The Urban Ministry Center Community Garden is unusual because the gardeners are homeless. Other than that, we are like many urban community gardens. We grow food, plus we beautify the landscape with flowers and trees. As with any community garden, “community” comes first. Meaning that our harvests of stories, good will and shared experiences are every bit as important and nourishing as our tomatoes, okra, broccoli and greens. And we provide a welcoming place for people who spend their lives being chased away or ignored, and a unabashed home for improvised urban art.
The garden and landscaping (since we garden everywhere on the property) try to set a good environmental example, in a couple of ways. In our production garden, we manage the garden organically – in this case, meaning that we feed the soil with compost and organic soil amendments, and manage our garden as an ecosystem, without using dangerous pesticides. We discourage people from becoming chemically dependent, and our garden simply follows the same philosophy. We are moving toward use of native and non-invasive plants, and wise water use. And our landscape culture is shaped by those who came before us (we have a medicine wheel we are working on now, made from urban rubble) and the good earth that sustains us all. If it is a political statement to grow good food in the city, then we are political indeed.
We welcome volunteers – without them, our Center would have to close. As the open door agency working with the homeless, we turn no one away. We are supported largely by people of faith from a wide variety of backgrounds, and receive no public or United Way funding (meaning we don’t have to ask people for lots of paperwork).
Our garden is a garden first, and other things second. It exists to serve the neighbors (as we call those who come to us seeking help, rather than label them “homeless” or “clients” or some such thing. As in “love your neighbor as yourself”). Probably, the most important benefit is the chance for people, homed and not, to work side-by-side, talking person to person. Yes, we also harvest some delicious organic food – and it makes a huge difference that we grew it ourselves. And we are always learning. Some people may well learn enough here to begin doing horticultural work as a livelihood. But, above all, this is our garden, a safe place for healing, reflection, laughter, beauty, work and a “ministry of presence”.
Ray Isaac, old friend and now living in his own place, in our first garden, 1997-2002.
Don, I really liked your comments at Garden Rant. I’d love to read your thesis. How can I get a copy?
Ed Bruske
President, D.C. Urban Gardeners
euclidarms@yahoo.com
Hi, Ed,
Thanks very much for your note, and I enjoyed that N discussion on Garden Rant, too.
I’m now in the process of digitizing my thesis and should have it posted next year. Your interest is a good added incentive.
Best of luck in D.C. you’ve got a great program We’re working toward that down here.
Don, I posted this in a comment over on the Rant but in case you didn’t check back, here’s some early Michael Pollan thoughts that touch on our discussion. Susan
http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=31
Thanks very much, Susan. Michael Pollan has such an elemental role now, articulating ideas that resonate with many who love gardening. Same for Barbara Kingsolver, I think, as well as for you folks who’ve created GardenRant.
Dear Don,
I would love to know how I could get involved with the program. I love the community garden. I had no idea it was happening. I like most Charlotteans do not know about what all is happening, and I would like to be a part of the help and happenings there at the Ministry. I would like to learn as well as culminate projects in the community to earn the center some funds….. perhaps they could sell small starter plants for people like me- who totally lack a true green thumb….. I would love to have a garden as glorious as your photos show. I feel that I would like some lessons and tips, as well as the knowledge of how to take care of them, and what is best in our hard soil and what will withstand our horrible season condisitons (ie. this years drought). I could even think of several folks I know who could use the assistance with lanscape projects and would pay- this would give the center money- the neighbors some pocket money perhaps…. and I would love one of the bottle trees for my own garden. I love the colors and I think the visual presence of it in my landscape would make me ever more prevalent about the work and time that should be spent with the neighbors there in the programs. Any ideas of suggestions….. My mother is a terrific gardener and my now deceased grandmother was an even better one than my mother, but that whole trait or genetic pre disposition…. skipped me in its entirety (SADLY). I spend a lot of money on plants that die in my landscape…… for me overwatering, overwatering etc… and I think that I would rather purchase the plants from you all and put that money into your program there than support the likes of the lowes, the home depots and the nurseries out there…. I would truly like to come out and see what you do, and learn of options that I could assist with… or ways that I could help and make a difference….. Please feel free to let me know at the email address provided.
Thank you for your blog, and for all the things that you do. I have to tell you that it has touched my heart in reading it today.
Tammy, thank you very much for your heartening reply! You have some wonderful ideas and welcome energy.
