Community Gardening-

While I was out walking the dogs I met Carol digging out some old concrete in a section of her front yard. While we were talking she mentioned a community garden that I might be interested in seeing. On the corner of Allgood Road and Pine Street right behind Allgood Elementary School.

So Charlie, Kaylee and I started off down the road. Charlie and Kaylee are my son and daughters' dogs and they do have a Facebook page. (The Adventures of Kaylee and Charlie).


Here behind the playground was a well manicured and decorated community garden. Seems Jim Morris, retired chief judge of the Juvenile Court of Cobb County and his wife Jo-Evelyn got together with The Master Gardeners of Cobb County to establish this community garden.

The North Marietta Neighborhood Association, Harry’s Farmers Market,The city of Marietta, Keep Marietta Beautiful Inc. and Marietta Tree Service worked together along with about 50 volunteers to make it what it is today. This is also a great learning opportunity for the children who attend the school. They learn about gardening, plants and insects as well.

The area is considered a “food desert” by the USDA. This is an area composed of predominantly lower-income neighborhoods. Within the boundaries of this neighborhood, there is no nearby grocery store, no source of fresh and healthy food. The closest food is available at a gas station. The community garden helps with that by having 22 raised beds, 6 4X4 beds and 9 “pollinator and demonstration beds.” The pollinator beds will have plants that will attract bees and other insects to make the vegetable beds more productive, and the demonstration beds will be planted to show neighbors how to grow and care for vegetable plants in their own gardens.

People in the neighborhood can rent a bed for $35 (the cost of water) and do whatever they want with what they grow. They can keep it, share it or donate it to the local food bank. They can also take what they’ve learned by watching the demonstrations and plant their own garden at home.
This was all done with a plot of unused overgrown land behind the playground of a school in a poor neighborhood. Just goes to show you what a vision and good help can do for a community.
I learn so much from my walks with the girls and meet such nice people. This was a good day.