If you live in or around the Detroit area, you can’t help but be aware of the urban gardening movement that has been underway for a number of years.  Detroit has been recognized as a model for the development and execution of an urban garden program.  Detroit is blessed by having the benefit of highly structured urban/community garden programs as well as many gardens planted and maintain by the citizenry for the benefit of the immediate community.

I  have a history of gardening going back to the early 80’s.  I got away from it for awhile, but I got back into it in a serious way when I was diagnosed with diabetes.  That,  plus all of the recalls for infected foods from afar.  It made perfect sense to me, that I, like so many others, needed to take control of my food supply chain.  I started small and over a period of 3 years the garden expanded from about 40 sq. ft. to 200 sq.ft.  Last year, I heard about Detroit’s urban gardening programs and this year I joined “The Garden Resource Program”, a collaborative program that is supported by The Greening of Detroit, Detroit Agriculture Network, Earthworks Garden/Capuchin Soup Kitchen, and Michigan State University.  For a membership fee/donation of $10.00 I received:

  • Seeds
  • Plants
  • Subscription to a Quarterly Newsletter
  • Subscription to a E-newsletter
  • Invitation to participate in garden group events, workshops and community efforts.

They have a “Community/School” garden program that costs $20.00 a year and you get nearly 3 times the amount of seeds and plants. The intelligence that they provide is very user-friendly.  This year my garden excelled and I think that it is due, primarily, to the urban garden program.

My Garden

 

Not being a novice it wasn’t like I was there to learn but to share…

. 

I shared a lot but I learned a lot more.  The main thing I learned was that, though I was a single family gardener, I was connected to a very large family…a community, really…that I could draw from.

Everybody had a story, an experience, some wisdom to share. 

Now this might not be so unique, but when you consider the type of press that Detroit typically gets, this is one story that really should get more play. 

Another significant benefit of participating in the program was the tremendous yield from this year’s garden.  I expanded from about 200 sq.ft. to 400 sq.ft. because of the quantity of seed/plants I was going to get from the organization.  Following their guidelines, I was able to start harvesting vegetables on Memorial Day and I am still getting tomatoes and peppers at the time of this posting.  I shared so much from my garden…giving to my family, friends and neighbors…that I truly felt that I was feeding an entire community…this was my contribution to society.  I gave away plenty and what I got back was immeasureable.  I have a totally different idea now as to what we are here for.  So the lessons that I got from this year’s garden were a direct reflection of what I put into it…

 

Kind of like “life”, right?

Related articles