Community gardens grow more bountiful
Christie Wiser, the garden coordinator for the Shelby Park Community Garden, trims back some of the plants at the garden in East Nashville.
With an increase in gas and fuel prices, people are becoming more interested in where their food comes from, what it costs and how they can get it without going to a store.
And during hard economic times, many rediscover the importance of community and establishing a bond with the people living next door.
So perhaps it is no surprise that community gardens are sprouting in neighborhoods across Nashville. Not only are they a way to secure healthy, fresh food, but they also allow people to come together to reach a common goal.
In East Nashville, gardens have popped up on both sides of Gallatin Pike. Some are purely for neighbors' enjoyment; others help deliver fresh food to families who wouldn't otherwise have it.
Those who get food boxes from East Nashville Cooperative Ministry should be pleasantly surprised this summer.
Thanks to their community garden, the boxes will include tomatoes, peppers and a variety of other fresh vegetables.
Hunter Cummings, executive director of the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry, thought turning the vacant lot in the back of their building into a garden would be a great way to supplement the starches and packaged food that are in the 200 boxes they give out each month.
With the help of volunteers and borrowed equipment, Cummings got the garden going, but when they found out they'd need topsoil and mulch to make it work, he didn't think they would be able to finish the project.
"One Thursday, I called nine different mulch companies, and no one would give us mulch for free," Cummings said. "One of the companies I called even hung up on me. I told our board that we had a garden going, and we'd put in all these man-hours, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. I was very discouraged, and so I just prayed for help."
And in the following days, Cummings said, the prayer was answered. He received donations in the form of cash and plants, free loads of dirt and the use of a large truck.
"The president and owner of the Mulch Company of Middle Tennessee came to my office to apologize in person for his staffer who'd hung up on me," Cummings said.
"The next day he sent a crew and equipment to work on the garden, and said he'd take care of our soil needs from now on.
"It's been really miraculous how this has just kept going. But there's still a ton of work to do."
Neighbors work together
The community gardens at Shelby Park and McFerrin Park differ in how they're staffed and whom they serve, but they're both focused on bringing neighbors together.
Shelby Bottoms Nature Center naturalist Christie Wiser supervises the Shelby Park Discovery Garden. Because it's on public land, anyone can come visit or volunteer in the garden.
"The garden gives people a hands-on opportunity to learn about gardening, mostly vegetable gardens," Wiser said.
The McFerrin Park garden is more of a focused neighborhood effort.
"I think that many of us agree that it is more important — in a time of rising oil prices, food shortages and general economic uncertainty — for communities like ours to begin to do some things like this for ourselves," said resident Chris Cotton.
