Giving Thanks for a Community Garden
Harvest festivals have existed for thousands of years, probably as long as farming has. A successful crop harvest is plenty of reason for celebration. While Thanksgiving in the United States is held on the fourth Thursday in November, the fall harvest usually happens much earlier. The Santa Fe Community Garden in the Railyard held their harvest festival in mid-October. The gardeners celebrated both their veggie harvest and the first year of community gardening in the Railyard.
Santa Fe Community Gardens is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 by Libby Reinish and a small group of like-minded and enthusiastic people. Their mission is to provide space, resources and education for Santa Feans who wouldn't be able to garden otherwise. The Community Gardens board met the Santa Fe Railyard Park Stewards earlier this summer and together they brought together the public space and the energy to plant a garden.
2009 marks the first year of the Santa Fe Community Garden in the Railyard. Santa Feans planted 18 garden plots and raised everything from beans and tomatoes to marigolds and sunflowers. One plot was planted by Gretchen and her two daughters, Willa and Harper. These three gardeners have an easy 1/2 mile walk to their plot from their home. Their garden harvest included tomatoes, peppers, onions and turnips this year. Gretchen and the girls are looking forward to growing corn and squash in their garden plot for 2010.
The Santa Fe Community Gardeners plan to expand their work next year. Not only will the railyard garden be expanded, but a series of workshops and community outreach programs will be added. A city of Santa Fe created garden space is also being planned for 2010. All these gardeners ask is some support from the community they are helping to grow. The Santa Fe Community Garden is truely a grass-roots organization we can be thankful for this year.
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Comments
Such Fine Progress!
I can hardly wait to get involved in some community garden activity come spring! I live in a tiny apartment, and don't have much garden space (understatement). Also, it is shaded too much of the day. So my hope is that the number of Santa Fe parks with community gardens will expand, and that my nearby Patrick Smith Park will be included among the parks with community garden space. I could then walk to my nearby garden!
Another option for folks with too little garden space is "yard sharing". You can learn all about that, and make contact with potential collaborators at http://hyperlocavore.ning.com. There's a New Mexico page there, too, so look for it.
Food For Thought - http://mind4food.blogspot.com