Natalie Walsh exudes warmth when we speak on the phone from her home in Saratoga Springs, New York. The former journalist turned master gardener is getting ready for a trip across North America to look at community gardens in Canada and the United States. But this isn’t her first journey into the heart of the continent’s collective gardening movement. Natalie Walsh is a former journalist and master gardener who is getting ready for a trip across North America to look at community gardens in the United States and Canada. This isn’t her first journey into the heart of the continent’s collective gardening movement.
Natalie travelled across the lower US states and Hawaii last year, stopping at neighborhood gardens along the way. Back in the Bronx, she learned to grow food in her grandmother’s garden and this sparked a passion in her for gardening in community and making it the best experience it can be. She is a board member of the American Community Gardening Association and she also offers help to community gardens in the Saratoga Springs area.
Natalie has helped create many neighborhood gardens from the beginning. She has also noticed that community gardens have many similarities from her travels.
“People are looking for ways to connect with others,” she says. “Community gardening provides an opportunity to do that, and I think the community aspect is just as important as the gardening itself.”
Natalie was interviewed about what makes community gardens vibrant and successful. Some of the ideas she suggested are listed below.
1. Provide educational opportunities.
Natalie then went on to create a second community garden, this one in Moreau, New York. This garden included ten raised beds, which were specifically for children. Here, she taught weekly gardening classes, and grew various plants for the kids to harvest and taste.
Natalie says that she would teach the kids about bugs and diseases if she were a teacher. She mentions that one of the boys had a problem with his tomatoes and that one of the younger boys said he would help him. She says that the boy who offered to help has the skills and confidence to communicate them because growing food brings confidence.
In this situation, the beds that were set aside for children were 4 feet by 8 feet. These beds not only gave children their own space, but also served as a learning opportunity.
The community garden connecting people with each other as they work with nature to grow food is beneficial for young people.
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2. Make spaces for the elderly.
Since she was young, Natalie has observed that older people really enjoy talking about their past experiences with plants. She noticed that particular smells would bring back strong memories for them. For example, the smell of mint would often trigger a memory, and they would then proceed to tell a story about it.
Although elderly gardeners may be reminiscing about the past, they also have a lot to share with others. For example, when Natalie hosted a fairy festival at the Saratoga community garden, she asked seniors at the local senior center to help run a sales table. This partnership allowed the seniors to connect with young people.
The speaker says that everyone loved the event and that the seniors who participated the first year said they want to come back. The speaker says that the event is just a matter of people being good to one another.
3. Remember the birds and the bees.
At the at-risk youth garden that Natalie worked on, the youth grew tomatoes in raised beds. However, they were not content with the austere design and wanted something more inviting.
Natalie recommended that the back of the garden should be full of flowerbeds to attract monarch butterflies and other beneficial insects. She also said that a birdbath would be a good idea because it would bring birds to the garden and would look nice.
She explains that adding picnic tables, benches, and water fountains to a community garden makes it more enjoyable and relaxing. Solar sprinklers can also be included to create the sound of running water.
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4. Add showstoppers (like a sunflower house).
At the Pitney Meadows garden in Saratoga Springs, Natalie planted a whole field of sunflowers. The goal was to have them be visible from the road so that people would come visit the garden.
In the same location, she worked with youth to create a beautiful sunflower house designed for children. This involved planting sunflowers around a big empty rectangle, and adding a concealed door that can only be accessed by backtracking.
The sunflower house was a special place in the garden where children had their own space. The garden committee offered a reading program led by a retired teacher in this space.
“Adults sometimes come into the house,” Natalie says, explaining how one afternoon, she heard voices coming from inside. Peeking her head inside, she saw two older men in their 80s enjoying the silence next to some sunflowers. “Is it okay if we’re in here?” they asked.
Soon after the garden was established, photographers started visiting to take pictures, and others soon followed. At the end of the season, the sunflower heads were sold for seed as a fundraiser. The sunflowers had been integral in attracting people to the garden.
5. Plant a giving garden.
A giving garden is a row or bed of land planted with the purpose of giving the produce away to those who are hungry. Churches, soup kitchens, and local food pantries are often willing to take fresh, local produce for their programs that give to those in need.
Share extra produce with local organizations in need if you are unable to create a giving garden.
We have been growing food at Pitney Meadows Garden specifically to donate to the local food pantry for the past two years, and we have donated hundreds of pounds of food. We are now growing an even larger garden so that we can donate even more food.
6. Embrace the beauty of food crops
Edible plants can also be used as decoration in your garden! Some examples of edible plants that would look beautiful are artichoke flower heads, different types of kale and lettuce, mint, and fennel blooms.
