If there is one thing we as American’s take for granted it’s land and our use of it. Those of us lucky enough to grow up on big lots usually can remember our parents large vegetable and kitchen gardens just outside the back door. Even those of us on smaller plots had smaller gardens. Indeed one of the most productive gardens I can remember was a 2‘X15’ salad garden that produced an abundance May through July.
Yet todays apartment and condominium dwellers, gardens often are limited to a lone tomato in a pot on a balcony. For these hungry citizens community gardens or allotments as they have been know in Europe for generations are a God send. At the corner of Peterson and Campbell is a prime example of such a garden. A group of hard working and organized volunteers have built 160 raised beds for landless gardeners to grow whatever they want or need. I had a chance to tour the allotment and was impressed, all the beds were well tended and watered. There was a sign next to the entrance reminding those with beds it was maintained by the community and what needed to be done to keep the garden in hand and blooming.
As these community gardens become more common in our city we all might take a moment as we go home to our flats and condos. Could we be the first in our families to work an allotment plot? The Chicago Park District provides links to current community gardens and information on organizing one in your neighborhood.
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Related posts:
- A Sense of Place: What does a garden mean?
- A Sense of Place-A Garden as a Sacred Place.
- A Sense Of Place; Community Garden, Weeds Knee High By the 4th of July
- Sense Of Place: Community Garden-Update
