Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:23 pm
Subject: Essay on Urban Gardening Tour
Growing Our Own - A report on the 2007 Detroit Tour of Urban Gardens and Farms
By Will Copeland
When I was growing up in Detroit, I didn't really play ball in city parks. We played basketball and baseball in various backyards. We rode our bikes up and down the sidewalks and played football across the front lawns of our West side neighborhood. Today, neighbors are cooperating in a similar spirit to create safe places where children can play all over the city. Today more than 100 community gardens & over 200 family gardens also inspire community restoration, bring neighbors together, and help Detroiters enjoy healthy foods.
I was one of hundreds of people that learned a lot about the city's urban gardening on the Detroit Agriculture Network's 2007 Tour of Urban Gardens and Farms. In this 10th year of the tour, people had to be turned away because the tour was filled to capacity. There were six buses - three to the East Side and three to the West Side. This year was the debut of the tour by bike going to gardens in Mid-town, Woodbridge and Cork-town. Each garden or farm is unique, but they all help residents thrive in this brilliant city with a woefully inadequate infrastructure.
On the Bus with Detroit Agriculture
On the Westside tour we first stopped at the Brightmoor Community Garden. The family gardens slope gently towards the Rouge River. In this neighborhood the gardens have become places where young and old can gather safely and an inspiration for home owners and tenants to beautify their homes. Organizers plan to develop permaculture, walking paths, and educational resources on this land. Seeing all the melons, squash, tomatillos, corn, potatoes flourishing, most of us were shocked to find out the gardens were only one year old. When the surprise wore off, we left Brightmoor inspired by what determination and collective action can do in a short period.
The tour's second stop was the D-Town Farm, maintained by the Black Community Food Security Network. The seven beds are named in honor of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. D-town's gardeners mentioned the importance of maintaining ancestral connection to the land in addition to addressing residents' pressing economic concerns:
When supermarkets close down or decide not to invest in Detroit, it leaves people with limited options for obtaining food: liquor stores & gas stations, fast food, and food banks. Expensive food, regional and corporate blocks to public transportation, and limited access to fresh food often mean people with low incomes are not getting adequate amounts of food, putting their health at jeopardy.
Southwest Detroit's Romanowski Farm Park comes from an amazing collaboration that involves partners such as Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Greening of Detroit, MSU Extension, Latino Soccer League, Americorps, and two neighborhood public schools that support the farm with their after school gardening clubs. Over 300 volunteers came out to help plant at the beginning of the season. As the name indicates, the area is both a farm and a park. There are sunflowers, corn, flowers, an orchard of over 100 fruit trees in addition to a soccer field, benches and play areas for youth and families. It was very intentionally designed to maximize community participation-to be an important part of the neighbors' lives.
On the tour bus, we became neighbors very quickly. Folks traded stories about their upbringing or how they came to gardening. They exchanged tips on how to purchase vacant lots or how to cultivate and care for them. People shared stories about a surprising range of non-human Detroiters including quails, chickens, cats, coyotes! Our bus listened to tour guide Lindsay Turpin describe the Detroit Agricultural Network's Cluster system to connect gardeners and urban farmers living and working in the same area of the city. Each cluster group is supported by a local organization that provides a variety of resources for its neighbors including: tilling, soil testing, compost, wood chips, mulch, weed fabric, tool sharing, volunteers, and education classes.
We drove past the American Indian Family Health Services' garden where agriculture is an intimate tie to culture, tradition, and health. Three sisters' garden (beans, squash, corn), sage, and tobacco are planted to teach these valuable lessons. Cass Corridor Co-op is closed as a food store and community empowerment resource but its garden is still active in the network. Birdtown Garden, near Detroit's historic Chinatown neighborhood also in Cass Corridor, was the tour's final stop. Bricks removed from the lot formed the walkways that guided us through the corn, potatoes, daisies, lilies, and other plants.
Food Security - a growing movement
As we were boarding the bus between stops, a woman who shared the bus ride with
me asked "Why would anyone live anywhere else?" If you're stuck with answers
for that, I'm sure that mainstream media will help you in your brainstorm. What
you may not learn there is that Detroit Agriculture Network is just one link in
this growing movement. There are 38.2 million living in the US without enough
food to meet their basic needs[1] We can learn a lot from the infrastructures being created in other areas to
address this issue in a way that maintains community dignity.
Milwaukee's Growing Power[2] Even way out in Regina, Canada, the Janice Bernier Endowment for Food
Security[3] Not enough for you? Check out Paul Hawken's new book Blessed Unrest[4]
Community food security[5] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]