| 8/17/2009 1:02:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Twin Cities community garden tour to showcase East Side gardens
Scott Nichols
news editor
If you've ever wondered at the reason a garden appears to have sprouted up sometimes overnight at a vacant parcel or demolished homesite near you, then you might want to pay attention: all will soon become clear.
The 2009 Parade of Community Gardens - featuring 38 of the bigger or better-established community gardens across Minneapolis, St. Paul, or some close-in suburbs - is coming up Aug. 22, and it'll be an easy time to find out anything you've ever wanted to know about a garden near you.
Six community gardens on this year's tour are on or near the East Side, in three different locations: the Gateway Trail Community Garden, roughly at 300 Arlington Ave., the three District 2 Community Gardens at 1541 Maryland Ave., and the Community Design Center's garden just outside the Swede Hollow Café at 721 East Seventh St.
Every garden, at its most basic, serves as a valuable resource for food production. But many came to being for different reasons entirely: some simply have taken over vacant lots where houses or other buildings once stood. But some, like the Community Design Center's garden, serve to educate too, entertaining sometimes entire classrooms of urban children learning about how food is actually grown.
In fact, while the Community Design Center's garden outside the café is used by teens to grow produce for sale through markets and through what's called a CSA (where people pay a set fee for weekly deliveries of fresh produce), the design center also has a Children's Garden (not on the tour) at Third Street and Maria Avenue, next to the Phoenix Market.
Community Design Center executive director Tamara Downs Schwei says that the Children's Garden has been invaluable for her organization given its proximity to Dayton's Bluff Elementary School.
In fact, realizing that the Children's Garden has helped thousands of urban children learn about the wonders and difficulties of growing food, the city just approved $5,000 in local sales tax funds to install dedicated water service for it, a move it took at the beginning of the month.
"We looked into water service a few years ago, but it was so cost-prohibitive that we decided we could never do it," says Downs, tickled pink the city decided to fund her organization's request.
Of course, even if you're not much of the curious sort, the best reason to participate in the tour is the food, about as fresh as it gets.
Downs says her teens will be providing samples of the food they've grown, in case your palate has never come across a particular type of green bean or small squash.
Scott Nichols can be reached at eastside@lillienews.com or at 651-748-7816.
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