by Joanne O’Sullivan . photos by Brent Fleury
Someone has some extra land. Someone else has a hoe. Seeds are planted, watered, and tended to. A garden grows. Its yield is harvested—many hands make light work. The seasons change and the cycle begins again.
As a concept, community gardens are anything but new, but today they’re described with the buzziest of buzz words: sustainable, self-sufficient, low food miles, urban agriculture. A community garden can be a way to work the land for those who don’t have any land. For those who do, it can be a way to share or give back. Fresh, organic produce is one result, but those who garden together say the best by-product of community gardens is the close connection to neighbors and the satisfaction of working together for a common goal.
There’s no firm definition of a community garden: it can be a plot divided into equal parts or worked together; located on private or public land; produce food, flowers, or both; involve individuals, families or groups, children and adults.
In the mountains, community gardens are as varied as the people they serve. These local efforts are just a few of nearly three dozen community gardens within a two-hour drive of Asheville.
The Falconhurst Community Garden in West Asheville
That grass-covered stretch on the edge of Abby and Austin Walker’s West Asheville property wasn’t doing anything except waiting to be mowed. Meanwhile, other lots in the neighborhood were either too small or too shady for vegetable gardening. Matching the resource with the need turned that 2,500-square-foot grassy patch into a community garden. Now 11 neighborhood families pay a nominal yearly fee to share equal parts of the garden’s weekly harvest of seasonal vegetables (the herbs and flowers are divided on a ‘take what you need or want’ basis). Those with less time to commit can become monthly members. Walker isn’t sure this arrangement is what some would call a community garden. “It’s more like an urban CSA (community supported agriculture farm),” she says. But now in its second year, the garden has brought neighbors together for work days, potlucks and even a harvest festival in the fall. Kids work alongside their parents, pulling beans off the vine for a healthy snack and learning the values of self-sufficiency and community—new seeds being planted for the future.
The Lord’s Acre in Fairview
Fairview is blessed with rich farmland and glorious mountain views, but not everyone gets to share in those benefits. The Food for Fairview food bank serves 60 local families in need each week. Members of the Fairview Christian Fellowship wanted to help the food bank, and in discussions with The Chapel Door, a church just down the road, they came up with a solution. The Lord’s Acre, located on a quarter-acre behind the Chapel Door, is a community garden with a purpose: to end local hunger. While the church communities started the garden, anyone is welcome to come to the Wednesday or Thursday evening or Saturday morning work days. Church groups, school groups, families, and individuals have turned out to help since the garden took root this past summer. In addition to planning and tending the garden, manager Sue Sides makes sure that those who volunteer leave with a positive experience since they won’t be leaving with food (the whole harvest goes to the food bank). Giving fresh produce to people who may usually eat from boxes or cans is a big part of the garden’s mission. “It kind of levels the playing field on organics,” says Sides, noting that organic produce is healthiest, but usually too expensive for those with limited means. Healthier food leads to healthier lifestyle: it’s a first step to a better life.
The Shiloh Community Garden in Asheville
Darcel Eddins still remembers the look on one little boy’s face when he saw a carrot come out of the ground. “You mean that’s where they come from?” he asked in amazement. As co-founder of the Bountiful Cities Project—Asheville’s community garden initiative—she’s seen children and grown-ups alike make new and deep connections with the earth and with their food source through gardening. The project, which started in 2000, operates or partners with several gardens in the community, including the George Washington Carver Edible Park (just to the side of the Stevens Lee Rec Center in Asheville), the Vance Elementary School Garden, the Shiloh Community Garden, the Joyner Street Garden in West Asheville, and the group’s flagship garden on Pearson Drive in Montford. The organization’s mission is social justice, sustainability, and education, and central to that mission is the Strong Roots program, a math and science based gardening program for elementary school kids. But it’s not just kids who learn through gardening, says Eddins. In conjunction with their garden, Shiloh residents contributed to a recipe book featuring old Southern favorites. But they also learned a few new ways to prepare vegetables without one particular old Southern favorite: fat back.
