Community Gardens Thriving in North Carolina

Lucy BradleyExtension Specialist, Urban Horticulture

NC State UniversityLucy_Bradley@ncsu.edu

Great Partners

Great Accomplishments

• Symposium

• American Community Gardening Association Training

• Funding to every county in the state

• NC Community Garden Partnership – 501(c)(3)

• NC CGP Web presence

• Interactive website

• Facebook page

• Directory of Gardens

•Training other States

Great Gardens

Briggs Community Garden

• Building community network sharing knowledge & support• Developing diverse leadership• Increasing civic engagement• Helping folks from historically excluded populations realize

that they are the change agents they have been waiting for.

Dig In! Yancey Community Garden www.diginyancey.org

“No Yancey County resident should go hungry.”

Our greatest success is that we exist at all. • 4 growing seasons old• Growing 3,000 pounds of organic vegetables annually• All donated to feeding county residents

Dr. John Wilson Community Garden

• Permanent part-time Garden Manager position on staff with the town of Black Mountain

• Installed 100 fruit and nut trees• Installed native and medicinal plant trail• Established a mushroom forest• Created fundraising events and sponsorships

• empty bowls, and grow the garden• Maintain a successful school garden despite budget cuts

Fairfield Plantation Community Garden

• Improving the soil• Creating 48 5’X20’ plots• Girl Scout built two benches on the side of the garden• Getting to know neighbors • Collaborating with neighborhood grounds committee to

recycle split rails and timbers from improvement projects in the neighborhood

• Non-gardening neighbors donating old timbers, tools and wheelbarrows

Greene County Cooperative Extension

• Brought together 20 total strangers and formed a healthy, friendly, caring, sharing family

• Provided 1,246 pounds (and counting) of produce to the Interfaith Food Bank our 1st year

• Brought together community, received tremendous support from the community

Guilford County Cooperative Extension

• Converted school garden into community garden• Got the whole community behind this wonderful concept of raising fresh produce and educating our children in the process

Liberty Community Garden

• Gardeners resettled refugees from Bhutan• Shared harvest with Food Shuttle• Volunteers, Members, Donations• Completed 3 seasons• Garden supervisor

Little Sugar Creek Community Garden

• Partnerships• County Government

• Parks and Recreation Day Camps• Social Services• Correctional Facilities • Public and Private Schools

• Volunteers

• Muscadine Grapes

The Lord’s Acre’

• Community Survey• Share the Harvest market• Adopted Core Beliefs upon which to base decisions• Gave away 9.5 tons of Organic Produce• SPROUTS program for kids

Mt. Vernon Community Garden

2011 - Started by transporting water from home Installed a water pump and irrigation to raised beds2013• 532 sq. ft. center; 2 covered shelters / outside

classrooms• “Math, Agriculture Science, Options, and

Opportunities” afternoon/summer program with High School and Community Colleges

• Dedication service• attended by 40 people from church and community• Low country boil, and gift bags, all items donated

by local farmers and businesses.• 25 fruit trees donated

SEEDS

• Incorporated in 1994• Growth of Gardeners and Staff

• Live sustainably, share, increased knowledge

Challenges

• Human Issues• Educating People

• Keeping people motivated during the hot summer month

• Maintaining well established leadership teams

• Finding academic leaders with vision & knowledge to make those visions come true

• Understanding how structural oppression effects low income populations as it relates

to food systems & how to overcome these structures. 

• Funding

• Physical Issues

• Huge area to maintain

• Being an organic community garden.

Needs

Things• Shed

• Bigger equipment

• Well

• Walk-in cooler

Training• Grantsmanship

• Getting people to take responsibility

Information• Organic pest & disease control products & soil amendments 

Words of Wisdom

• Not everyone needs a community garden

• We need to be careful about wanting something for others.

• This is not a case of build it and they will come.

• We need to provide lots of education so they can come to their own decisions

• Build your team before the first things are planted.

Words of Wisdom

About Management• Build your soil and core values before anything else. Even if it

takes a year. Base decisions on beliefs, for example:• Bringing people together, giving them agency, inspiration and support.• There are many types of hunger. Everyone is hungry for something. Everyone

has something to give.• Goal is to “put ourselves out of work” by teaching skills

• Start Small (so small you can't help but succeed), but start with a big vision. • Move forward with patience and perseverance.  

• If your garden isn't thriving, look to your community to find out why.

– Perhaps your model isn't applicable-each garden should be a reflection

of that community's interests and strengths, or

– Perhaps you haven't capitalized on your community's assets. 

Words of Wisdom

About the Garden:• Curb appeal matters• Build benches near the plots• Build 2 to 3 smaller compost piles rather than one large one. • Invest labor in composting and using mulch to build 18-24”

high mounds during winter on your plots for weed control and soil amendments.

• Use the “lasagna method” of soil building to make gardening till free and weed removal much easier. (dumpster dive for cardboard.)

Words of Wisdom

About Your Attitude:• Enjoy what you do! Gardening is great fun and rewarding!• Patience, Passion and Determination• Do not become discouraged, it gets easier• "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or

rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." --Abraham Lincoln

• Water, Sun, Soil, Seeds or Harvest Yield: In gardening, nothing is promised, it is always a gift, and we should be thankful that we are privileged to participate in the cycle of nature.

Great Future

NC A & T Community Gardening Curriculum

NC Extension Master Gardener Manual –

• New Chapter on Community Gardening

NC Cooperative Extension Portals

NCCommunity Gardens.ces.ncsu.edu Therapeutic-Hort.ces.ncsu.edu

NCCGP has done all the hard work of forming as a 501(c)(3) positioned for greatness

You!