DBCC knows that community gardening yields many fruits. Gardening together allows people to connect across barriers of age, race, and economic status and connected communities are stronger and safer. A perfect example of how DBCC is Cultivating Quality Lives for All!
Ask any gardener and you will learn that gardening can easily become an addiction. Urban gardeners quickly fill their small city lots. The Greenspace Committee, working with DBCC, found neighborhood gardeners were excited to embark on Dayton’s Bluff Community Garden projects. The gardeners quickly caught the vision of creating a garden space not just about eradicating weeds for the sake of healthy produce and beautiful flowers, but also about creating a connected community. Gardeners grow fruits, vegetables and herbs to feed neighborhood families, donate to food shelves, and to sell at farmer’s markets. Many plant annual and perennial flowers and plants to create peaceful places to have a picnic, read a book and relaxing. Some leave open space where people can toss a ball or play yard games.
Urban Roots and Skidmore Park Community Gardenshave organized youth gardens that grow fruits and vegetables. It has been a great opportunity for neighborhood youth to get involved in their community while learning about gardening. Skidmore Community Garden began in 2009 turning a vacant, run-down lot into a beautiful space with 24 garden plots. Vacant lots that were a result of the foreclosure crisis have also benefited from active community gardeners; transforming gloomy, sometimes dangerous spaces into areas of new life and beauty.
Discover the many benefits can be reaped from participating in Community Gardening. While flowers bloom and healthy produce grows, a stronger sense of community is built and relationships blossom as result of these gardens.
