Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, USA Sunday, January 29, 2006 (forwarded by Bill Dawson)
CULTIVATING A COMMUNITY 4 by Robin Chenoweth NEW HARVEST A bounty grows for all who wish to partake Kwodwo Ababio doesn't want anyone to focus too much on New Harvest Garden. "We don't want you to get the idea it's just the garden," the social worker said of the Lindenarea initiative he started two years ago. "It is a neighborhood effort to try to get people more involved with each other, beautifying the community." Indeed, on an autumn Saturday, volunteers gathered to hack down head-high weeds growing around numerous abandoned houses in the neighborhood. Ababio, wearing a west African kofi hat, looked earnest as he leaned on a shovel. "The garden," he explained, "was just the catalyst to bring the neighbor back into the neighborhood." An inducement but also a balm for a hurting community. The 500-square-foot lot sits between a Cleveland Avenue pawnshop and an alley off Arlington Avenue, a green jewel on the stained and weathered hand of a day laborer. Above a rosebush and some fading sunflowers, the words Ama Vera's Garden christen the space. Last August, Vera Breckenridge was fatally shot on her front porch a half-block away. Her children had helped rake soil and plant seeds in what would become a living homage to their mother. Ababio waded into chest-high herbs to investigate what grew beneath. He crushed some seeds, and the sweet aroma of basil and lemon balm drifted down the alley. Tomato plants were bereft of fruit. The collards and cabbage were gone; the okra and peppers but a savory memory. All were taken by one neighbor or another, usually at night when no one was looking. A wiry volunteer named Is Said helped clean and plant the plot. He has seldom seen a red tomato there. The neighbors eat them fried and green in most cases. "We planted 12 cabbages; they took 10," he said. "We know one thing: We fed some people. Who it was, we don't know. But they ate out here real good. . . . But that's what it's for; it's a community garden." The plot has no fences. New Harvest welcomes anyone to enter and partake. "If you take something, maybe next year you give something back, even if it's your effort to come out and plant seeds," Abadio said, "Gardening is just one method of educating people." The group plans to sow a 2-acre plot in summer and use its produce to make soups and salads for its community center, New Harvest Urban Arts Complex. "The only way to change the attitude of the neighborhood is for us to get involved," Ababio said. "We have to get aggressive. Communities are like gardens. If you let the weeds take over, it turns into a weed garden.' ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