I will send you a note via email. The Center relies on volunteers like you, and we provide excellent support.
In the garden, everybody learns – it is a “learning garden” first of all. Don’t give up on those green genes, they are in there! Some of the neighbors who work in the garden know a great deal about growing things, often learned at their parent’s side – it is really fun to watch them teaching folks who come here.
Anyway, our next flurry of projects will be in January. Even though we won’t be planting much until later in the spring, there’s still a lot to do to get ready for the coming year and some hoped-for new projects. So, hope you can come join us some Saturday morning.
Have a very happy holiday and blessed New Year, hope to see you soon.
Again, to see my brother’s bottle tree still there is amazing. So many things in life are transitory…thanks for stirring up the memories of the days we spent there after he left this earth.
Trisha Smothers Freitag, Missouri
Trisha! Very good to hear from you, and our best wishes to you and your family in the coming year.
There isn’t a day that I don’t feel Ken’s presence in the garden here. He left a lasting light in a dark and troubled world.
Ray, shown in the picture, was a friend and ‘foil’ to Ken. Ray is still an invaluable help at the Center, though now living in his own place and proud father of a new daughter. The bottle tree shown was carefully saved and moved to the area we hope to focus on this year, a gathering garden by the gate where most people enter (we move slow, step-by-step, around here, getting one area in good shape then moving to the next while maintaining the existing areas – some lessons in sustainability are in there, somewhere).
You might have seen the pics of the medicine wheel we created from urban rubble this year between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. That stands just about where our original bottle tree stood in our first garden, which had to be moved to make way for our new building.
Anyway, hope you are well, and certainly all of Ken’s family is like our family, too. Good to hear from you!
Hi Don.
Remember me from LONG AGO???
Would like to send you some pictures from my trip to an incredible healing garden by the name of Willka T’ika – Sacred Flower – (all organic “chakra garden”) in the Sacred Valley/Peru and put you in touch with its founder, Carol Cumes.
I’m not a blogger, so please, just reply to my e-mail account.
Hope you are well. Your project sounds wonderful.
Ciao!
Not long ago, dear friend! I think of you every day, every time I open my journal to write, every time I realize how much more there is to life than what we glimpse at the surface. I am very happy to hear from you, someone so generous, wise and wonderful. I will contact you, Karin, and thank you very much for the lead on the garden. I think you are exactly right (as usual…), there is a sacredness in all gardens, and an important tie between them, though they may be very different ecologically or culturally. And gardeners often have much to share, and much to talk about.
Tchuss, my sister, it is indescribably wonderful to hear from you again! See, there is some good to technology!
How does one sign up as volunteer to help with your community garden? I’m conducting a personal study (and practice of) urban gardening techniques and was trying to find local projects to view and possibly get involved.
Thank you.
You have a thesis?? I’d like to see it, too! It’s 2008 now…it will be digitized soon, I’m sure! π Urban community gardening is my greatest passion these days…reading about this garden is inspiring as I imagine ways to creatively make something happen like this in my own San Diego low-income community! Nice to meet you all. π Cassie
Hi, Vern,
I’m right now forming a group of volunteers specifically to help with the garden – contact me please at dboekelheide@urbanministrycenter.org
Most often right now we have Saturday morning work sessions, but in the old days (before the Center built a new building right on top of our former garden!) volunteers came by all the time, and I’d like to move back in that direction. A lot of what we do is make friends with the folks who come to the Center for services, gardening with them over time and becoming resources, friends and sounding boards for them.
Hey, Cassie,
Yes, I do have a thesis, but have not PDFed it. I plan to one of these days – maybe next fall, since the garden season is upon us. But it is about nitrogen use efficiency in an agricultural ecosystem, not about the kind of work I’m doing now.
Nitrogen is endlessly fascinating, and a great study in scientific discovery, unintended consequences, hubris, and the strengths and limitations of “the market”. I tested two hypotheses, and my data roundly rejected one – the idea that, as you add more nitrogen, plant growth increases so much that it takes up all the nitrogen you add, so there’s little pollution risk. My data suggested, on the contrary, that generally the more N fertilizer you add to field crops, the _greater_ the pollution risk. I found, consistent with many other studies, that on average, crops recapture about 60% of supplemental nitrogen from fertilizer in the harvested portion, and 40% either recycles in the soil or is lost to air or water. That varies enormously from field to field, crop to crop, and year to year.
