At the empty lot behind the old funiture store that Walt Bodine used to work at, some people have…read morestarted some sort of garden. At first, there were these used tires with dirt in them, conspicuously set up and sometimes with green things in them. Then, in the middle of the lot, there begat long piles of dirt, and green sprouts are verifiably growing. I positively identified beans, mostly because there is a big wire mesh jutting out from the sprouts, like some sort of obelisk from a freaky garden movie.
Why did I review this? Because I could. Actually, it seems to me that the corridor along Troost could use a community garden, because fresh vegetables are hard to come by around that area. The nearest is around 52nd and Paseo, about 2-3 miles away. But there is something about having a garden in your neighborhood, instead of something in another part of town. I'm giving it 4 stars because it's not an 'official' community garden, and if it had some city approval, it would be just great. But I guess you gotta start somewhere, right?
So right now it's only about a month old, and they show up around 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Sundays, but if they can get it going, they'll make it more regular. The 'they' is a group of local people, some static, some dynamic (in membership), and the biggest garden so far is attributed to one of the 816 bicycle collective folks, so they have their hand in a bunch of things around Troost. Well, if you live nearby, and would like to use some garden space (free dirt, mulch, friendly helpers), then get over there, or check out their myspace page. The 'they' are called "Twig KC".
Now my question is: how long will this last? There is a suspicion in this part of town of folks coming in and doing a bunch of stuff, and then leaving. It's happened before, it'll happen again, and the only question is, is this garden in for the long run? The question depends on the members, and especially the longevity of the leadership: will they stick around and find successors if they move away, or will it wither and die like an unattended plant? There can't be any real change without the will of the community, and even then, it takes years and years at the quickest of paces. I'll try to plant some basil and maybe a tomatoe or two, but where will this place be in two or three years? Most of the folks in the garden right now were pretty young, under 30 or so. And as most people older then 30 or so know, young people are young for a reason, and that includes doing non-settling-down-stuff. I think it's great to be the early-adopter in the new gentrifying part of town, but it's harder to see the big picture and have a long-term goal of decades. Even with all this morose talk, you've got to start somewhere, and come rain or shine on the future of this garden, it's traded the bleak grassy lot full of rocks with hard work, hope, and a dream.
UPDATE: This place has reached 5 star status, because I found the people behind it. Actually, it is a community garden, and there are some folks who have gotten permission to use the land, hooked up with KC community gardens to till some of the land, and have even raised some dinero to get some good compost dirt. They've also talking with some local people about getting some water hooked up nearby, and in the meantime, there is a lot of building up of dirt and mulch to make garden beds. Even the used tires I saw were put there on purpose (one has a pussy willow tree shoot growing; you go willow tree).
UPDATE: As of June 1st, they had two huge mounds of soil/humus, ready to go for your seeds/seedlings. Also, they have a hook-up to some water faucet, with like a 100' long hose, so now, with this hose and some mentos, you can now be the freshmay-ka and the rainmay-ka.
UPDATE: It's coming up on the fall, and the garden is showing its true colors. There are still fledgling gardens, a compost area, and some trash laying about. So there isn't as much energy as in the beginning of the year, but that's what happens sometimes, and we all get carried away with things, don't we?
