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Showing posts with label Community Garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Community Garden. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Travel Tuesdays: Community Gardens, an Urban Oasis

A Brooklyn Brownstone*.
Two weekends ago Sharee and I were walking in the early morning hours in my cousin's Brooklyn BedSty neighborhood, where we were staying for a couple of nights. We paused at the signage below:


Behind the fence was:


The ground is ready for herbs.

and 

Herbs being grown.

Who would have thought we would have seen a beautiful oasis in an urban setting? 


We walked again the next day and saw a similar oasis in a park and between apartment buildings.


Community garden created by neighborhood kids at a nearby park.


A landscape yard with a gazebo between Brooklyn dwellings.


This peaceful oasis can occur in any neighborhood. Have you created or want to create a community garden where you reside? Comment below about your experiences with community gardens.

*All photos were taken personally by Rhonda & Sharee.

Rhonda W.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Community Gardens

Next week I have a meeting at my church, Francis Burns UMC, that I'm super excited about.  Our health ministry (HEALS) is seeking to start a church community garden.  A community garden is a collective effort by a group of people to provide fresh produce and plants on a single piece of land. It'll benefit the neighborhood residents and church members.  Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Strawberries.....veggies and fruits galore!!  For those that don't know, Rhonda and I eat (or juice) veggies and fruits and it constitutes 80% of our daily food intake. If you only knew what our grocery bill looked like and how frequent we went, you'll see why I'm grinning from ear to ear.  Take a look below as to what a community garden looks like.

Photo Credit via visualizenashua.com
What does this have to do with Take A Leap?? Everything if you ask me.  You see over the last few weeks, if you remember from a previous post, I've been searching for legitimate travel volunteer/mission projects.  Travel with a purpose right?  There are so many options, but the expenses are like...whoa!!  The only two that I came across that I could #1- afford and #2- enjoy were identified as the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and Workaway.  Both provide opportunities to volunteer and have your meals and accommodations covered by putting in a little work in a family's garden; teaching children; or a host of other creative and/or labor intensive volunteering projects.  The experience from our local church community garden will not only give us a green thumb, but also a learning experience that we can take with us to Africa, Europe, or South America from a period of a few days to several months, at minimal costs and an experience like no other.

Photo Credit via weber.edu
Have you participated in a community garden project in your city or town?  Have you traveled with either of the organizations noted above? If so, where to and what did you do??

Sharee