Bismarck, North Dakota - News

Bismarck Tribune

By VIRGINIA GRABy VIRGINIA GRANTIER

It's December. It's cold, white at times - and the ground is hard, getting harder. So, of course, it's time to work on that garden.

Or at least one particular garden, which isn't in existence yet and probably won't be without extensive planning, now.

Missouri Valley Resource Council - whose most recent project was working with city officials to add plastics to the city recycling program -recently decided to focus on one project for year 2007: establishing a community garden in Bismarck.

Ramona Redding Lopez, the council's president, says the council has six months to get the planning done and hopes to make that deadline.

"Hopefully, we'll have one this summer," she said. "We don't want to drag it out too long ... We've got six months."

Lopez said this project - which could provide gardening opportunities for apartment dwellers and others - is keeping with the group's mission "to educate and empower citizens to build an environmentally safe and sustainable community."

Tracy Wanek, 28, of Bismarck, the group's secretary, said one of the group's aims is for people to "buy local,"which is a more efficient and self-sufficient way of obtaining food. A community garden would be an off-shoot of that aim, she said.

Council members say other benefits of having a community garden range from improving the health of the person gardening - studies show garden work lowers blood pressure - to lowering the crime rate in areas near community gardens and raising property values.

Barb Price, who lives in rural Kidder County and did a master's thesis on how plants in the environment helped reduce stress on human beings, said the impact is "very significant, actually."

She said studies have shown, for example, that hospital patients whose window looks out on vegetation heal faster than those who look out at a building or parking lot.

And when it comes to community gardens, she said in cities it has made stronger communities.

"The community comes out of their houses, work together, get to know each other,"Price said. She said it results in beautification of communities, too, because people near a community garden tend to get their properties into shape, paint their homes, put in window treatments.

Another benefit:She said when police get involved in helping to put in trees or gardens, there is much less crime in those neighborhoods.

"Somehow, having people working with soil and realizing they're part of a bigger picture seems to be good for them,"she said.

Mary Engel, 77, of Bismarck, and the council's vice chair, said she was involved in a community garden in Bismarck in the 1970s when a private property owner offered land in south Bismarck for a community garden. But she said that garden lasted only a couple years until the property owner needed the land back to develop housing there.

She said it was a good experience, but the land didn't have water available and hauling water was a real back breaker.

"I'd like to see a community garden (in Bismarck) with water available,"she said. "I would use it and I'm 77 years old."

The group is currently working on the feasibility of the project and is reaching out to other organizations, groups and city officials that might be able to help make the Bismarck garden viable.

They know it can be done. Minot's been doing it for about 25 years.

Frank Haverlock, 76, of Minot, vice president of Rainbow Gardens in Minot, said the community garden has 164 plots, with water, and that's not enough.

"We could have rented more last year if we would have had them," said Haverlock, who has rented lots from the community garden for 20 years and usually winds up with pickup loads full of produce that he hands out to family, friends and neighbors.

"It's relaxation,"said Haverlock about his long-time community gardening efforts. "You go out there and forget about everything."

Haverlock, retired service manager for a car dealership, said the plan is to add about 20 more garden plots next spring using additional land the city was able to provide.

The group's first community garden area was on private land, but when the owner needed it to build houses on, the group then turned to the city. It now rents 8 acres from the city that the city doesn't need now but will when, years from now, an expansion of Rose Hill Memorial Gardens cemetery is needed.

Haverlock said they pay the city about $575 annually for rent, and about $2,400 for water. The group also employs a gardener. People pay $25 for a plot as well as a $20 deposit, which they get back if they clean their plot adequately at season's end.

"We're pretty strict up here. If people don't keep gardens up, don't keep them clean, they don't have a garden next year,"he said.

He said he has made friends through community, but also some "enemies,"he said and laughed. "I've had to step on some toes (of those) whose gardens weren't clean."

Haverlock said when the garden was first established, fees were higher until the group had paid off the initial cost of extending water pipes, and installing hoses and faucets, needed to bring water to the site.

He said gardeners range in age from the 20s to 80s. He said the garden is a win-win situation for everyone. It has beautified an area, produced food, and the city doesn't have to mow or maintain it and gets a little rent money, as well.

"We've saved them quite a bit of money,"he said.

Haverlock said he thinks it would be a "really great deal " for Bismarck to start one.

But for it to be successful, think water.

"The first thing you have to do is to make sure you can get water into every plot,"he said.

Lisa Colombe, who has been a tribal environmental science instructor at United Tribes Technical College since October 2005, said the college's community garden last summer was a way to increase comraderie among students and some exercise, too. Kids participating in a summer camp there also spent time in the garden weeding. And a sign invited anyone and everyone to stop and weed or harvest. The garden's produce was available to anyone who wanted to pick it.

Colombe also has been involved in establishing plantings of culturally relevant plants that have medicinal uses such as sweet grass, sages and purple prairie clover.

To start a garden in Bismarck, the Missouri River Resource Council would appreciate any and all input from the community about the idea.

To do that, call Mary Mitchell, a project organizer, at 224-8587.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com)

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