Audio by album corner_stone_deli

7/5/11

Beans, zinnias, Thai chilis, pumpkins, cabbage, basil, sage and flowers are growing in the community garden in the parking lot of the Corner Stone Deli and Café in Clintonville.

“We set these 2 gardens up as an example of what you can do in a truly urban setting.
We’re completely surrounded by traffic, parking, and cement,” said Jean Bird, who coordinates gardens for the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center, aka CRC.

“We have lots of volunteers and children. Children have done quite a bit of our planting--children from the Kid’s Club that the CRC also sponsors.”

Bird said the crops were started as seedlings with help from homeless persons and children, as well as help from Jocelyn Smallwood (red shorts) and Hallie Foster, who are with the AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate Program.

Smallwood said she hasn’t worked in gardens before but is enjoying it.
“The garden programs are pretty cool. They’re all over the place. We have this one and a couple more. They need a lot of care. We have a lot of volunteers who work really hard, but it’s a bit of a challenge to get out to all of them and give them the attention they need.”

She and Foster are helping to fill the gaps in person-power for the gardens. But she encourages people interested in volunteering to contact the resource center.