Arizona Avenue Community Garden opened in the spring of 2015. In its first year,with the help of numerous community volunteers, AACG has installed a water system, constructed 34 garden beds, and filled them with rich soil. Approximately 15 families, one study group from First Christian Church, on whose land the garden is located, and a class from El Paso High School just up the hill have planted, pruned, and harvested produce from their garden beds this year.
Each family or group pays a nominal annual fee to become a member ($15-$50 depending on the size of bed they choose) and select a garden bed to make their own. Experienced gardeners teach the members how to plant and tend their gardens. Members not only help and learn from one another, they develop relationships that add to each one's social safety net; they build a community.
The garden is already thriving, but the construction is not complete. We have recently built a compost bin and a storage shed in which we store our shared supplies and tools and a bulletin board to help coordinate tasks to be done in the garden. We also recently installed timers to each bed to conserve water and prevent over-watering. We still need to finish adding gravel around the garden beds and paint numbers on each garden bed with their individually assigned number.
We continue to educate our neighbors about this new community garden and their ability to become members and grow their own food. We hope to have each garden bed assigned to a family or group by the end of next spring's planting season, which we estimate would reach approximately 102 people, not including the extended family, friends, and neighbors to whom I know much produce is given out of the abundance of the garden.
One of our neighbors, The Mustard Seed Community Cafe (where everyone eats and you pay what you can) is helping us to get the word out. They have a garden adjacent to ours where volunteers grow food for the cafe to serve. Both gardens have access to the church's playground. Another of our neighbors just down the street, Kelly Memorial Food Pantry, is also helping us to spread the word as they aim to help their guests end their chronic food crisis.