Community Gardening

Did you know that there are over thirty community gardens in Madison? If you are not familiar with community gardening, it is an excellent way to unite and beautify the community, conserve resources, and produce nutritious food. Although community gardening is by no means a new phenomenon, it has become quite prevalent in South Central Wisconsin over the past few years. The Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Inc, works with more than thirty-one community gardens in the Madison area, and, according to their website, those gardens produce more than a quarter million pounds of produce a year.

If you are interested in the history of community gardening in the U.S., you might want to visit the first floor of Steenbock Library and have a look at Laura Lawson’s work, City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America (or its electronic edition). For a another, practical take, you might want to borrow Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En’s work, Sharing the Harvest: A Guide to Community Supported Agriculture.

To find more titles about community gardening, you can do a MadCat catalog search (HINT: try using “community gardens” or “community gardening” as a search term). You can also learn more or find a community garden in your area by visiting the American Community Gardening Association’s website.

With thanks to Sam B for this blog post.