The Providential Gardener

Do You Know Where the Gardens 'Used to Be'?

Find out where some of the farms and gardens used to be (and may still be!) in Providence, RI, at the new development website: www.wherethegardens.providentialgardener.com! The idea for this project came out of a planning meeting for Providence's 375th birthday celebration in 2011. However, there is a LOT of material and there's a LOT of research to do, so I think I've found how to keep myself occupied indefinitely! But this is also meant to be a collaborative project and I am looking for others who want to become contributors.

I will be adding more gardens soon and welcome stories and photos of these and other gardens. I'm going to be adding features and content types -- I also welcome suggestions of what kinds of information to include. Send email, or add comments to the pages.

Next month when 2012 arrives, this project that documents our local agricultural heritage will expand to all of Rhode Island. It already has been fun to find out about gardens on the Biltmore Hotel in the 1920s and peach orchards in Little Compton before the 1938 hurricane. Whenever I tell someone about Where the Gardens 'Used to Be' they return the favor by telling me what they know about a long-gone farm or garden. The latest was that TF Green airport was once farmland -- not surprising, really, when you think about it, but who among us remembers it back in that day?

We are so much more familiar with our state's machinery/industrial past than our sustenance/farming past. I hope Where the Gardens will contribute another dimension to Rhode Island's rich history and show us how more food can be grown again in the Ocean State.

Rhode Island's Eco-Blogging Scene: PostCarbon Rhode Island

This morning I heard from PostCarbon Rhode Island, a new blog that entered the world just three days after 2008, on January 3. It's a great website with info on efforts to deal with energy and natural resource issues locally in South County. Looks like they are doing some reverse globalization, taking national-level resources and using them for local good.

They focus on sustainability and "relocalization":

Building on the models established by groundbreaking organizations worldwide, we hope to serve as a clearinghouse of information, a means of networking, and an organizing hub for those who share a sense of urgency in these endeavors.

The author writes,

...we have been approved as a new member of Post Carbon Institute's Relocalization Network, a worldwide network of more than 150 groups working in the areas of relocalization planning. Our efforts with our group are still in the early stages...

Several of the posts are about starting a community garden or gardens in South Kingstown, which I'm sure would interest many folks around there. Community gardens are sprouting up all over the place. If anyone else knows of other people cultivating such ideas, please let me know! I stumbled onto Sustainable Sakonnet a couple of weeks ago, which shares similar interests with PostCarbon Rhode Island; how many more Rhode Islanders are blogging away out there on environmental topics?

Here are some other sustainability and garden blogs that are based in Rhode Island. You know, using Google and the other search engines is simply not an efficient way to find focused local information ~ they're better at the big picture and finding leads. The rich information sources are what librarians call the "hidden web," the stuff within websites that is never indexed by the search engines. Blogs show up better in Google searches than regular web pages, but still it helps to have local folks organizing local information. This is especially true in gardening because of the variations in climate and ecosystems.

When you need local information, start with Rhode Island-based blogs:

    Primarily gardening info:

• Blithewold Blog ~ A fabulous journal recording the Blithewold gardens in Bristol, RI
• Earth Friendly Gardening ~ A beautifully presented and fascinating garden blog
• Ledge and Gardens ~ Another fabulous journal recording a Northern RI garden
• Projo Garden Blog ~ "What's growing in RI gardens and how"

Eco/environmental blogs, some of which may also have gardening info:

• Baykeeper Blog ~ Save the Bay
• Controlling Carbon ~ A RISD blog
• Natural News Network Blog
• PostCarbon Rhode Island
• Projo Energy Blog
• Sustainable Agriculture @ URI
• Sustainable Sakonnet

The Flowering of Olneyville.... The Power of a Seed

Riverside Mill Park was the appropriate scene for celebrating Olneyville's revitalization this week. Projo's stories on the event ("Taking pride in the neighborhood pays off for Olneyville" and "City's community policing receives more high praise" in the Tuesday, November 6, 2007 city edition, Section D, page 1) just go to show what The Providential Gardener deeply believes: start planting flowers and restoring the natural beauty of any neighborhood, no matter how run down, and you will prepare the ground for renewed growth and a blossoming neighborhood again.

I was struck by Frank Shea's comments as related by the article's author, Gregory Smith:

There was a strong campaign under way in the 1990s for the development of the Woonasquatucket Greenway along the river.... If the greenway, including the nine-acre Riverside Park, was going to succeed, there would have to be a comprehensive redevelopment effort.

