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.
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