Portable Community Gardens
By Vanessa Richins
A friend and I were talking about community gardens in our cities.
He mentioned one called the “People’s Portable Garden.”
I hadn’t heard of that one, so I looked it up and discovered a wonderful new concept.
Salt Lake City is working to improve neighborhoods by purchasing empty lots through the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency and having developers buy it from them and build there.
But as one official explained to City Weekly, “Sometimes, because we’re trying to create large properties, we sit on property for such a long time, it causes more of the blight we are directed as an agency to turn around.”
Enter the People’s Portable Garden, a collaboration between the Redevelopment Agency and Wasatch Community Gardens in Salt Lake.
Planter boxes measuring 4′ x 16′ have been constructed on a lot. Community members are able to rent a box for $25 a year, which includes water. All of the plots sold quickly.
One question that you may think of is “What’s going to happen to the garden once the developers are ready to start on the project?” That’s the beauty of the People’s Portable Garden. The plans are that the boxes will be moved to another lot waiting for construction when the need arises.
As a story from ABC4 states, “WCG director Claire Uno says Salt Lake City is one of the first cities in the country to build the portable gardens.
“This is 50 percent about gardening and 100 percent about community,” said Uno. “This is an example for our community and an exciting new chapter for our organization.”
I am fairly certain that the same thing could be done in many cities. Let’s hope this is a new trend.
Does your city have any portable community gardens?
July 7th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Thank you for this it is good to see this. Did not know that they were doing this is Salt Lake City. That is about 30 miles from were we live and did not hear about it. Good job SLC. Hope that this one is something that will catch on around the country. It helps to keep those lots from becoming an eye soar. Thank you for posting this.
Dan and Deanna “Marketing Unscrambled”
July 7th, 2009 at 6:53 am
[...] Read more: Urban Garden Casual ? Portable Community Gardens [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Thanks for the post about our new garden, the People’s Portable Garden! Just a clarification…Wasatch Community Gardens did not purchase the property from the Redevelopment Agency, we leased it for $1 per year. The lease is up in 2012, at which point we will move the whole garden to another location, hopefully on another RDA property. These unused lots create blight in low-income neighborhoods, and temporary urban agriculture can be a great way to use the property while building community ties.
Claire Uno, Exec Dir, WCG
July 8th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Thanks for this post! I love reading about projects like this and am constantly on the lookout for new ideas. I’m curious to see how this works out.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Hi Claire! That’s a good clarification - I meant that the land developers were the ones that bought it. You’re only borrowing it
I need to come by and see them soon. I was so excited when I heard about them!
November 19th, 2009 at 3:07 am
This is a fantastic idea! Simple to implement–other cities should adapt this idea.