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Extension Specialists Bob and Ellen from North
Carolina A & T University, and Cornell University intern
Krystian, partnered with community people to implement Garden Mosaics
at four sites in North Carolina. They found that community gardens
are not very common in North Carolina, perhaps because fewer people
live in apartments and more land is available for gardening than
in cities such as Philadelphia or New York. They did, however, find
a number of sites to implement Garden Mosaics, including a demonstration/community
garden, a neighborhood garden, a fire station garden, and a home
garden.
SEEDS Community Garden
South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Inc. (SEEDS)
is a grassroots, community organization in Durham, NC. It conducts
community gardening education programs, and runs a demonstration/community
garden and a market garden. The demonstration garden highlights
art displays, medicinal plants, and other creative educational
and
aesthetic approaches for managing urban vacant land. Community
members also have plots in the demonstration garden. The market
garden is
run by youth involved in the Durham
Inner-city Gardeners (DIG) program. The youth grow a range of
organic
vegetables and cut
flowers for the Durham Farmer's Market. Eight youth from DIG
conducted Garden Mosaics activities with gardeners who had plots
in the demonstration garden. The gardeners are members
of the La Petite garden club. They grow their vegetables without
adding fertilizers and have no pest problems, which they say is
due to the healthy soil.
Garden Mosaics provided an opportunity for the youth and adult
gardeners to learn from each other, and to exchange ideas about
possible collaborations. They brainstormed a number of ideas that
they hope to follow up on this spring, including:
• Conducting a taste test of vegetables grown by SEEDS and vegetables
grown by other gardeners,
• Establishing a North Carolina A&T research site at SEEDS,
and
• Investigating alternative irrigation
systems for the garden.
Southgate Neighborhood Garden
In Winston-Salem, 4-H
youth conducted Garden Mosaics activities with Shedrick, a gardener
at the Southgate Neighborhood Garden. The Southgate Garden was
started
in 1997 and is primarily tended by residents of the Southgate apartment
complex. Shedrick
and his neighbors grow vegetables such as zucchini,
onions, Asian yard beans, green
beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes for
themselves and their neighbors. Although they put a lot of work,
attention, responsibility, dedication, and love into the garden,
Shedrick noted that the garden provides many things for them, including
therapy, sanctuary, community, and food.
Fire Station #16
In Charlotte, a neighborhood youth group spent time at Fire Station
#16 with Captains Fink, Harris, and Webb. The firemen take turns
tending a 35 x 45 ft garden that they started six years ago. They
grow vegetables for meals at the fire station, including cucumbers,
beans, squashes, tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, banana peppers,
and okra. The cucumbers are grown on a seven-foot high trellis to
save space. The youth learned that the firemen use chemical fertilizer
but not pesticides. To distract squirrels and keep them out of the
garden, the firemen put up a bird feeder.
Mauney Home Garden
The neighborhood youth group in Charlotte also visited with gardeners
Leonard and Mamie at their two-acre home garden. Leonard and Mamie
grow a variety of vegetables including beans, squash, tomatoes,
corn, cucumbers, peanuts, okra, and peas. They also grow apples,
peaches, pears, grapes, strawberries, watermelons, walnuts, and
pecans. They sell most of their produce through word of mouth.
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