Community gardens sprout in county

Rising food costs, shrinking paychecks and a desire to eat local are proving a boon for community gardens, which are popping up like dandelions across La Plata County.

Though the concept is nothing new - various community gardens have thrived here for years - interest in them has grown as people have become more conscious about where their food comes from and more sensitive to how much it costs. 



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Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald 


A tour makes its way around the Shared Harvest community garden east of Durango on County Road 234.


(Gardening) can really change people.
- Katie Kelly, Urban Land Army
On the Net


The Garden Project of Southwest Colorado: www.thegardenprojectswcolorado.org (a garden blog was added to the site this week)

Urban Land Army: www.urbanlandarmy.com (see “Land Link”)

Even First Lady Michelle Obama got in on the action, digging up a patch of the South Lawn for a vegetable garden - the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden during World War II.

Here in Durango, a recent workshop at Fort Lewis College on community gardens drew about 40 people who ranged from certified green thumbs to horticultural neophytes.

Shari Fitzgerald, director of The Garden Project of Southwest Colorado, helped organize the event. After 10 years as a community garden crusader, she is delighted to suddenly have so many converts.

She told the group that community gardens can be a source of not only nutritious food but also civic pride.

"Gardens are an incredible display of community support," she said.

Fitzgerald has been involved in about a dozen community gardens in recent years, including projects at Manna Soup Kitchen and Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School.

She said as interest in community gardens has grown, her organization's role has shifted from building gardens to serving as a resource for people who want to.

Gardens that have gotten off the ground in the last two years include The Commons, near Albertsons on Camino del Rio; Needham Elementary; and the Durango Senior Center.

Kyle Conrad, The Commons building manager who is helping organize the garden, said land for the project was provided by Albertsons behind the store's building near the Animas River Trail. More than a dozen organizations operate out of the building and stand to benefit in different ways from the garden.

The Southwest Conservation Corps, a youth service organization, could get food supplies for the group's backcountry work expeditions. The Girl Scouts have talked about cultivating a pumpkin patch.

"We're still in the design phase," Conrad said.

Various businesses have donated supplies and time for the undertaking.

Community gardens range widely in size. Shared Harvest Community Garden northeast of Durango covers about an acre, while a project Faye Gooden is hoping to launch at the former Brookside Motel on Main Avenue would use only containers.

"I just was longing to have a garden again," said Gooden, who lives in the apartment complex of converted motel rooms.

Even nongardeners can get in on the action by making their land available. FLC junior Katie Kelly founded the local chapter of Urban Land Army, an organization that aims to link beginning gardeners with landowners through the "land link map" on its Web site.

A city girl, Kelly said people whom she has met while in college here have fostered a passion for local food production.

"I grew up with no idea of sustainability," she said.

She said the college's new course Community-based Agriculture has been especially enlightening and hopes it will continue to be offered.

A gardening evangelist, she believes in the transformative power of people getting "dirt under their nails."

"It can really change people," she said.