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Urban Nature
by DIG-IT
Birds sing, clouds dew
Grasses wave, onions strut.
Baptisia pods, herbs waft
Robins hop, sunflowers climb.
Rosemary scents
Honey suckles, globemaster puffs.
Red roses smooch, lavender vies
Horse radish belies its sting.
Softness rolls, gentle breeze
Rugosa and plums, lots of bees.
Butterflies too, goldenrod sways
Frog pond, pink lilies
Pickerelweed stout.
Great hulls of buttonbush
Lush garden home.
The garden of scent and flowers, native grasses, forbs, herbs, veggies, shrubs, fruit trees and cultural statements must be the second Garden of Eden. To say this garden at the Greater Newark Conservancy (GNC) smack in the middle of downtown Newark, New Jersey, is an oasis is putting it mildly. Anywhere, this garden would make a grown gardener cry.
The garden is part of the Conservancy’s Prudential Outdoor Learning Center where area school kids and grown-ups come to learn about nature and gardening in the garden, greenhouses and raised beds. GNC holds environmental classes – and much more – in a historic 1884 former synagogue recently purchased from the City and now under transformation.
Classes are available to “any teacher who wants to explore the outdoors through a guided learning experience because our educators are there and they have already developed a series of lessons that we take the students through which are age and grade appropriate and also aligns with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards,” says Robin Dougherty, executive director. The building will serve as the new headquarters.
GNC’s staff of 20 full-time and five part-time people also bring nature into schools.
“We try to use lessons that are not just about growing vegetables. They also learn about the life cycle of an earthworm, about beneficial insects, all the things connected to nature that can be incorporated into different areas of the curriculum like math and social studies,” says Dougherty. “Sometimes we get grants and these programs are free. We also have paid programs but we don’t turn anyone away due to funding. If a school only has $5, we’ll make it happen.”
At some schools, GNC creates Living Labs and provides lessons so teachers can bring their students outdoors to learn first-hand. Ex-offenders on the Clean and Green Team, a city-funded program through the Office of Re-entry, City of Newark, work 32 hours a week, cleaning and greening primarily city-owned properties.
So, what’s to stop an aspiring, motivated landless gardener who dreams of a garden all their own? Apparently nothing.
Newark gardeners who want to start a community garden or just want a plot of their own can get the help they need through GNC’s Community Greening Program. They can Adopt-A-Lot from the city for $1 a year, get help to clean it up and build raised beds (to avoid contaminated soil), get free seeds, attend seed starting and rain barrel workshops, and buy bedding plants and rain barrels to put in their community gardens. “We are like the technical assistance part of community gardening,” says Dougherty.
For residents too busy to manage a garden of their own but can’t get the passion from their bones, GNC has adopted 21 lots around Newark (including its own Outdoor Learning Center) and developed community gardens on them under its Plot-It-Fresh program. At these gardens, for a small fee, residents can adopt an already built raised bed or two just waiting for working hands. The soil has been tested and tools are onsite; bring plants.
The GNC is big on environmental justice advocacy as part of the Keep-It-Green Coalition to bring Green Acres bond funding to urban areas to have more parks and recreation in the city of Newark. “We’ve been involved in planning for the Master Plan for over 12 years. We’ve done education around lead poisoning prevention; we have a great interest in teaching people how they can prevent some of the illnesses associated with living in an urban environment.” They bring programs to schools, participate in health fairs and in community organizations’ activities to inform as many people as possible.
An annual garden contest is one way of reaching out to city gardeners. Gardens are judged twice in 14 categories: in June to show the garden has begun, and in August to show it is flourishing. Then, prizes and awards are given to all in October, at a ceremony at New Jersey Institute of Technology.
“We try to reward people for gardening,” Dougherty says. “We give everybody something for being part of it. Some of the gardeners are fiercely competitive. It’s a fun way to get together and helps to build community.”
Adds Dougherty: “If people don’t know what they can do in a garden, people can just come and there’s an activity going on and they can learn how to build their own gardens, we bring in other people to do workshops. We want people to come to our place and learn about us.”
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published September 22, 2011
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