"We said we'll have this beautiful park, but nobody is going to feel safe coming here, "Shea recalled. Responsible residents -- 'eyes on the park,' ... had to be moved in who would cooperate with the police and the city Parks Department."

The vision of a park ~ with its trees, shrubs, flowers, and even the vegetables that will be grown in the community garden there next year ~ was thus the planted seed that has now grown into a good place to live in Providence. Riverside Park was planned to make it harder for people to do shady business there. One strategy was to plant thorny bushes along riverbank walls where criminals once lurked. Using the collective wisdom of the "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design" idea, the Olneyville Housing Corporation, the Providence Police Department, and others have gradually turned the place around,  building 51 affordable housing units and reducing crime by over 70 percent near previously dangerous properties.

Struever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse recently sponsored two workdays to build the park, and lots of volunteers turned out for these events. There's another workday this Saturday, November 10th, by the way.

There are waiting lists at new affordable housing, and people are "fighting over those units that face the park," [ital and emphasis added] according to Barbara Fields, executive director of the Rhode Island office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

There's a nursery rhyme that all too often sums up life:

For want of a nail, a shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, a horse was lost.
For want of a horse, a rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the battle was lost.
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost...
...and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Seems to me that Olneyville turns this on its head. My muse is on a lunch break, so I won't attempt to make up a rhyme, but it starts something like.... Because of a seed...

So imagine flowers and gardens wherever you are, no matter how it looks at the moment.

Southside Community Land Trust & Friends Build More Urban Gardens

One of my favorite organizations in the state ~ and there are many outstanding groups in Rhode Island! ~ is Southside Community Land Trust. Word comes today from Katherine Brown, director of SCLT, that there will be two new community gardens by the next growing season. These gardens couldn't happen without help from a lot of folks, but increasingly, Rhode Islanders are working together to create gardens that will produce healthy crops of vegetables around the city. Katherine writes:

Thanks to the spectacular vision, delightful collaboration, and hard work of Urban Ag Task Force members, two new community gardens (integrated with new affordable homes) are in the works! 

a. In partnership with the Parks Dept., the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, Olneyville Housing, Streuver Brothers, the EPA, Kurt Van Dexter, the Steel Yard, Earthcare Farm, and SCLT, the new community garden in Riverside Mills Park (across the street from Olneyville Housing's beautiful new homes) is well under way in readiness for Spring planting!  Come check out this unique raised-up-high-off-the-ground raised bed garden this coming Saturday--there will be a workparty at the park 11/10 at 10:00 am.

b. Councilperson Miguel Luna, the Parks Dept., The Elmwood Foundation, and SCLT have begun plans for a new community garden, on land next to The Elmwood Foundation's beautiful new homes on Early Street. In addition to new homeowners, the garden will also involve folks from McCauley Village and a [nearby] highrise.

Kudos to everyone who is making these wonderful initiatives come into being. Here's to growing more food in Providence, together!

And thank you to Southside Community Land Trust for tilling the urban soil these past twenty-five years!

THEY "HELP PEOPLE GROW FOOD IN AND AROUND THE CITY!"

There's Nothing Like Fresh-picked Tomatoes ~ or Green Beans or Peas or ....

It was just bare ground with perhaps some grass here and there this time last year, but now it is producing a bountiful harvest of vegetables and flowers. The Sessions Street Community Garden is quite a scene, with pumpkins and sunflowers around the fence, and loads of tomatoes, eggplants, squash, and cucumbers. Even broccoli. Every plot was taken, and I'm sure many other people are plotting for a plot next year.

See Farm Fresh Rhode Island's list of Community Gardens in Rhode Island. If you live in or near Providence, maybe you can find where there's a community garden near you. Many people in cities are interested in Community Gardens because the soil in these gardens is tested and lead-free, unlike the soil around many older urban homes. Other reasons people want a plot is that their yards are too shady for vegetables, which require at least 6 hours of sunlight a day, or they're renting or the yard is paved over for parking.

Here are Farm Fresh RI's 10 reasons why you might want to grow your own food:

Why community gardening?

1) Help beautify your community  
2) Get the nutrition you need & enjoy tastier food!
3) Save money
4) Protect future generations
5) Prevent soil erosion
6) Protect water quality
7) Save energy
8) Keep chemicals off your plate
9) Protect farm workers & help small farmers
10) Promote biodiversity

I have heard there are Community Gardens in other towns and cities around Rhode Island, for instance in Warwick. We'll compile a complete list someday, although that will be a moving target with gardens cropping up all over the place. But if you are interested in organizing a Community Garden near your home, contact Southside Community Land Trust, which offers workshops and information on gardening in developed urban/suburban areas.

