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Thanks to Jason Brown for sending me a few of these WWII pictures.  The one I posted yesterday was from him as well.

It’s one of those things that cities don’t think is really “normal” so they often resist and rarely  if ever think up on their own. So that means you might have to fight for this one.

I believe every neighborhood needs a community garden and there is a good chance if you want one that you will have to be the person that puts it there.
They don’t have to be big or even all that elaborate. There does not need to be an automatic watering system or even grand tool storage systems. In fact you may be better of without them. You see gardens serve a very different role in our communities than parks or civic spaces. Gardens bring us together and make us work side by side, they tear down the social walls that we normally put around ourselves in public spaces and breathe life into community.

But not all garden communities need to have gardens. In New Orleans 7th ward you will find many vacant lots left after the devastation from hurricane Katrina. But there is one lot in particular that was vacant long before the rest of them, and although it’s only grass, it serves the same purpose for the community as a community garden would. The residents call it simply “The Corner”. Long ago it was a run down apartment building and its owner scraped it thinking one day she would build a community garden but instead the neighborhood took to it vacant and planted grass. They started to use it as a gathering space and it quickly evolved into the center of the neighborhood where people would meet and hang out, they would sit and watch the sun go down in the evenings together on the corner after work and if someone in the neighborhood needed help they would get up and do what needed to be done. You see the concept of a garden is not about the vegetables or even about the aesthetics its about the people. A community garden with no community is nothing at all, but a vacant lot with a community can become the lifeblood and soul of the people living nearby.

Every neighborhood needs a corner or a community garden.

Are there any “Corners” in your neighborhood?

A while back we did a post about urban temporary gardens. Now head over and check out the post today on the Oak Park Now site. I love when ideas like this take off and run on their own!