Restore Your Urban Neighborhood With A Community Garden

You don't need a billion-dollar urban renewal grant to restore a sense of community to your neighborhood; all you need is one person who remembers the exquisite taste of fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes.

And if they can do it in Louisville, you can do it anywhere.

Mary Ruth French saw a part of her childhood in the vacant lots that she and her husband own across the street from their strip mall in the Shawnee neighborhood.

One of the lots originally contained a home that had burned down; the other held two dilapidated homes, several trees and overgrown weeds.

But as French's husband, Anthony, tells it, an idea to put in a community garden struck her during one of the most barren times of the year — taking her back to her childhood growing up in Mays Lick, Ky.

“The garden was an idea she had in the snowstorm of 2008,” he said. “And it was a good one.”

Since then, the land has been cleared and turned into the Shawnee Garden of Principles, which is on Market Street near Amy Avenue. It now includes 15 plots.

A handful of people came out Saturday to weed and clean the garden space as part of Global Youth Service Day, an annual international event in which young people work to improve their communities.

“If you get the community involved with it, it's kind of neat,” said Marytha Johnson, a senior at Central High School who volunteered as a member of the Beta Club. “And if not, it's still a pretty plot to look at.”

Members of the Shawnee Neighborhood Association can adopt a plot, grow flowers and produce, and mingle with their neighbors at the garden, Mary Ruth French said.

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This article tells you everything you need to know about setting up a community garden in your neighborhood.