Support Wells Park/Sawmill Neighborhood Gardens by expand...
Support Wells Park/Sawmill Neighborhood Gardens by expanding clientelle, securing water access, and holding public events
Idea Description
The Wells Park/Sawmill Neighborhood Gardens recently completed its first season on a vacant residential lot and is looking to intensify its activities. The gardens primarily serve two historically impoverished neighborhoods included in the City's "Pocket of Poverty" status and currently designated as "blighted." The garden's activities and development seek to engage residents in the act of producing food, creating a model for the productive use of vacant land, providing a public gathering space, and serving as a common point of collaboration between young and old as well as newcomers and long-time residents in this gentrifying part of town.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
Our current priorities include securing water access at the site (a $2500 water meter will free us from dependence on our gracious neighbor and save the garden money. It would also be used as a revolving fund with the property owner reimbursing the garden should the project move to a new site), hiring a part-time garden coordinator from within the community (to ensure local buy-in), and holding three free public events relating to gardening and public health issues (to disseminate important information and encourage use of the space as a social hub).
Vote for it now.
Can you contact me? I'm interested in this project and live in ABQ. You can email me from the link in my profile. Thanks!
I spent a lot of my childhood in this neighborhood and am very excited by the work already done for the Wells Park/Sawmill Neighborhood Gardens. I hope that they can continue the good work- it is important to respect these areas. As a child, I walked up and down Mountain Road with my schoolmates, going to the Sunshine Market and playing on the merry-go-round at Tiguex Park. We wandered the neighborhood and played kickball at Wells Park. It is hard to imagine this area as "blighted," as it is so fully of life and community!
Great work! How doable would rainwater catchment be at the site (or is it even legal in Albuquerque?). I love this idea. You might be able to garner some support from my network by posting a comment there... http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/562-Assist-American-Indians-in-gain Good luck!
Thanks for the feedback, Vaughn (I love your project too and I hope you get the money!). There are no structures on the garden property to catch water from, unfortunately. One neighboring home already catches their own water and the other side is a flat roof that drains away from the property, so the engineering to get water to the garden is a potential challenge. We are looking into some other strategies, however. Down here, we get precip. so infrequently (the last significant rain was three months ago, for example) that the trick is to have a large enough storage unit to see you through those dry time, and that can be expensive. Catchment would be my preference, though. We would very much like to go to a system of using ollas, unglazed clay pots sunk into the ground that leach into the …moresoil at a slow and consistent rate. We will be doing an experiment garden with this strategy next season to see how feasible it is. That would make using rainwater much more economical.
Wow! ... good venture ... carry on!