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Renewable Richmond

With tough economic times, citizens will definitely try to find cheaper and healthier food.

Not knowing where or how your food is processed is becoming more obvious to people as well. Local and organically grown food is becoming a popular way to reduce emissions and chemicals that produce can carry. Those that want it all in a sociable and safe way will find that community gardens are here in Richmond.

Community gardens are one example of green space that puts a city's vacant lot to good use.   Also known as green infrastructure, green space competes for real estate with grey infrastructure which is our city's roads, buildings and other "hard-scaped" developments.

Chicago apparently has around 70,000 vacant lots, and Philadelphia has 31,000. Community gardens can take vacant lots and turn them into important sources of food for city residents. I put an inquiry into the City of Richmond to find out how many vacant lots we have; I have not received a response as of the release of this column.

Tricycle Gardens is a non-profit that provides garden building design, resources and technical support to build and manage community gardens in Richmond.

Lisa Taranto , director of Tricycle Gardens, has been working to provide gardens for the city's dwellers since 2001.

"I started out by driving around and marking empty plots around Richmond," she noted.

Taranto then went to Richmond's Better Housing Coalition with a few business partners to inquire about vacant lots.  

Since then, Tricycle Gardens has performed fund raisers and received grants from organizations including the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (Alliance), University of Richmond, the Robins Foundation and the Community Foundation to develop community gardens.  

Tricycle Gardens has a total of four community gardens. I visited Lisa at their first garden site in Church Hill along Jefferson Avenue . Immediately after stepping inside the wooden gate I was astonished. At first I could not believe such abundance of life in such a small space. I saw grasshoppers, birds, butterflies and bees among the abundant vegetation including tomatoes, corn, morning glory, avocado and blackberry along with many others.

This particular garden has 16 individual plots that are leased by various members of the community for $60 a year (it's $40 for one other garden in Richmond). In the back of the garden is a visually appealing tool shed made from scrap metal. A 1,100 gallon cistern that collects rainwater is in one corner. As I walk inside Lisa is watering her plants. She does this from a hose and small electric battery charged by a solar panel on the roof of the adjacent building.

As we sit at a picnic table, Lisa tells me about the shift in ideas she has seen in her years of working with communities. She states that there is a better sense of health, community, organic gardening and social interaction as a result of these city gardens.

She states that garden tenants are of many different nationalities and backgrounds but all live within a short distance of each other and their garden. "Fifty percent of the energy that is in this garden is the community's manpower and friendship."

I agree with her. There is a relatively new ecological paradigm that recognizes humans as important parts of ecosystems; this is termed Urban Ecology . In cities, humans are the "keystone species" meaning that it is hard for the city to survive without humans as a basic part.

David Owen, staff writer for the New Yorker , said that "when most Americans think about environmentalism, they picture wild, unspoiled landscapes -- the earth before it was transmogrified by human habitation." This is not the case anymore and when we think of cities as ecosystems we should consider both the environmental AND social implications of our actions.

"For me, it's the overall health of our ecosystem," Taranto said.

Lisa's dream would be a large network of gardens throughout the city so that most Richmonders will have easy access to a garden if they choose. Lisa and I share the same viewpoint and community gardens are a small but important component of this ecosystem.

Vacant lots can be transformed from eyesores, weedy, trashy and sometimes dangerous places into beautiful and productive green spaces. This has great potential to feed people's bodies and minds as well as sustain the health of the environment.

Some upcoming events for Tricycle Gardens include a partnering workshop and tour with the Alliance later this month. Also, there are recurring meetings about a new garden to be developed at the corner of Thompson Street and Patterson Avenue at the Humphrey Calder Community Center. Please visit their website for garden and urban ecology information and on ways to become involved in your community.