The Arizona Republic
Avondale's community garden grows vegetables and friendship.
Avondale City Councilwoman Stephanie Karlin planted the seeds of the idea at a City Council meeting in November 2009.
Avondale community garden
Her vision was that a garden could be used to make an empty lot greener, that it would provide healthful food and that residents would be drawn to the spot and would become friends through their shared love of gardening.
Mission accomplished.
Today, the Garden Patch grows on a third of a 2-acre lot, and about 30 people have joined to either garden communally or they have their own plots. Add to those members their family and friends and the volunteers who come to the garden to work, and Karlin, 57, said the garden has grown to exceed her dreams.
"Nobody knew each other beforehand," Karlin said. "And sometimes they (members) bring their neighbors, and the neighbors say, 'Oh, we want to be a part of this.' So, it's just gotten bigger and bigger. At first, I have to say, it was a struggle, because we've been working on this for a while. . . . We weren't getting a lot of responses. Then, all of a sudden, it just went boom, boom, boom with people (joining)."
Among the gardeners are developmentally-disabled students, children, adults and people who don't live in Avondale.
The garden is northeast of the Avondale Civic Center Library, 11350 W. Civic Center Drive. The plants, most of which are in full bloom or heavy with vegetables, are part of the first of three phases of Garden Patch membership.
There is a membership fee to join the Garden Patch. It is $60 a year to share in the communal garden and $90 a year to garden your own plot of ground. Each plot is 10 feet by 20 feet.
Membership, both individual and communal, entitles each person in the member's household or group to participate as a gardener, to use gardening tools owned by the Garden Patch, and to use the composting facilities.
The annual membership fee covers the plot, insurance and water to irrigate. Each garden plot has its own water spigot.
The garden was planted March 26. An executive board of seven runs the Garden Patch, which is working to have its non-profit status approved.
The garden grows a wide assortment of vegetables and flowers, including peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, mint, sunflowers, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe.
Michelle Buvala, 46, is secretary of the executive board and coordinates many of the details necessary to running a community garden. She is a communal member.
"We (communal gardeners) get together. We decide what we want. We plant it. We make the decisions together. We pool our finances to buy what we need. We work it together," Buvala said of the communal plot. "We have a schedule: who comes out when and who does watering, picking the weeds and whatnot. And then we harvest together."
When a communal member comes out on watering day and a vegetable is ripe for the picking, the member picks it, she said. On Saturday mornings, most of the communal gardeners come out and each walks away with a basket full of vegetables, Buvala said.
Rusty Van Leuven, 42, treasurer of the board, has an individual garden plot. Among his crops are corn, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and okra.
There are an amazing variety of plants packed into each garden plot.
"I've never had anything to do with gardening," Van Lueven said. "That's one reason why I did it. I wanted to learn how to do it."
And learn Van Lueven has. He said there is a vast reservoir of gardening knowledge among the gardeners. Everybody shares what they know.
"The first day, I picked and took zucchini home; we had a party," he said. "It's really satisfying when you pick what you've grown."
And one of the better aspects of the community garden for Van Lueven is that he didn't know any of the gardeners, but now, he is friends with his fellow gardeners.
Esmie Avila, Avondale's water conservation specialist, is a master gardener and she also has her own plot.
Despite her expertise, she said she learns things from other gardeners.
"You never stop learning," Avila said.
Although the Garden Patch is planting loofahs and ornamental gourds to raise money, it accepts donations. It could also use a shed to hold its gardening implements and some canopies.
For more information on the Garden Patch, go to www.avondalegardenpatch.com or e-mail garden.patch@yahoo.com.
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