Green Living
Eco-friendly living often is an individual choice, by making changes to your own home, or determined by developers and builders who create communities with water- and energy-saving features.
A community garden, however, is one way that residents can come together to embrace the earth, grow their own food and beautify a neighborhood or street.
The 11,000-square-foot community garden at Soleil Laurel Canyon, a 55-and-up community in Canton has helped residents embrace green living and create an environment where friendships bloom.
“It serves as a gathering place and where we share ideas; it is a huge community of people,” said Helen Ford, co-founder of the Soleil Garden Club, which has about 75 members.
What’s in the garden
Residents grow a variety of flowers and food, including tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, beets, yellow and green squash, okra, peas, Brussels sprouts, bush beans, carrots, cucumbers and corn.
The garden also has perennial beds lined with boxwood borders in front of a classical greenhouse from England. Inside the greenhouse, unique features include a ginkgo tree planted in honor of three residents who helped the community through the period when initial developer Levitt & Sons filed for bankruptcy in 2007, a water fountain and a red bloodgood Japanese maple near benches. Three compost bins have been built so that garden users can further their commitment to living green.
How it works
Residents rent the 50 individual planting beds. To use the community garden, residents pay $30 to join the Garden Club, which hosts speakers, seasonal parties and maintains the garden, and $10 for the planting plot for the first year (after that, the Garden Club membership drops to $10 per year and the plot remains $10 annually).
Some homeowners share a plot, and, in some cases, homeowners use two plots to separate what they’re planting (such as corn in one and beans in another).
“You never go to the garden to check on your plot where you don’t see two or three or four other people down there,” Ford said. “You know for sure we’re going to be talking about the buds that are on our squash or just catch up on what we’re doing. It’s a wonderful way to get to know a group of people who share this pretty strong basic human interest in growing things.”
With the age of the residents in mind, the raised beds are higher than normal so it’s is easier to access the plants without bending down to the ground. Some of the beds are about three feet high, Ford said.
Three Tips for Creating a Community Garden
1. Put people in charge
To ensure that neighbors remain friendly, communities need to make plot assignments clear and have barriers between plots, Ford said. Rules need to be set so plants don’t grow into other beds. At Soleil, the garden is managed by its garden club, which makes sure the soil is fertile and ready to plant.
2. Keep items in order
A shed at the garden is used to store tools and equipment. Members of the Soleil Garden Club receive a code to access the shed.
3. Get help from experts
UGA cooperative extension agents can offer knowledge about gardens shared by neighbors and how to have a successful crop. Visit www.caes.uga.edu/extension/office.cfm for a list of agents by county or call 800-ASK-UGA1. Volunteers with the Georgia Master Gardener program are available to speak about gardening. Visit www.hort.uga.edu/extension/mastergardener for more information.
