Eastern Illinois Central Gardens What are central gardens?
"Central gardens" are "community gardens" or "stewardship gardens" or private gardens with "stewardship rows." The thing all these gardens have in common is that they are "central" because they are located within the neighborhoods where people live, work, play, worship and are involved in community projects.They are "stewardship" oriented because they are dedicated to raising food for those in need as well as restoring a healthy ecology. In other words, although these stewardship gardens and rows are usually primarily devoted to the raising of vegetables, there is often a place in them for plants friendly to the bugs, bees, bacteria and fungi, birds and butterflies that make up a healthy ecology.
These gardens could also be thought of as central in a larger sense. They are often central places where people come together to work together for the good of all, and they are central places from which the bounty of nature spreads out into the community.
Indeed, if these efforts help us re-discover the goodness of the land and people of this place where we live, that would be a benefit beyond measure. Details about radishes and cucumbers and mycorrhizal fungus are only means to this end.
Currently there are stewardship gardens underway in Champaign-Urbana at the Center for Women in Transition, the First Mennonite Church, A Woman's Place, and St. Jude Catholic Worker House. These gardens are cared for by volunteers and use resources donated by the public and area businesses. These stewardship gardens, like the numerous stewardship rows in private gardens, will be primarily devoted to raising food for local food banks, pantries and kitchens.
But, as Sandy Mason suggested at the outset of a discussion of central or stewarship gardens, the goal of these gardens should be measured in the number of little victories that change the way people think about gardening, not in the size of the gardens or volume of vegetables produced.
With that in mind there is something to be said for choosing easy-to-grow vegetables, which often happen to be among the most shade tolerant vegetables best suited for many fairly shady urban sites. They also are often also choices that offer fairly immediate victories instead of results that come only after a long, hot months of work. Sandy suggested these easy-to-grow vegetables: leafies (spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard), leeks, onions, garlic, shallots, radishes, snow peas, snap peas, carrots (short varieties), beets, sweet potatoes, okra, turnips, greens of various kinds.
But of course there is little reason to grow anything, easy or not, if it is not something that readily finds a use. Here are some area food banks, pantries and kitchens that can be contacted to get an idea of the kinds of produce that are needed as well as some general guidelines. (Thanks to Andrea at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank for letting us reprint this information.)
Banks, pantries and kitchens
The following food banks, pantries and kitchens use the vegetables grown on central gardens.
Eastern Illinois Foodbank, 328-3663, Andrea Champaign:
Center for Women in Transition, 352-7151, Andrea, daily meals for resident homeless women and their children. TIMES Center, 398-7785, Emmett, soup kitchen serves meals to the public daily. Urbana:
Lifeline Connect, 621-9649, Brenda, meals for residents in substance abuse rehabilitation program. St Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, 377-4618, Pat, serves clients M-F afternoons. The Vineyard, 384-3076, Paula, serves clients Wednesday mornings. Wesley United Methodist Evening Pantry, 344-1096, Donna or Lee, serves clients on the third Thursday of the month. Rantoul:
Community Service Center of Northern Champaign County, 893-1530, Andy or Karen, pantry serves clients on weekdays. What's needed?
Tomatoes (pick while slightly under-ripe), cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, onions, winter squash, (acorn or butternut), beets, cabbage, garlic, carrots General guidelines
When planning a garden for a particular pantry or kitchen, find out what vegetables they would particularly like to have, and plan accordingly. If you have no experience growing those particular vegetables, find out from someone who does what varieties work best in C-U soil and conditions, and get tips on how to grow them. Get produce directly to the agency that is going to use it rather than having it go through the middle man of the Foodbank. Contact the agency beforehand to make certain they can use it. Get it there in plenty of time. Make certain it is not over-ripe or in any way unhappy. Info, opportunities, questions, comments...
On group in the process of establishing "stewardship gardens" as well as promoting other efforts in the Champaign-Urbana area is: Champaign-Urbana's EcoEcumenical Group.
One of the opportunities that has been discussed locally is "forgotten fruit" trees fruit trees that produce bountiful, high quality fruit that is left on the tree to go to waste. A similar situation concerns "forgotten" gardens or potential gardens, that is, places in residential areas that were once or could become productive gardens.
If you know of any forgotten fruit trees or gardens, you might want to consider making that information known to someone who can take advantage of that resource.
If you have other resources -- a truck, a tiller, garden equipment, compost, plant starts, harvesting equipment, etc. -- you can bring to these efforts please let us know.
Or, for that matter, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the various "central gardens" efforts, or if you would like to volunteer, please contact Meredith at 408-4434 or mjfay@prairieinet.net.
Important Policy Statement Personal information supplied to us will not be sold, published or posted on the web or anyplace else. It will be shared only on a case-by-case basis to match up specific needs with specific resources.A concluding point
Perhaps it is worthwhile to conclude the discussion by going back to a point made at the opening.Perhaps the most important goal of these central gardens is to change the way people view vegetables and gardening, to re-introduce a little bit of nature into our neighborhoods and our thoughts. That may mean planting, along with the vegetables for humans, some plants that are friendly to the bugs, bees, bacteria and fungi, butterflies, birds yes and even bunnies that make up a healthy natural ecology. Indeed, it may be easier and more effective to just plant a little extra for the ever-present rabbits than it is to try to eliminate them from the garden.
Here's a very simplistic quick-and-dirty approach to using wildflowers to restore a little bit of nature into the garden: plant warm weather perennials that have different colored blooms and that bloom at various times. It turns out that these are exactly the kinds of tall grass prairie plants that are readily available locally, such as at the Grand Prairie Friends plant sales. These wildflowers will be home to a wide variety of butterflies and pollinators as well as bugs and larvae that will be food for birds throughout the summer. The warm weather perennials will also foster essential soil fungi.
These back-to-nature patches could help to change the mindset people have about vegetables. The vegetables sold in grocery stores are grown and processed to be cosmetically (and unnaturally) perfect and remain that way indefinitely. How wholesome, natural, tasty, ripe and so forth these vegetables are is almost not at issue at all. Natural, healthy, ripe produce may have a spot on it where a where it was host to a bug for a while or that is a perfectly natural part of the natural ripening process. Indeed, such details could be viewed as a rather reassuring sign of a natural product rather than as a problem of some kind.
Some would say that if these stewardship gardens do nothing more than let people discover what a ripe tomato in all its spotty, squishy, delicious splendor is like, that would be worth the effort.
Document Info
This document: http://www.illinoisprairie.info/centralgardens.htm
Author: Jim Fay
Posted on: 4/18/09
The Central Gardens web page is by Meredith and Jim Fay, who are solely responsible for the content. No other affiliation or authority is expressed or implied.