This spring,
Frogtown Gardens got to work on a new community garden at a former brownfield site in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.
It took $3,000 to set up the 30-plot community garden, called Our Village Gardens, according to Patricia Ohmans, who is a spokesperson for Frogtown Gardens.
Frogtown Gardens is a nonprofit organization that’s in the process of establishing a demonstration farm park and sanctuary in the neighborhood.
Financial support for the water, materials, compost, and mulch at Our Village Gardens came from Terry and Margie Commerford, who own the land, she explains. The couple runs the
River of Goods home decor shop and
Terrybear Urns and Memorials out of a new development on the site.
A combination of neighborhood volunteers and employees of the Commerfords’ businesses cultivate the plots, she says.
The gardeners are a diverse group, including Hmong, Somalis, Latinos, Vietnamese, African Americans, European Americans and others. “There's lots of energy and cross-pollination among them,” Ohmans says.
“We still need to do a lot of beautification around the communal spaces of the garden,” including the butterfly garden, rose border, and raspberries, “but the garden is already a great success and a truly diverse stomping ground.”
Frogtown Gardens also sponsors Amir's Garden, a permaculture demonstration garden on a vacant, privately owned lot, along with the Pop-Up Tree Park, which is a temporary tree nursery on a city-owned lot in the neighborhood.
Amir's Garden's excess produce will go to the local food shelf, according to Ohmans.
“We are also closely tracking the production of that garden, to get a sense of how much food can actually be grown on a household lot,” she adds.
Source: Patricia Ohmans, Frogtown Farms
Writer: Anna Pratt