Sustainable Landscapes

The RI chapter of the American Institute of Architects extends an invitation to attend a lecture and roundtable discussion this Thursday, August 16, 2007, on Sustainable Landscapes This is part of the AIAri Committee on the Environment "Design Matters" Roundtable Series. The event is from 6pm to 7:30 at the organization's office, 158 Washington Street Providence, Rhode Island. Admission is free!

Moderated by Derek Bradford, the discussion includes

• Will Gates: "Can a sustainable landscape meet the public's culturally ingrained expectations for aesthetics?
• Ron Henderson: Integrating urban landscapes and ecology
• Louis Raymond: Growing the community, greening the city: Allotment gardens in Providence

Architects get continuing education credit for attending. And remember, this is also the monthly Gallery Night in Providence so you can make a whole evening of it.

 

Seeds of Hope Garden Tour

Take a walk through Southside Community Land Trust's Somerset Community Garden and City Farm and learn about our broad range of programs that help people grown food. 

THURSDAYS at 6pm
August 9th
August 16th
August 23rd
August 30th

To sign up for a free, hour-long tour, call Taylor at (401)273-9419, x23 or email outreach@southsideclt.org.

Community Gardens in Rhode Island

I have just added a Community Gardens "page"* to this blog. It gives a little background about Community Gardens in Rhode Island and where they are located, but I'm sure it's incomplete. Some of you probably know of other Community Gardens and I hope you will add comments to this posting to fill us in on how they're started and how they're growing. You can also send photos and email me. Check out the page and send your comments!  SK

*A blog "page" is different from a "post" in that it is not dated and it does not have a Comments feature. When I add new pages, I'll add a post also so YOU can more easily add information helpful to other Rhode Islanders.

Session Street Garden (Providence) News

News from Alicia Lehrer:

The Session Street (Providence) Garden's first work day will be this Sunday, November 5th, from 12 to 3 PM.

The purpose of this work day is to prepare the soil over the Winter so it is ready to be gardened in the Spring. We will start by spreading lime to adjust the soil pH, then we will spread newspapers and compost to kill the grass and return its nutrients to the soil while enhancing organic content and soil biology.

I sent out a press release to the Journal about the work day in hopes of attracting a few more members. We still have about 10 unclaimed plots. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining our garden, please forward this message to them and have them get in touch with me as soon as possible at Alicia.Lehrer@alum.barnard.edu. Bring any or all of the following to the workday if you have or can borrow it:

• Lots and lots of newspapers
• Gloves
• Shovels
• Rakes
• Spreaders for spreading lime
• Wheelbarrows
• Snacks and/or drinks to share

When you arrive at the workday, I will check your name off on the membership list (or add your name to the list of you join that day). Then you can sign a garden agreement, take a set of garden rules, check out the garden design and select a plot.

It looks like it is going to be a great week-end for gardening but a little on the cool side. Dress in layers. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me either at this e-mail address or at Alicia's home phone number 401-831-2999.

SCLT's Harvesting Hope Breakfast ~ Next Wednesday

We've received an invitation from Southside Community Land Trust to attend this special breakfast on Wednesday, October 4th from 7:30am to 8:30am on the second floor of the Roger Williams Park Casino.

"It is a unique opportunity to learn more about SCLT's mission and programs.

The morning's program will include: a 7-minute video about SCLT's impact on the community; a wonderful presentation by storyteller and Somerset Community Gardener, Raffini; a personal testimony by youth intern, Gloria; and an address from Katherine Brown, SCLT's Executive Director, about SCLT's work, goals and vision for the future. Also, longtime Board Member and current Board President, Louis Raymond, will invite you to join SCLT's new multi-year giving society, The Harvest Society.

This fundraising breakfast is free to attend. Guests attending the breakfast will be asked to make a contribution, but are under no obligation to do so. There is no minimum or maximum gift requested. Gifts come in many forms and may be: monetary, in-kind goods or services, volunteer hours, community networking assistance, and other valuable ways.

So please join us this Wednesday morning for a delicious breakfast generously catered by Whole Foods. The breakfast will include fresh Urban Edge Farm eggs, local seasonal fruits, bagels, muffins, cheeses, coffees, juice and more!

Looking forward to seeing you Wednesday,

Taylor Ellowitz

Southside Community Land Trust "

email: outreach@southsideclt.org

phone: 401-273-9419, x23

web: http://www.southsideclt.org