Community Gardening Network

Community Gardening Network

 

Part of our mission as a group of community members interested in developing an urban ecovillage is to, first and foremost, address basic human needs for survival by encouraging the growth of community gardening and urban agriculture initiatives in the city of Syracuse. Through collaboration with local stakeholders and organizations that are already gardening and promoting local foods systems in the city such as Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Syracuse Real Food Co-op, Syracuse Community Geography, the SUNY-ESF Landscape Architecture department, Edible Gardening CNY, CNY Plantcycle, and the Syracuse Hunger Project, we have helped to found several new organizations committed to local foods production and consumption in the city: Syracuse Grows, who is also a participant in our Quinta Essentia Fiscal Sponsorship program, and Central New York Slow Food. We are quickly building a vibrant local foods movement in the city, are developing a working relationship with the city Parks and Recreation Department, and are looking forward to partnering with a number of other organizations in the city to develop urban agriculture initiatives - most exciting is the prospect of food production projects in parks in collaboration with the Syracuse Parks Conservancy! 

 

Our efforts in promoting these programs are initially to address what we see as a serious lack in existing infrastructure, friendly policy and government support, and education in food-related self sufficiency and food justice issues. Here are some of the problems we outlined at the start of our organizing efforts after initial research:   

1) The lack of a consistent basis of garden tenders. A fluctuating volunteer base means that some years for a specific community garden may be more successful than others. By providing an organizational framework and funding, all community gardens in the city, either already established or newly forming, have the potential to receive help from paid workers in collaboration with other grassroots, social service and economic development organizations, such as the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Onondaga Earth Corps, to establish and maintain the gardens.

--> This also led to the development of our Urban CSA Program.

2) We will encourage the city to recognize the community gardening initiatives as addressing issues of food security and public health, and that for this effort to be the most productive and successful on a city-wide scale, it will need to be addressed by the local government. In the long term, we will advise on the adoption of community gardening programs by the city through the creation of a Community Gardening and Public Health Committee, and the creation of a "DPW" for community gardening, ensuring that the gardens are well maintained, approved by the city, and fulfilling their highest potential.

3) Another concern for the community garden is appearance. Many people might find a fallow field in the wintertime to be an eyesore. A nicely landscaped garden with fruit trees and shrubs in addition to plots for growing vegetables, along with the incorporation of pathways and sculpture, will ensure that the gardens are beautiful year-round, and considered by all as assets to the surrounding neighborhood and community.

4) Yet another concern is irrigation of the gardens. The provision of rain barrels and cisterns can address this potential limiting factor for potential garden sites. In addition, all aspects of community gardening provide green solutions to our stormwater management issues, by processing rainwater runoff from impermeable surfaces that would otherwise overload city sewer systems. The sewage overflow problem in cities that lack adequate green space is oftentimes addressed by constructing costly water treatment plants rather than by acknowledging the need for more permeable and green urban infrastructure and implementing green infrastructure strategies on a city-wide scale. Green infrastructure has been proven to reduce the heat island effect of largely paved urban landscapes, thereby also reducing energy bills in summertime. The sustainable solution that is green infrastructure saves money and the environment.

5) We also intend to encourage people to garden in their own backyards, which would be a further extension of the city-wide community gardening network's efforts, by providing educational information, networking and resources, and grants for individual homeowners to plant edible landscapes in their front and backyards. This is an extension of the Food Not Lawns movement, and an important step to take in addressing issues of food security.

--> This is also a part of our developing Urban CSA Program, as well as the mission of Edible Gardening CNY.

6) Rooftop gardening and greenhouses will be other important and necessary strategies to maximize local food production, addressing the need for fresh locally grown produce and concerns about transportation costs for imported produce. Using livestock as a source of fertilizer and additional capacity building production on site is an option that needs further exploration and championing with local policy makers.

7) Another important project related to community gardening will be the involvement of school children in the gardening projects in their area. The potential partnership and additional opportunity for capacity building in this aspect, in addition to the educational programming associated with gardening lots and greenhouses for schools, would involve the selling of food produced on these sites to the schools for use in their cafeterias.

8) The long-term goal in the community gardening project, aside from beautifying the neighborhoods and providing green solutions to our stormwater management issues, is to create an urban CSA (community supported agriculture) network, where produce harvested from these lots will be redistributed throughout the neighborhoods to those who buy a share in the program on a weekly basis. Through the establishment of the first city-wide community gardening network hub on the West Side, The Alchemical Nursery hopes to facilitate the establishment and successful operation of edible gardens throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. The long-term vision is for hubs in the other sections of the city: East, North, and South, to be established and operated with the same purpose, including provision of tools, seeds and other resources, delivery service for mulch, manure, plants, and other gardening materials, and a central location in the general area where a steady and reliable contact is available for help with coordinating activities and meeting the needs of the neighborhood gardens and gardeners. There are already strong and well-established gardening centers in some areas that may be developed to serve as these bases of operations.

--> This is currently under development! You can view our proposal and brief overview here.

By collaborating with all stakeholders in the area, the city-wide community gardening network will provide the organizational framework and the funding to encourage all these projects to flourish and grow into a city-wide movement for an edible and sustainable city.