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- Community Garden
- Longmont
- Boulder County
- Vegetable gardens
- Fruit gardens

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- Is there any Community Garden in Longmont currently and how they work?
- Is it necessary to build more community gardens in Longmont,  to contribute to our overall community?
- What is the benefits and who benefits?
- How Community Garden change our community.

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A community garden is any piece of land gardened by a group of people, utilizing either individual or shared plots on private or public land. The land may produce fruit, vegetables, and/or ornamentals.

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- Beautifying Cities.
- Fresh Produce (for members or donate).
- Healthy Lifestyles.
- Connecting with the neighbors.
-  Working in a community garden is a good way for kids to learn about where food comes from and gain a basic introduction to environmental issues, work skills, and business principles.

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Departments " Departments A-D " Community and Neighborhood Resources " Neighborhood Programs

About the Program

The City of Longmont is proud to act as a liaison with community gardens who operate independently but contribute to our overall community. A community garden allows people to learn from one another, make new connections, build relationships, and take care of the environment.

Benefits of community gardens:

Fresh Produce

A Cleaner Environment

Stronger Communities

Educational Opportunities

Please see the information below to learn more about local community gardens:

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Departments " Departments A-D " Community and Neighborhood Resources " Neighborhood Programs The City of Longmont is proud to act as a liaison with community gardens who operate independently but contribute to our overall community. A community garden allows people to learn from one another, make new connections, build relationships, and take care of the environment.

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Greenleaf Communities believes that urban agriculture can be beneficial to the environment, and to the health and wellbeing of community members. The introduction of community gardens may be able to reduce the impact of food deserts in low-income areas and allow residents greater access to nutritious food that is necessary to live a healthy life.

Community gardens can mitigate some of the problems that plague urban areas. They can be a beneficial addition to many communities by increasing the availability of nutritious foods, strengthening community ties, reducing environmental hazards, reducing food miles and creating a more sustainable system.

Community gardens can help reduce negative environmental impacts by promoting sustainable agriculture; reducing food transportation costs and reducing water runoff. Humans, plants and animals can all benefit from urban agriculture since it creates habitats and improves the ecology of the area.

Community gardens:

Help improve air and soil quality [1]

Increase biodiversity of plants and animals

Reduce "food miles" that are required to transport nutritious food

Can replace impervious structures and improve water infiltration [2]

Can reduce neighborhood waste through composting [3]

Positively impact the urban micro-climate [4]

Poor nutrition and obesity are both challenges to low-income neighborhoods. Low accessibility to nutritious foods can cause health problems to residents located in food deserts. The addition of gardens to these areas may improve nutrition and increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Community gardens:

Increase access to fresh foods

Improve food security [1]

Increase physical activity through garden maintenance activities

Improve dietary habits through education

Increase fruit and vegetable intake

Reduce risk of obesity and obesity-related diseases

Improve mental health and promote relaxation [5]

Social ties are important to the wellbeing of people in a community since they can bring positive health effects and community involvement. Community gardens allow for the creation of social ties and build a greater feeling of community. These connections help reduce crime, empower residents and allow residents to feel safe in their neighborhoods.

Gardens in urban areas are positively correlated with decreased crime rates [5]

Vacant lands can lead to crime which can detrimentally impact the health of residents

Residents in areas with high crime rates may experience cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders

The consequences of vacant lands are decreased property values, drug use, and the illegal dumping of litter, tires and chemicals [6]

Gardens can improve economic opportunities by training volunteers and selling food at farmers' markets [1]

Urban agriculture can teach residents useful skills in planning, food production and business

Improving vacant lots increased property values in New Kinsington, Philadelphia by 30% [3]

Gardens have been an important aspect of many cultures in history. In the past, community gardens were commonly used to provide food for families year-round. During WWII, victory gardens were an important source of food for American families. Recently, there has been a resurgence of community gardens to help mitigate the impacts of food deserts and as a use for the increased number of vacant lands present in urban areas. Community gardens can provide fresh, healthy produce for residents and allow them to reduce their food bills. [7]

Many cities and organizations provide opportunities for residents to become involved with community gardens. The USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service has implemented a grant program to help decrease the impact of food deserts in low-income communities. They strive to provide long-term food security by supporting local agriculture projects while also improving economic, social and environmental problems. For successful programs, it is important that the community becomes involved with the project and to work with the community to develop solutions. Soil contamination and acquiring land can become a challenge in implementing a community garden.

The Chicago Park District along with People's Gas help provides resources to community gardens. These gardens rely on volunteers and include both native edible and ornamental plants. The program supports close to 70 gardens in parks across Chicago.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is also offers urban agriculture opportunities for students and adults to receive training and work on maintaining urban gardens: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/community/

[1] University of Wisconsin Madison

[2] Howard, 2012

[3] EPA, 2011

[4] RUAF

[5] Bellows et al, 2004

[6] Garvin et al, 2013

[7] Adam, 2011

References

Adam, K. L. (2011). Community Gardening. National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Retrieved from https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=351

Bellows, A. C., Brown, K., & Smit, J. (2004). Health benefits of urban agriculture. Community Food Security Coalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture. Portland, OR: Community Food Security Coalition.

EPA, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. (2011). Land revitalization fact sheet: Urban agriculture (EPA 560-F-11-009). Retrieved from website: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-08/documents/fs_urban_agriculture.pdf

Garvin, E., Branas, C., Keddem, S., Sellman, J., & Cannuscio, C. (2013). More Than Just An Eyesore: Local Insights And Solutions on Vacant Land And Urban Health. Journal Of Urban Health, 90(3), 412-426. doi:10.1007/s11524-012-9782-7

Howard, B. C. (2012). Urban farming is growing a green future: Green Gotham. National Geographic, DOI: Howard, B. C. Retrieved from http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/urban-farming/

Urban agriculture literature review. Urban and Regional Planning Department, University of Wisconsin Madison.

