Nashville, TN, Metro Parks may provide land for communitygardens

**Don Boekelheide d*@yahoo.com**

City Paper, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
January 24, 2006

Metro may provide land for community gardens

By Judith R. Tackett, jtackett@nashvillecitypaper.com

Metro Parks has formed a consortium with community
garden groups and is working to set up guidelines that
would allow community gardens on Metro property.

A Community Garden Workshop is scheduled 8:30 a.m.-1
p.m. Feb. 11 in the Raintree Room of the Laskey
Library at Scarritt-Bennett Center, 1008 19th Ave. S.

The workshop is free and open to anyone interested in
starting a community garden or growing their own
fruits and vegetables.

Community gardens are more than just a place where
people grow food, Parks Board member James Lawson said
in a recent interview. 

Community gardens help form a community and help
people in inner cities and suburban areas change their
diets, said Del Ketcham, community garden organizer.

Currently Nashville has at least a dozen community
gardens scattered throughout the city. Some are run by
neighbors and some by nonprofit groups.

Lawson asked Parks Director Roy Wilson to look into
the use of public lots for community gardens.

If its a good community builder, and it doesnt put
any burden on the budget, then I think weve got a
good shot of getting it done, Lawson said. I know
that we have vacant property, and it costs next to
nothing.

Barry McAlister with Metro Parks said a consortium of
private and public groups has formed with the goal of
setting up necessary processes communities would go
through after they identify a government parcel that
they would like to use for community gardening.

One good example where a garden has brought the
community together is in Edgehill.

The Edgehill Community Garden was founded in 1994 and
is nestled between Murrell School on 14th Avenue South
and the Edgehill Library on 12th Avenue.

The garden experienced an upswing last year when
residents from the Edgehill Homes, the public housing
complex in the area, started to participate.

The Edgehill Community Garden has helped residents in
the area eat healthier and distribute fresh produce to
their neighbors, Ketcham said, adding that he saw the
need for a Metro agency to step in and serve as an
overall networking resource for community gardens.

For more information on the Edgehill Community Garden
call the Organized Neighbors of Edgehill at 256-4617.

______________________________________________________
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