The Community Gardening Program
of
OSU Extension, Cuyahoga County

Mission
For over 27 years, the Community Gardening Program has been fulfilling its mission to provide resources to help people grow food to eat, develop skills to live by, and build stronger communities and healthier environments. In 2005 there are 3,400 participants at 209 garden sites in neighborhoods, schools, and at social service agencies across the county.

Garden Locations
In 2006 we expect to have a searchable map that will help you locate the gardens. For now, please call our office if you need help finding a garden near you to join, or if you would like to visit other garden sites to get ideas from them.

Some gardens have websites of their own. Here are their links:

Kentucky Garden in Ohio City

The Community Gardening Newsletter
We publish the Newsletter roughly every other month. We plan in the near future to have a link to them from this website so that you can view current and past newsletters.

Programs

General Community Garden Support:
The Community Gardening Program recruits, instructs and supports volunteer leaders as they establish and maintain productive community vegetable gardens in Cleveland and throughout Cuyahoga County. The Program works closely with the City of Cleveland's Summer Sprout Program. In this partnership, Extension provides the educational component and the city provides site preparation and materials. In 2005 we have already presented a dozen workshops to over 200 participants and have several more scheduled.

As part of our services to community gardeners, we are on hand to:

•  Provide free workshops on topics such as basic gardening, nutrition, and pest and disease diagnostics;

•  Work with new and current garden leaders on starting and maintaining community gardens via phone, written material and site visits;

•  Connect participants to each other, local resources, and events of interest;

•  Publish The Community Gardening Newsletter which contains expert gardening advice, garden teletips and vegetable recipes promoting healthy eating.

Market Gardening:
The Community Gardening Program has taken the lead in forming a coalition that was awarded a USDA Community Foods Project Grant . This project, called City Fresh , will provide advanced training for community gardeners and others who wish to become market gardeners beginning in January of 2006. A goal of City Fresh is to increases low-income consumers' access to fresh, locally grown produce and locally processed foods. A system is being established to develop market gardens in Cleveland and thus join the growing numbers of entrepreneurial urban agriculture projects throughout the country. If you are interested in signing up for weekly vegetable shares to pick up at the Clark Metro or Detroit Shoreway food center locations in summer of 2006, or if you would like to sign up for training to market your produce, call our office at the number above and ask for Lynn.

Additional information on the City Fresh project can be found at the
Ecological Design Innovation Center (EDIC) website.

Ready, Set, Grow!:
Gardens can be a real benefit to individuals needing special services. It is proven that they provide a healthy, peaceful, and healing space for adults and children alike. However, the programs that serve the most at-risk populations are often the ones that need the most assistance in establishing a garden. Funded by the Bruening Foundation, this pilot project provides resources, training, site visits, and evaluation at selected sites that serve low-income individuals. Through this project a new staff member is working with 10 organizations to help them create or expand their gardens in 2005. These include social service agencies serving adults, such as rehabilitation centers and homeless shelters, as well as sites serving youths, such as summer camps and schools.

STEPS to a Healthier U.S., Cleveland:
This program began in fall of 2004. A grant from the Centers for Disease Control was awarded to the Cleveland Department of Public Health and a consortium of other health care professionals and non-profit organizations to fight major public health diseases such as diabetes, obesity and asthma. Staff from the Community Gardening Program are helping to develop gardens in targeted neighborhoods in order to increase residents' access to fresh produce and to provide opportunities for physical activity through gardening. We will teach and promote the connection between gardening, nutrition, and physical activity to new audiences