The city of Sturgis will have its own community garden this summer. At a recent meeting the city council approved the use of a plot of city land. In addition, the city will provide a water line and fencing and pay for insurance. To help recoup costs the city will charge $25 for a season’s use of a 20’x20’ plot of land within the garden.

Read this Rapid City Journal article to learn more.

I used to think that successful community gardens were in safe well-established neighborhoods where people look after one another. Thanks to a recent article in the RCJ, I now see that the opposite can be true—a community garden can create a neighborhood.

The Lemmon Avenue part of Rapid City used to be pretty rough. The RCPD, instead of arresting more people, decided to help build the neighborhood with a community garden. And it worked. People started taking pride in their neighborhood, paying attention to what was going on, meeting one another, and having the courage to call the police if necessary. People have become empowered by learning the behaviors that contribute to a safe thriving community. Speak to your neighbors. Learn their names. Look after the kids. Bring in the trashcans. Clean up your yard.

When I talked to Pam Gordon, who lives next to the community garden, assigns the spaces, and enforces the rules, she was most proud of her flowers. I had to think about that.

Flowers. Grass that’s been watered and mowed. Trash picked up. A garden that’s shared. These seem like such simple things. Yet they are what turned a collection of streets and houses into a neighborhood, a place residents can be proud of, the place where they want to live.

If you grow up in a place that’s trashy, where kids form gangs and run around late at night and look for trouble, where the police are on patrol and are seen as the enemy—you have no idea how to create a well-functioning neighborhood. No idea how to introduce yourself to your neighbor and offer a helping hand. No idea that having a potluck supper would bring people together, get them talking to each other, sharing information, and solving problems.

So the Lemmon Avenue Community Garden has become a place where people can gather and get acquainted and plan and start becoming a community. Kudos to the RCPD for showing the way.

Pine Ridge residents, who live far from city supermarkets, have little access to fresh healthy fruits and vegetables. Available food in their small stores at an affordable price is high in carbohydrates, and a high carb diet leads to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems common on the rez.

Shannon Freed, who moved to Pine Ridge in 2009, observed firsthand the health and nutrition problems there and set out to change things. She applied for and got a grant that will allow her to plant a vegetable garden and teach residents how to cook and preserve the food that comes from that garden.

Thinking beyond the garden Freed is planning an orchard and hives for honeybees, all intended to make Pine Ridge more self sufficient in fresh healthy food. You can read more of her story here.

Hills Horizon, a grassroots group in the Spearfish area, is sponsoring a community garden on city land at Red Hill Park, 590 East Elgin Street. The garden was started in 2010, the year that the eight foot deer fence was constructed and fifteen 4 foot by 10 foot plots were planted. This year water has been brought to the site and raised bed boxes constructed. Topsoil has been brought in to build up the red dirt soil and two plots for kids have been created.

Plots are still available. Hills Horizon activist Josh Krueger sent us this info: “The cost is $40 per season and Hills Horizon pays the  water bill. Once a patron leases a plot, that person has the right of first refusal thereafter…basically it is theirs to keep as long as they follow the rules.”

Anyone interested should contact Josh at HillsHorizon@gmail.com

The Canyon Lake Senior Citizen Center in Rapid City has designated a space just behind their building where members can be assigned a gardening plot. The city checks the water lines, plows the garden, and drops off compost. A six-foot fence keeps out the four-footed creatures that enjoy fresh greens and can’t read signs. The cost is $20 a year, and the garden plots for this year have all been assigned. Most gardeners keep their plots from year to year. Any member who wants to garden in 2012 should sign up early by calling the center at 721-8710.