The Garden Resource Shed is now available to all community gardeners, providing free use of garden tools and equipment ranging from hoes, shovels and rakes to roto-tillers and lawn mowers.
Regular hours for the shed are 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays and 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning May 5. A plant and seed giveaway is scheduled for Wednesday, May 16, with first priority given to community gardeners.
In other community garden news, more than 100 people attended the Common Ground "Very Open House," a celebration of community gardens in Kalamazoo County. The event took place Saturday, April 21, at the Garden Resource Shed, at 1519 East Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo.
Guests shared food, friendship and gardening tips, and many people took home plants for their own gardens.
As part of the open house celebration, 15 garden projects received grants ranging from $223 to $712 to support their work in growing food for friends and neighbors this season. Those recipients are:
• Beauty From Ashes Community Garden, 831 West G Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Campus Beet Garden, 1205 Summit Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Community Garden at Northbridge Church, 8824 Douglas Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Douglass Community Garden, 1000 West Paterson, Kalamazoo
• Edible Edison Community Garden, 1113 Egleston Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Galesburg-Augusta Primary Community Garden, 315 W. Battle Creek Street, Galesburg
• Giving Garden, 5070 East N Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Growing Community Garden, 2800 Gull Road, Kalamazoo
• Kalamazoo Central High School/FCCLA Community Garden, 2432 North Drake Road, Kalamazoo
• Mt. Zion Community Garden, 120 Roberson Street, Kalamazoo
• Oakland House Garden, 1207 Oakland Drive, Kalamazoo
• Schoolcraft UMC Community Garden, US 131 at Clay Street, Schoolcraft
• Stuart Area Community Garden, 703 Willard Street, Kalamazoo
• Tabitha Farm Urban Homestead & Community Garden, 111 Dixie Avenue, Kalamazoo
• Vine Neighborhood Community Garden, 615 South Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo.
Officials who turned out for the event included: Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell, Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema and Eastside Neighborhood Association Executive Director Pat Taylor for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the garden shed.
Funding for Common Ground has been provided by the Lifeline Fund, a cooperative effort of the Greater Kalamazoo United Way and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. The project also received equipment donations from Lowe’s, 5125 West Main Street, Kalamazoo, and plants from DeLano Farms of the Kalamazoo Nature Center.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Paul Stermer, Fair Food Matters
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