Why is urban agriculture important? RUAF Foundation.

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Greenleaf Communities believes that urban agriculture can be beneficial to the environment, and to the health and wellbeing of community members. The introduction of community gardens may be able to reduce the impact of food deserts in low-income areas and allow residents greater access to nutritious food that is necessary to live a healthy life.

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Community gardens are well known for providing space for neighbors to grow fresh, healthy food close to home. But beyond improving food access, community gardens provide the space for powerful neighborhood-level social change. When a group of neighbors joins together to organize, build, and manage a community garden, they, bringing an impressive array of benefits to their community.

What kinds of benefits? Here are a few.

1. They are places to befriend your neighbors. We live in an era in which, for many of us, our neighbors are strangers. Community gardens draw members who live nearby, so they provide the opportunity to meet, work beside, and even form friendships with people who might live down the street, but who you might never have encountered otherwise. Many an unlikely friendship has formed at a community garden, often across generational and cultural divides.

2. They are places to learn. Participating at, or even visiting, a community garden provides the opportunity to learn from experienced gardeners. Walk through a community garden with someone who gardens there, and you'll likely end up full of questions for him or her ("What's that vegetable?" "How did you build that trellis for your cucumbers?"). Many community gardens include informational signage for visitors, and some host gardening classes or instructional tours, as well.

3. They are sites for restoring and building health. A growing body of scholarly literature points to the health benefits of gardening and spending time in nature. Studies have shown therapeutic benefits for people recovering from psychological ailments such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; mental and emotional benefits for aging seniors; and improved attention in children with Attention Deficit Disorder. In fact, there is a horticultural therapy field dedicated to using gardening as a tool for healing. Gardening is also considered mild to moderate exercise.

4. They are a place for children (and adults!) to explore nature in the middle of urban areas. Spend 5 minutes at a community garden, and you'll find birds, lizards, plants and insects at all stages of life--a vibrant ecosystem in action. Gardening has been shown to provide a plethora of benefits in children, including improved attitudes toward healthy food, improved understanding of life science concepts, and improved interpersonal skills. Growing evidence attests to our species' deep rooted need to connect with nature (Richard Louv's The Nature Principle is an informative and engaging read about this need for nature). Community gardens are also valuable to wildlife, creating habitat corridors throughout our city.

5. They are a place to practice teamwork. Working effectively as a team on an ongoing basis, particularly in a context where participation is voluntary, can be enormously challenging--and rewarding. Personal growth, and invaluable skills, are gained along the way.

6. They empower us to organize and advocate for ourselves and for our communities. The skills we gain practicing teamwork--how to hold constructive meetings, how to work with people from a variety of backgrounds and who have a variety of learning styles and personalities, how to resolve conflict peacefully, how to advocate for a particular outcome--are the same skills needed for broader community advocacy. Community gardens teach us through our successes that we can make our community a better place.

7. They provide the opportunity for people in marginalized groups to fully participate and to take on leadership roles. In our society, power is not distributed equally-- disparities exist between racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and ability groups. In the context of a community garden, participants have the opportunity to place a high value on equity, diversity, and inclusion, and to learn how to work together in a way that truly reflects these values. This does not happen automatically. Without intentional, continuing efforts to practice equity, diversity, and inclusion, community gardens default toward replicating the same systems of exclusion and power difference that exist in broader society.

8. They create the opportunity to identify community assets and to build networks. Successful community gardens are built and sustained through contributions of time, talent, and resources from the communities where they are located. Before these assets become available to the garden, its members first must find them. This is done by building relationships with individuals, associations, and businesses in the neighborhood. Tour a community garden, and you'll hear stories about this process--you might hear about a mini-library built by a troop of Girl Scouts, a fence designed and built by a group of university students, or a tool shed donated and constructed by a local branch of a hardware store where one of the gardeners works.

9. They provide space to carry on our food cultures. Food is a powerful element of tradition. Community gardens provide the opportunity to grow, eat, share, and celebrate one's traditional foods--even far away from one's homeland, or when one has been disconnected from his or her heritage. This ability to produce and consume one's traditional foods, known as food sovereignty, is empowering and is important to our quality of life.

10. They provide a space to grow low-cost, fresh fruits and vegetables for people without space to garden at home. Particularly for residents living in areas with limited access to sources of healthy food, this can make a significant difference in quality of life. Additionally, as Austin continues to urbanize, a higher percentage of people across income levels will live in apartments, making the access community gardens provide to gardening space all the more vital.

Are you inspired to strengthen your community through a community garden? Find a community garden near you, and get in touch with a garden leader to inquire about how to get involved.

Are there no community gardens in your area, and do you want to start a new one? Join us at SFC's next Community Garden Leadership Training on Saturday, November 14th to learn how to start and sustain a community garden.

Do you already participate at a community garden, and want to gain skills to help your garden thrive, connect with community gardeners across town, and advocate for community gardens in Austin? Join us for monthly Coalition of Austin Community Gardens meetings the third Monday of each month at 6:30 at SFC.

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Community gardens are well known for providing space for neighbors to grow fresh, healthy food close to home. But beyond improving food access, community gardens provide the space for powerful neighborhood-level social change. When a group of neighbors joins together to organize, build, and manage a community garden, they, bringing an impressive array of benefits to their community.