The other day I read an article in a local free weekly newspaper about the “underground†activity of alley gardening.
Places like alleys are typically forgotten communal areas in our neighborhoods. That means that sometimes they fall prey to illegal trash dumping or even more nefarious activities such as drug dealing. However, a group of rebel gardeners in my city have decided to get out there are take over the alleys, systematically transforming them into community gardening spaces. They formed an organization called Alley Gardens. Here’s a bit of the mission statement from the Alley Gardens website:
Our team is working to retrofit Albuquerque with the community-initiated green space it needs. A pilot project was initiated in the spring of 2005 and has continued to grow, demonstrating the potential of the idea. Our partnership introduces community gardens into an unlikely but abundant space throughout the city–Albuquerque’s alleys. We hope that these Alley Gardens will expand throughout our urban environment. The project transforms alleys into beautiful and productive spaces, nourishing our city by beautification and community investment. The Alley Gardens project also enhances our city by empowering neighborhoods and localizing food sources, by acknowledging our limitations with rainwater harvesting, and by a reanalysis of our community’s needs. The project strives to raise the quality of life we experience in our city.
I actually live in one of the neighborhoods where the Alley Gardeners work. Through their efforts hey have helped to improve the neighborhood and create a series of beautiful urban trails that link our community to a public park and the local University campus.
There are wonderful wildflowers blooming along these paths, and people, kids, and dogs going out for walks. It’s really an amazing project that I just recently heard about.
So, I’m curious if anyone else out there knows of alley garden projects in their communities and any success stories they’d like to share! Please leave us a comment!
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