It’s “ready, set, grow” for the new community gardens going in at the site of the former senior center at Kingwood and Airport Road in Florence. Last Friday about a dozen volunteers teamed up to do some of the heavier work, installing 17 garden beds as well as half the fencing. More volunteers were expected over the weekend to complete the fences. Soon there will be two gated entrances, too.
The garden project was proposed at a city council meeting in April by a group of local gardeners, including Joann Henderson, representing Florence First Harvest. Florence First Harvest was also involved in the community gardens that were built near the United Methodist Church. That program has proved so popular in the community that food-centered groups started looking for more options for garden sites.
Katya Reyna, a RARE participant who has been a key coordinator of this project since its inception, said that everything about the community gardens will be volunteer-driven and funded by donations, to ensure minimal cost to the city. RARE, Resource Assistance for Rural Environments, is a graduate student program funded by AmeriCorps that allows participants to live and work in rural communities to help improve environmental and economic conditions. A number of other RARE students were at the gardens hauling lumber and helping with the installation Friday.
The project has big designs, ultimately to hold 80 raised beds within two 40-feet-by-90-feet sections.
Getting the project to this stage has taken some hard work, but lots of hands are digging in. Katya said that Habitat ReStore has provided some building materials; the Boys and Girls Club are supporters and have given the group a 100-foot hose; and Kurt Sanders, who helped build the gardens at Kingwood and 10th streets, was on site showing crews how to set fence posts. Florence Rotary has donated starter funds.
For the complete article see the 07-31-2013 issue.
Originally published in Siuslaw News
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