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@communityofgardens
In need of some good reading material the next few days as you kick back in your slippers with a cup of cocoa? Check out our new digital exhibit on the history of community gardening in the United States and starting dreaming of tomatoes, green beans, and the bounty of the summer harvest. Read it here: http://s.si.edu/1loga5D
Pictured: Jones Valley Teaching Farm in Birmingham, Alabama.Â
Little seeds, BIG stories. Why our everyday stories are important and how YOU can share your family garden history with the Smithsonian during #ArchivesMonth - and every month! Up on our blog.
The Smithsonian is having another Showdown to find the most "Seriously Amazing" program or object and we need your help to win! This year we nominated Community of Gardens--an online archive of gardens grown by you.
We created Community of Gardens to provide a digital home for stories, photographs, and videos of gardens across America. Anyone can add their story, which means an account of your parents' backyard wedding, your grandmother's tomatoes, or your neighborhood's community garden can become part of the Smithsonian. What's more amazing than that?
Vote for Community of Gardens to show your support for the project and help us advance to Round 2!
School’s out for summer! And as children flock to urban gardens and public parks, this story from Community Gardens proves what’s old is new again.Â
In the summer of 1902, the land that would become New York City’s DeWitt Clinton Park, just a few blocks from Central Park, was described as a place so run-down that even “The most vivid imagination could not have conceived a more desolate spot than this.”
Witnessing the unsanitary conditions of New York’s urban environment first-hand, Fannie Griscom Parsons (1850-1923), an early pioneer of children’s gardening, imagined an alternative.Â
Over the next year, Parsons, with help from the city’s parks department, transformed this small piece of land into rows of orderly garden plots, intended to teach responsibility, concentration, and “private care of public property" to children. Today, the school and urban garden movement builds upon the work of pioneering 19th-century social reformers! Read the full story here.
Why do you want to improve your school garden?Â
“To help our community & make our school more visually appealing.”Â
-Ekram, Jonathan, Kamron, and Jamari, Paul International High School, Washington, D.C.Â
This past weekend was #MothersDay! Does your mother, grandmother, or aunt have a garden story? Share your family history with Community of Gardens and add their voice to our digital archive!Â
Janet W. shared a beautiful recollection of her mother's love of gardening:Â
"My mother was the gardener and my father was the caretaker, orchestrating the raking and mowing, pulling trees down with his car - in the early days in this house there were too many pine trees. These were the tall skinny loblolly pines, Pinus taeda. Our neighborhood was called Whispering Pines and it's true they do whisper. It's a lovely sound."Â
Read the entire story here.
What would you tell other high school students interested in building a school garden?Â
We would tell them that building a garden is a wonderful idea because it leaves an impression for years and years. It takes a lot of work and it’s a great bonding experience. -Alexis, Deasia, Gabrielle, Lloyd, Nicholas, & Taylor, Paul International High School, Washington, D.C.
April is National Garden Month, and we are celebrating the diversity of American gardens and the gardeners who make them grow. Small gardens and large gardens, community gardens and backyards, our diverse stories are part of a verdant quilt of gardens growing across the country. Gardens tell us where we’ve been, and where we are going. They can tell us stories about how people in our communities lived in the past and articulate our cultural values in the present.
Please Touch Community Garden is not a traditional plotted vegetable garden; all of the food grown at the garden can be grown and harvested by anybody at any time the garden is open. There are no dividing lines between plots, and everyone shares responsibility for the care of the plants. There are many works of art that fill the garden, ranging from sculptures, murals, and mosaics.
This Community of Gardens story comes from the Please Touch Community Garden in San Francisco. The garden is a collaboration between artists, community members, and the The LightHouse, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting blind and visually impaired citizens. Once an abandoned lot litter with needles, the garden is now a lively community space for growing and harvesting food, holding classes, and showcasing art.
April is National Gardening Month! How do gardens enrich your life and community? Share your story with the Smithsonian’s Community of Gardens digital archive.
At our most recent class at the Paul International High School, we asked the students in Ms. Merriweather’s class, “What inspires you in your school garden?”
The benches inspire us in our school garden. They have manybright colors. Also they need work done on them, which drives us to fix them up. -Gabbi, Tiyan, Hamza, Derien, & Brishae
The students are busy readying the garden for spring, researching how to finish a cob construction project, and securing funding for their garden improvement projects. Stay tuned!
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
Inspired by this famous quote, members of the S.A.G.E. Coalition (“Styles Advancing Graffiti’s Evolution”) in Trenton, New Jersey transformed an abandoned lot adjacent to their artist studio into a lush urban oasis. The resulting garden is a gathering spot, a performance space, and above all a place for community members to come together and engage with their neighbors. A mural of Gandhi by artist Will “Kasso” Condry overlooks the garden and all its activities.  Read more about their story here.Â
Before their Thanksgiving break, students at the Paul International High School cleaned out the garden beds for the winter, learned about the composting process, turned the compost in their school garden & got an up close and personal look at some millipedes. The verdict: only a little gross and very fun. This is one of our favorite resources for teaching the compost cycle.Â
In 1924 the Burpee Company advertised a contest asking customers to write in about “What Burpee’s Seeds Have Done for Me.” Roughly 4,000 contest letters, as well as many accompanying photographs, are part of the W. Atlee Burpee & Company Collection at the Archives of American Gardens. Cecilia Auge of Mendota, Minnesota, a self-described "19 year old farmette," is pictured here. She grew onions from Burpee seeds, then used the money she earned selling onions to buy an incubator and chickens.Â
This letter and many more are now in the Smithsonian Transcription Center. Celebrate garden history by helping us transcribe the letters or by contributing your own garden memories to the Community of Gardens digital archive.Â
The Works: Center for History, Art, and Technology has a story as vibrant as this purple kohlrabi grown in their very own Green Thumbs Garden. They are the first museum to submit a story to our Community of Gardens digital archive & we couldn’t be more excited. We invite any museum (or individual) with a garden to share their story! You can read more about the museum garden at the Works here.Â
“Art makes the place. From the beginning, Big Daddy's Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden has used art as an integral way to anchor its location. The garden's rounded triangular shape puts its garden plots and artworks in full view from many directions and works as a strong entry marker for our city.” -Vickie Jo Sowell, founder of Big Daddy's Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden
We are crowdsourcing stories about art & community gardens for our Community of Gardens project. Big Daddy's Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden in Emeryville, California shared their story of a former gas station turned community garden and gathering space with us. Do you have a story to share? Read the story of Big Daddy's & contribute your story to our digital archive.
Just a few weeks ago we wrapped up our Community of Gardens collaboration with Paul International High School in Washington, D.C. and said goodbye to the teens for the summer. On a gray day the weather cooperated long enough for the students to finish implementing some of the projects they designed to improve the school garden and make it a more welcoming place for both students and staff. Â The old picnic tables were painted vibrant blue and signs were made to identify the plants in the garden for those not as in-the-know as Ms. Fiero's Global Health class. Looking forward to seeing the garden continue to grow over the next year!
We are excited to announce that the first story from Alaska to be added to the Community of Gardens digital archive comes from the Fairbanks Garden Club. They are on a quest to preserve the rare 'Pier Bugnet' rose brought to the Fairbanks area over sixty years ago:
John Holms, who was one of our city's pioneer gardeners, brought this rose here from Eastern Canada in the 1950s. At this time there is no commercial nursery in either country that carries this hybrid rose, and there has not been one in over forty years. It was decided that our club was going to save this delicate gem for our whole community to enjoy.
Do you have a garden story about conservation or preservation? Be the first from your state to share.
Image credit: Fairbanks Garden Club.