Community gardens grow fresh veggies, friendships

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Community gardens — those patches of shared Earth where folks dig, till, sow and grow — have spread like ivy in metro Atlanta and beyond over the past two years.

And the reasons for their growth, from the economic slump to community building to therapeutic concerns, are as varied as the fruits and vegetables themselves, experts say.

“People are losing their houses; they’re losing their jobs; they’re looking for ways to stretch their food dollar,” said Glenda Garris, executive director of the Community Gardens of Henry County, an umbrella group that promotes gardens countywide. “And there’s something in people’s soul that wants to get them back to the land.”

About 20,000 community gardens exist nationwide, and the number continues to rise, said Bobby Wilson, president of the American Community Gardening Association and a University of Georgia cooperative extension agent.

In metro Atlanta, there are 165 active community gardens based on a summer 2008 count, said Fred Conrad, community garden coordinator at Atlanta Food Bank. Since then, at least 30 more have popped up, and that’s a conservative estimate, he said.

Still, some say that’s a gross underestimate with the rising number of unreported gardens and ballooning interest in gardening classes.

“We can’t seem to offer enough classes,” admits Stephanie Van Parys, executive director of the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur.

Experts say food scares, including the salmonella outbreak linked to a South Georgia peanut processing plant, have contributed to the rise of some gardens. Many were created by neighbors hoping to bond. Others established gardens to change the eating habits of overweight children or as therapy for seniors with Alzheimer’s. And penny-pinching amid tough economic times spurred the onset of some, too.

The economic factor

Last year, a garden filled with lettuce, tomatoes and okra at Birch Grove Apartments in Decatur fed about 50 Bhutanese refugees. Among them: 18-year-old Birendra Odari, his parents, one brother and two sisters. Only Odari’s 21-year-old brother is employed.

“Many people in my community didn’t have jobs,” Odari said. So with the help of a ragtag group of garden volunteers, the teenager cleared a patch of land to feed 12 Bhutanese families, including his own.

Once temperatures rise in a few weeks, Odari said, he’ll plant the seeds for summer — and expand the community venture.

“We plan to make gardens in every apartment where there are Bhutanese,” said Odari, noting that there are 50 complexes with a concentration of refugees. “If it is helpful for the whole community, it is better.”

Five miles away, Glynis Ward, a six-year instructor at Oakhurst Community Garden, said her once 10- to 12-person class has tripled with green-thumb wannabes.

“Half the class is interested in the quality of food,” she said. “The other half are interested in how much money you save and how much harvest you get.”

In her own garden, Ward said she grows 450 pounds of vegetables a year, shaving $3,000 to $5,000 off her annual grocery bill. She relays those figures to students, and they grow with excitement, she said.

“They suspect they could save money,” Ward said, “but they haven’t had anyone locally tell them they could save.”

Sixty miles east of Atlanta in Morgan County, five gardens collectively called Harvest of the Heart Garden feed thousands of seniors, disabled and financially strapped individuals each year.

In 2009, organizers grew 7.5 tons of vegetables and distributed them to 7,463 residents. In 2007, they distributed to fewer than 1,700 individuals, said Jewel Hatcher, a founder of the Madison-based garden.

“A year ago, there weren’t that many people gardening still,” Hatcher said. “The economic crisis is a wakening-up. It’s like everybody is trying to get on board [with community gardening] to make people realize it saves people money.”

Sense of community

Gardens have sprung up across metro Atlanta as a way to forge friendships. That was a factor for the recently established Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run.

Rebecca Barria, one of six founders, said the 60-plot garden off North Peachtree Road connects people to the land — and to themselves.

“For me personally, I’m not a very good gardener,” Barria said. “I was interested in the education aspects of being around other gardeners who have experience.”

Conrad, of the Atlanta Food Bank, agrees. “If you have anyone who is socially inept, the garden is the most disarming place to have a conversation,” he said. “You don’t have to know anything. You’re right there talking collards.”

In the historic West End, the 4-year-old Rose Circle Community Garden has eight members and 11 plots over half a city block. In the past, families have planted whatever they want, from kale to onions, on their own patch of land.

This year, the group is tossing out that model. Instead, members will decide cooperatively what to plant, where to plant and then they will eat the food together, founder Debbie Zimmerman said.

“This will enable us to have less waste,” she said. “We’ll be able to get more food out of it, and we’ll be able to expand and get more members. We’d like to make it more something we do together as a group.”

But not everyone digs the gardens. In Inman Park, a battle is being waged over a proposed community garden on green space near the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA station.

Supporters say it would create a place for folks to grow fruits and veggies while fostering community spirit. But critics, many of whom live across from the proposed site, say it would bring more traffic to an already-congested Hurt Street.

A little garden therapy

In metro Atlanta, about 35 gardens fall in the therapy-based category. They might assist adults with mental disabilities, teens with drug problems or children fighting obesity.

For the past two years, 10 mentally disabled adults tend to corn, tomatoes and beans at a garden in downtown Powder Springs.

“It’s therapeutic in the fact that it gives them something to do; it takes their mind off their own illness,” said Edith Page-Gude, CEO of Top of the Line Residential Care and Development Inc., which teaches life skills to those with depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. “[The garden] represents life, like a baby being born. It’s the same with the vegetables. They get the same stimulation.”

Garris, the garden executive in Henry County, is establishing two more community gardens this spring in McDonough to add to her group’s existing five. She believes the garden boom state- and nationwide shows no sign of abating given the economic and social climate.

“Everything is so stressful today. The garden is a peaceful place,” Garris said. “You can leave your troubles at the gate.”

Steps to starting a community garden

● Form a planning committee to determine the interest level

● Choose a site — taking sunlight, soil quality and water availability into consideration

● Organize the garden by determining, among other things, plot sizes and conditions for membership

● Consider insurance

● Consider a formal leadership structure to make decisions and raise money

SOURCE: American Community Gardening Association

Metro Atlanta 
garden facts

● There are 165 active community gardens.

● Decatur has the greatest concentration of gardens.

● At 35 years old, Tobie Grant Community Garden in Atlanta is the oldest.

● Cities with their own community gardens: Suwanee and Decatur; Smyrna and possibly Norcross are in planning stages.

● Garden sizes average one-quarter to one-third of an acre.

● Among plot sizes, the national average is 200 square feet. In Atlanta, the average is 64 square feet.

SOURCE: Atlanta Food Bank