Changes Come to Otsiningo

What is a community garden?

Our community garden - Summer of 2018

One definition of a community garden I found online is:   "Any piece of land gardened by a group of people."

It's as simple as that!

Of course, nothing is ever "as simple as that".

We've participated in two different community garden associations in our 30 plus years living in the Binghamton area.

We started out when we first moved here (here being, at the time, Binghamton, New York), and were living in an apartment on the northeast side of Binghamton.  When we ended up buying a house in a nearby community, most of the lot was  shady, and also wasn't big enough to have the garden plot we wanted.

But at least we own our own home.  For many community gardeners, a community garden is the difference between being able to garden and grow their own quality food,  and having to depend on sometimes substandard produce.

Indeed, parts of Binghamton, New York, where our community garden plot is located, is considered a "food desert".  An organization called VINES is working hard to change that.


It's been a long time-a long, long time-since I've last blogged about the community garden my spouse has belonged to.  Actually, there were two different gardens.

The first Garden's story (it is now a movie theatre/Applebees site called "The Gardens" and its demise.

The second Garden's story, which began in 1996. 

Starting this year, there will be a third story, as VINES takes over our community garden.  This should be an interesting experience, especially as I emailed them the other day to get some information and no one has responded (yet). No signups, and we've already bought seeds and ordered onion plants.  Keep fingers crossed.

I am looking forward to the details.  VINES, after all, stands for "Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments".

While I am at it, I wanted to explain a little about my gardening history.

I was 17 before I ever saw my first vegetable garden.

When you grow up in a New York City housing project, you don't have many opportunities to garden.  But a friend of mine had a grandfather who lived out in the country.  One summer, her family invited me to spend a week with them.  It was an amazing experience.

When I ate homegrown cucumbers for the first time, I couldn't believe that cucumbers had taste. I got sick off of gouging myself with raw peas.

Somewhat shy sunflower, summer of 2018

But my urge to garden goes back even further.

From my earliest years, I longed to grow things. I can remember the urge from at least second grade.  In my case, it was flowers.  One day, I should blog about my attempts to flower garden on a Bronx windowsill.  I even tried to grow lettuce in cottage cheese containers.  It didn't work out too well.

If there had been a community garden where I lived in the Bronx, I would have not hesitated a minute to join it.  It would have been heaven to me, to be able to dig my hands into the dirt, plant seeds, and be able to grow food.

But, as an adult, gardens have been in my life almost every year since 1977.  It's been a long run.  Community gardens helped make it possible.

I haven't blogged about our community garden in several years.    Here's a several years old peek at it.

Now, our community garden plot enters a new phase.  Let's hope it's an improvement.

There is nothing as constant as change.  Not only to our gardening, but other changes re coming - to you, and me, to all of us.

It's up to us to adapt.