By ALLISSA BUNNER VIRGINIAN-PILOT CORRESPONDENT |APR 10, 2021 AT 7:52 AM Source: The Virginia Pilot
“That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.” ― Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”
Down on Pleasant Avenue, the roots of the East Ocean View Community Garden are far reaching, just like the roots of what has been planted there. Established in 2009, the garden was created in conjunction with Bon Secours as a place for the community to gather and grow together. I met up with a group of volunteers at a spring work day a couple weekends ago and witnessed a cast of diverse characters making significant changes in the garden.
The volunteer event was centered on a grant from Norfolk’s Neighbors Building Neighborhoods initiative. The program is a neighborhood revitalization model that encourages community members to connect with one another and build better relationships with the city, schools and community stakeholders. It aims to mobilize neighbors to improve their homes and neighborhood blocks by sharing their skills.
The grant was put toward building permanent raised beds to replace rotting wood beds. The grant also covered a mountain of black gold — a mushroom compost/topsoil blend by Four Seasons Nursery in Virginia Beach. As neighbors and master gardeners descended on piles of pavers and soil, I spoke with Ann Bolen about the challenges and successes the garden has had.
“Bon Secours poured a lot of money and staff time into the garden to create it,” she said. “They have backed away since 2019, but we are managing it and it seems to be thriving.”
Bolen, civic league president, noted seeing people sitting under the sprawling live oak tree.
“Seeing neighbors coming together, meeting each other, working side by side” has been the best experience for her, she said.
The garden has seen its fair share of vandals, thieves and car accidents (which knocked down fencing, twice), she said, but “the community rallied and restored the garden each time.”
The myriad benefits that spring from community gardens have been well documented in science. In fact, Lucy Bradley has compiled an extensive list of research published in an assortment of journals of health and medicine over the years. On North Carolina State University’s website, Bradley highlights community gardens as a destination for the immediate area, which benefits all participants with improved nutrition and increased social engagement, physical activity and mental health. In addition to those immediate public health benefits, community gardens strengthen neighborhoods by increasing trust, reciprocity and collective decision making. Most important, the research highlights the fact that community gardens can improve a neighborhood’s vitality for all demographics.
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Robert Owens, the event organizer and manager of the community garden, said that after seeing a need for a leader with an intimate knowledge of the area, he and wife Louise took leadership of the garden in November 2019. Believing deeply in the need for human connection, the Owenses put together a holiday celebration that same December; nearly 300 people attended..
Owens noted some challenges: In addition to restrictions on gathering in 2020, the water at the allotment was never turned on last season and has yet to be turned on for this year. Not having working irrigation has been the biggest hurdle for the garden’s success thus far.
“Last year was very hard and trying for us,” he said. “There were times we thought about stepping away because we did get discouraged, but we stuck with it and hopefully we can do something with this year.”
Owens is hopeful that other communities will be inspired to make a community garden. “The reward is truly worth any troubles,” he said.
In Full Bloom is a weekly feature from Allissa Bunner that focuses on sustainable gardening, environmental stewardship and related community news and initiatives. She can be reached at acbinfullbloom@gmail.com.
Community gardens are a great option for those without a yard or with a yard they can not or chose not to use. Choose your community garden carefully should you choose to use one. What are the requirements for that particular garden? What is the funding behind the community garden and why? Have you considered container or indoor gardening?