Hardscape-to-Harvest Community Gardening
This pilot program places abundant raised beds atop asphalt, impermeable surfaces, contaminated land, and spaces where in-ground gardening isn’t possible.
Neighbor Gabriel Long researched farming on parking lots and adapted a program developed at Ohio State University for community garden scale. Gardeners worked together to build the structures, which were created using cattle panels and heavy duty landscape fabric and filled with a 50/50 mix of compost and soil. The initial funding was raised by neighbors as part of WBNA’s 2022 401Gives efforts. Armory Animal Hospital generously hosted the garden on their side lot and provided water access, and neighboring produce vendor Rudy Cordero worked with us to rearrange his trucks and make space for the beds.
In addition to providing neighbors with a place to garden, this activates unused space in our community, increases access to fresh local produce, mitigates the urban heat island effect and storm water runoff issues that come with paved surfaces, brings community members together, and adds beauty and interest to our neighborhood streetscape.
In year 1, gardeners successfully grew a wide variety of vegetables and herbs including tomatoes, eggplant, greens, squash, peppers, sunflowers, basil, thyme, parsley, cilantro, and more. The gardeners are enthusiastic about returning for their second season, and demand is high for additional beds!
Contact gabrielblong@gmail.com if you’d like to learn more or get involved with this exciting and replicable project.