The Community Garden that isn't........

Ok. This is going to be hard to write, but here goes. The garden I write about each day and tend to is my own personal backyard garden. Not be confused with the Community Garden I had so hoped to get started here in Bruce.

For over two years I've worked and plotted and researched the idea of a community garden for Bruce and the Food Pantry. Fresh produce is not a feasibility for the pantry unless we can get it the 'day of'. One day I read about the availability of grant money to get a garden started so I wrote a grant and held my breath. Then I got the word in March of 2012 that BCBS of Mississippi was going to give us $6000 dollars to get a Community Garden going so that people could come together and have a little plot of soil to grow healthy fresh vegetables for themselves or for someone else if they so desired. The kicker was the time limit. We had 6 months to get all the ducks in a row and get it going. I had quite a few folks that jumped on the bandwagon with me that said they would love to help find materials and get the ball rolling.

The first proposed spot I went for, I got shot down, because one of the Grant rules was that it has to be fenced in to keep out the 4 legged wildlife (and perhaps some 2 legged ones too!) but the land owner(s) board members said no fence. I suppose they thought this garden was going to be ugly all the time. But in order to get the grant, there had to be a fence so BCBS said forget that place. Find another.

Another land owner had what would be the perfect spot but it needed to be able to be reached directly instead of driving across the rest of the business property. I could install a fence there but I had to get a huge culvert installed. I could get a culvert and could get the labor to install it, but several other things started happening. I could not get everyone on the same page as far as get the culvert in place. Then, because of an incident with the Zoning Board (of which I am a member) over a variance issue, some things were said and insinuated about not supporting the food pantry. I knew then a garden wasn't going to happen because I am not such a diva that I think I can do it all on my own. The time clock was ticking down.

Grants have time limits and this grant had just 6 months. The time ran out on the gift this community was offered. BCBS called and asked if i was any closer to getting ready for a garden because they had another small community that was ready to get started on a garden. I knew they would use it. So there went the grant.

I had envisioned a Garden that would bring people together from all walks of life. It was supposed to be the beginning of a Farmers Market so that what ever extra that was raised could be sold and those funds would go to the buy food for the pantry. It was supposed to be a garden that provided free produce to those that were too old to work a garden any longer. It was supposed to be a garden where grand parents could bring their grandkids and teach them some of that 'Old Gardening Wisdom' about how to raise your own food. It was supposed to an equal opportunity project for each civic club and each church or each gardening sponsor to work with as they saw fit. It sure would have given a lot of photo ops for the scrapbooks.

So I still have a dream of one day seeing a vegetable garden for this community. I will be more than happy to share my knowledge of garden successes and epic gardening failures I have amassed in my own gardening experiences.

A Community Garden is supposed to be for the Good of the Community, Perhaps someone else can get it going. Like I said earlier, I'm not a Diva.

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