At Disneyland in Anaheim, California, the horticulture team uses edible plants in beautiful ways. According to Adam Schwerner—Disneyland’s director of Horticulture and Resort Enhancement—they wanted to “highlight the beauty of growing fruits and vegetables where they are visible instead of relegating them to the back of the garden, as is often the case.” At the entrance to Tomorrowland, citrus trees flank the walkway, and persimmon, pomegranate, apple, avocado, and cherimoya trees that were taken from an orchard have been placed throughout this area of the park. Under the fruit trees are vegetables like Swiss chard in several colors, artichokes, and purple kale; and herbs such as lavender and rosemary. Some other eye-catching crops to plant in your garden, according to Schwerner, are passionfruit (their flowers are jaw-dropping!), chives, and nasturtiums. It’s all about looking at edible plants through a different lens.
7. Grow communal fruit trees.
You don’t need your own fruit tree if you can’t use all the fruit it produces.
The gardeners in Greenwich, Connecticut planted fruit trees and shrubs around their garden so that the community could share in the bounty. Natalie saw another design like this in Minnesota, where there was an orchard of 12 trees connected to the community garden. She believes that this is a more efficient way of growing fruit, since not every family needs to have their own tree.
8. Be intentional about color
When thinking about the colors of the plants in your garden, it is important to consider how they will interact with each other, as well as with your home and other garden elements.
There is no single answer when it comes to deciding what colors to use in your garden according to Bill Thomas, the executive director and head gardener at Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania. “Don’t just plant a mix of whatever you see in a catalog,” he says. The gardeners at Chanticleer use various strategies to create cohesion through color. One such strategy is massing yellow daffodils that repeat the leaf color of a nearby variegated agave. Another is to match blooms to nearby furnishings—a pair of blue Adirondack chairs with a vibrant blue hydrangea blooming close by is striking. “These intentionally designed spaces have impact,” says Thomas.
You can also use your front door or porch as an opportunity to use a color that’s not on your home. If your home is a neutral color like beige or gray, you can get away with a brighter front door. There are some things you can do to make sure the colors you use are purposeful: If you have a front door with a bright, vibrant color, put some potted plants of the same color or coordinating colors next to it or on the pathway leading up to it. If you have a planting bed in front of your home that you’re thinking about replanting, be sure that the plants you pick don’t clash or get washed out by your home’s color. You can also use your front door or porch as an opportunity to use a color that’s not on your home. If your home is a neutral color like beige or gray, you can get away with a brighter front door.
9. Incorporate beautiful edging
Choose an edging material for your garden that fits with your style and coordinates with your hardscaping. Edging can define walkways, keep plants from encroaching on paths, prevent people from trampling plants, and reinforce the theme of a space.
It’s important to choose a material for your garden edging that will last for a long time. Plastic edging is cheap, but it’s not very stable. Metal edging is a good choice because it’s subtle and lasts a long time. Bricks, pavers, and stones are also durable and give your garden a classic look. Wood is beautiful, but it will rot over time if it’s not treated.
10. Consider views from indoors
When planning your garden, don’t forget to think about how it will look from inside your home. Adrian Bloom of The Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk suggests considering views from the windows where you spend a lot of time, like the kitchen or your favorite sitting room. If you have a window that looks out into your garden, think about how you can improve that view. Seeing a grouping of plants with your favorite color blooms, a bird bath, or a tree that changes colors with the seasons could significantly impact your mood.
11. Find what you love…then get more of it
If you find a plant you like growing in your region, try planting more of it. This is what the late Ganna Walska did at Lotusland, her garden in Santa Barbara, California, and it resulted in some stunning garden areas. According to Lotusland’s Chief Executive Officer, Gwen Stauffer, “She had this collecting sort of vein.” Visitors to Lotusland can view some of the most impressive collections of plants, including cactuses, succulents, and ferns. There is a portion of the property dedicated to roses and an entire garden filled with blue plants. According to Stauffer, “She was unafraid to crowd things together, as it brings big plants close to the edges of the walkway. And by doing that, she gave every single garden room its own personality and sense of space.”
Designate a particular area in your garden to grow the plants you love. Experiment with different species and colors to find what works best in your area.
12. Keep a garden journal
Logging successes and failures in your garden helps inform your future gardening decisions and puts less pressure on you to remember specifics (such as when you planted the seedlings of that tomato plant that provided you with a plentiful bounty!). Keeping a garden journal is a major step you can take to become a more successful gardener.
