There are many different styles of community gardens, but all community gardens provide gardening opportunities and social benefits to a community. Involvement in a community garden can provide inner-city dwellers with much needed produce, boost social networking within a community or expose children to the disappearing art of self-sustained living according to the Technology for the Poor president Dr. Job Ebenezer. Community gardens exist in many forms: self-sustained gardens, gardens assisted through grants and volunteer programs and gardens developed hand-in-hand with local parks departments. Several community gardens receive private funding as well.
Community-Sustained Gardens
Community-sustained gardens--like Job Ebenezer’s urban container gardens--are usually inexpensive gardens cared for and monetarily funded by the individual community members, though expensive upscale versions of these gardens do exist. Building a container garden requires nothing more than sowing seeds in a child’s wading pool with added drainage holes that is filled with dirt. Dr. Ebenezer utilized these inexpensive community gardens in urban areas in Chicago to prove gardening was accessible for even the very poor.
Non-Profit Organization Assisted Community Gardens
Many non-profit community garden programs have spread across the country. Founded in 1975, the Capital District Community Gardens (CDCG) in upstate New York is one of the oldest. Non-profit garden programs are dedicated to establishing and maintaining the belief that gardening is rewarding. NPO community garden programs develop volunteer bases to care for community gardens, fundraise and obtain available government grant money to fund local community garden programs.
Parks Department Community Gardens
Some communities establish community garden programs through local legislation efforts that divert city parks and recreations monies to the building and maintaining of community gardens. The Community Garden program--a division of Portland Parks and Recreations (PPR) in Portland, OR--has assisted in developing community gardens since 1975 according to PortlandOnline.com. Community gardens are funded through PPR, and PPR staff and volunteers care for the gardens.
Community gardens enrich neighborhoods and have the ability to assist local ecosystems. The growth and propagation of local native species in large gardens surrounding communities helps local ecosystems with pollination and continued existence. Community gardens are also excellent ways to allow urban children exposure to gardening and horticulture many urban living arrangements cannot provide. Community garden programs can also provide work for the elderly and persons rejoining society after rehabilitative efforts undergone in hospitals or prison systems.
Sources
Technology for the Poor: Urban Agriculture, accessed May 2010
Capital District Community Gardens, accessed May 2010
Portland Online: Community Gardens, accessed May 2010
Jonathan Septer - Jonathan D. Septer is an author, poet and music producer. His first novel, "Higher Calling," was published in 2008. He is an award-winning ...
