It’s a simple equation: more vacant lots in a neighborhood equals less stability in that neighborhood. Unless of course, you add another variable: community gardens. That’s where Detroit, with a staggering 27 percent vacancy rate, has succeeded. There, 520 family, community and school gardens bind neighborhoods that were once better known for blight than community activism.
“Vacant land acts as a destabilizing force in a community,” says Ashley Atkinson, director of The Greening of Detroit, one of the partnership organizations within the Garden Resource Collaborative. “Some neighborhoods are five percent vacant, some 85 percent; it’s a consistent theme throughout the city. The gardens act as a way to utilize abundant space and transform it into something positive.”
Each garden comes with its own set of rules. Some are reserved for local gardeners; others are open to the public, and most are open for tours by the Collaborative, which helps create a bond between gardeners throughout Detroit.
“The social capital that arises from our gardens is a major plus. People have found jobs and relationships through their garden. Other cities struggling with the social aspects of their gardens come to us for advice,” says Atkinson.
The Collaborative provides beginner farmers both with know-how and with seeds, ranging from carrots and lettuce to more exotic produce including tomatillos, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, calendulas, and fruit trees.
“Often people haven’t eaten or heard of these things before, but the natural impulse of a gardener is to plant it, care for it, and watch it thrive,” says Atkinson.
Atkinson says that the majority of new farmers take to the task with enthusiasm, coming back for classes on a broad range of topics from basic gardening, to leadership training, to bee keeping.
Strengthening the community isn’t the only benefit of Detroit’s gardens. They also have the potential to feed the city’s neediest population. A 2007 article in the Detroit News calls the city a “food desert,” meaning that the number of grocery stores per capita is significantly lower than in other areas of the country. As a result, people find themselves buying food in “fringe locations,” like convenience stores and gas stations, where quality is often lacking and prices are sky-high.
Not surprisingly, people are clamoring to see the gardens in action. In August of 2008, more than 500 people piled onto bikes and into buses to take a gander at what Detroit’s greenest thumbs have been up to. Concluding the annual tour was a reception that included a smorgasbord of gazpacho, vegetable roulade, vegan focaccia, beet salad, and zucchini bread—all made from ingredients harvested from the same gardens participants had toured. They were also invited to take part in hands-on cooking demonstrations, giving them a taste of the food and camaraderie that grows from Detroit’s 90-plus acres of gardens.
Photo Caption: Members of Detroit's Growing Joy community garden stand in front of plots filled with corn and Black-eyed Susans. Growing Joy is just one example of the hundreds of community gardens that thrive in the city. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Atkinson)
Related Links
1. http://www.detroitagriculture.org/Default.htm
2. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/METRO/707050349