Since completing that research in the early 1990s, I’ve tried to keep up, but not as much as I would have liked. Biologically available nitrogen is now recognized as a serious problem as well as an important resource. Dr. Larry King of NCSU, who I got to meet, told me that a great mystery now is exactly what’s going on with N in the soil, where the activities of microbes make N sequestration much more complex than we’d imagined (I have to think of Elaine Ingham’s work).
Anyway, one of my only regrets about Charlotte is that there is no agriculture school close by. Anyway,there’s plenty of good work to do here…I just have to be careful to not go on and on whenever nitrogen comes up, so I don’t drive my friends and family away. TMI! TMI!
Hello Don,
I am putting together a community garden for the homeless in Ontario California at a local “tent city” . Having never done anything like this before I could use all the help I can get. I have a bit of land donated, lots of volunteer help and am working on securing some funds and a plan. Any insight or info would be a great help.
Hi, Aaron,
Interesting! I’d like to see us have a tent city here in Charlotte.
Right off the top, I’d have three suggestions about resources and research, then some odds and ends suggestions:
Contact the American Community Gardening Association, http://www.communitygarden.org. They are a coalition of community garden groups around the country, and a good place to start looking for resources. The organization itself may or may not be all that helpful – they have recently moved, have a new ED, and are still sorting things out – but the membership is a gold mine of experience and good will, and still the best place to find like-minded people to bounce ideas off. ACGA is certainly worth joining and supporting. Their current pres, James Kuhns, may know about a garden for the homeless in Toronto.
Try Yvonne Savio in L.A. County at the UC Cooperative Extension office. She has successfully run community gardening programs and can put you in touch with some very good folks out in Southern California who can help with both technical gardening and with organizing ideas (David King down in Venice, Teague Weybright in L.A.)
Check around to see if Seattle has anything interesting going on. They have probably the best organized city-wide community gardening program in the country, and they also have a tent city. Don’t know if any links have happened yet.
Also, I’d want to have the site’s soil tested for heavy metals, if you are in an urban area. Just to be safe. You usually can get that done as a donation, I’d check with a nearby college and/or Extension.
Start small, even just with a corner of the proposed garden area. Importantly, if you want to grow food you’ll need reliable water, so solve that problem as a top priority.
And pay attention to improving the soil with the best compost you can find (we got donations from our County’s yard waste facility – I’d avoid biosolid-based compost if you can, though there are hot debates about that now…). Compost means the broken down, black, rich stuff used to improve soil, not “mulch”, ground up bark laid on the ground. If this vocabulary is really alien to you, get a knowledgeable person (urban farmer from a Farmers’ Market, extension agent, very experienced gardener…) to help you.
You don’t need to make boxes for your beds, which costs $$$ – unless the underlying soil is just impossible to work.
On design, involve the people who will be gardening as soon as you can, including reps from the tent city residents. Decide on whether you want the garden to be a group project, where volunteers and residents of the tent city join forces to grow food for distribution – like a coop farm – or if you want to set up individual plots. We have something of a hybrid, though we began as a group project.
The neighbors (homeless folks) who come to us have asked repeatedly for individual plots, though we’re not sure how that would work. Our compromise has been to create a “you pick” section open to all for picking (as opposed to harvesting for the soup kitchen). This has worked well, at least in terms of keeping people from “ripping off” the soup kitchen garden, which became an issue for volunteers and neighbors involved in the garden. What would happen is neighbors would work hard, then have all the tomatoes disappear the night before harvest when somebody who hadn’t helped at all would pick and go sell the produce. Instead, now, anyone can pick whatever they want from the You Pick garden, and the “main garden” is pretty much left alone.
I’ve gone on too long, sorry – send me any questions, I’d be glad to help. I grew up in the west San Fernando Valley where my dad still lives, so sometime when I’m out to visit him maybe I can drop by. Send some pics. I’ve found blogging about the garden is good to do, and opens some good contacts – you might want to try it?
Good luck!!
Hi Don,
I’m fascinated by your urban ministry garden. As a member of NCSU’s community garden research team and community psychologist I’m very interested in gardener’s perceptions of their community garden. Consequently, I’ve created a survey to try to gather more data on the subject but I need help getting the survey to gardeners. The link to the survey is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=nXMet3Thd4z1o2lQcvpFaQ_3d_3d
I would love to talk with you more about this research and about the urban ministry garden.
Very best,
Seb Prohn
Psychology in the Public Interest
North Carolina State University
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