover a football size zucchini that everyone missed

Abundance

A proper community garden space can serve as a fresh food source for plenty of humans and animals alike. Whether a community space is managed as individual plots for rent or as a collective effort to donate to food-scarce communities, a lot of growing can be done in even the smallest of shared spaces. Especially in urban areas where green space is limited and residents may not have room to grow food, shared spaces can provide the footprint needed to produce otherwise hard to come by or overly expensive fresh and organic food. If we set up the right conditions and intentions, Mother Nature will deliver.

Education

Public garden spaces provide pleasant settings for all sorts of educational programming. We have seen spaces used for horticulture and gardening-specific topics like pruning and harvesting, as well as specific topics like clothes-dying or medicine-making. Other programs that tend to revolve around shared spaces are yoga, meditation, cooking, and music. When we create spaces for growing, we are also creating venues for learning and discovery.

Camaraderie

If you decide to volunteer at or start a community garden, you are likely to encounter like-minded characters. Bonding over a shared love of nature and food has been an essential aspect of the human experience for generations. Watching longtime neighbors that otherwise would have never met develop relationships or share recipes is a wonderful experience. Shared community spaces do indeed strengthen neighborhoods and create opportunities for connection, which is vital to the health of any town, school, or workplace.

We Can Help

Starting and maintaining a community garden space can be challenging. In addition to the challenges presented by gardening in general, community garden organizers often have to manage volunteers, township requirements, and school boards to name a few. We can help! Our mission is to be a key resource in the homegrown food movement, and community spaces are near and dear to this mission. From grant writing to design to volunteer organization, we have experience with all aspects of starting and maintaining these spaces.

We are grateful to all the dreamers out there, that labor with love to imagine a better world filled with communal green spaces where people come to experience the wonders of nature. If you or anyone you know is interested, we offer free, on-site consultations to anyone that needs help starting or maintaining a community garden space. Just give us a call!