Sowing the seeds of change
There's a garden movement underway in Columbia County. Some want to see a traditional community garden, while others are pushing for backyard kitchen gardens and large gardens to feed the area's food banks.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture / The South County Spotlight
It’s hard not to be depressed over the state of the economy these days. Everywhere you look, the news is bad: people are losing their jobs, local food banks are running out of supplies and people are constantly being asked to do more with less.
But a few Columbia County residents say there’s a very easy way to help the food banks, help our neighbors and help ourselves — by planting a garden.
“It’s an easy way to help feed people and I think it’s a way for people to feel good about themselves ... to know that they can make it through this,” said Jim Bach, one of the gardening advocates.
A movement is underway to get a community garden built in St. Helens for those who want to grow their own food, but may not have the resources or the space.
Some people want to take it a step further and plant a large plot to grow fresh produce for the regional food bank.
Meanwhile, the Oregon State University’s Columbia County Extension Service is looking for new gardeners under the age of 45 who have been negatively affected by the economic downturn to build kitchen gardens in their backyards.
Here are a few of the people involved in the new garden movement:
The Activist
When Jim Bach approached the St. Helens City Council last month to talk about community gardening, some councilors wondered aloud if he was “there about the goats again.”
They remembered Bach’s presentation on the benefits of allowing pygmy goats at private homes inside the city limits.
“I still think it’s a great idea,” Bach says of raising pygmy goats at home for goat milk. “But that wasn’t why I was there that day.”
No, on this day, Bach had come to discuss another idea for a more sustainable community — growing a garden to nourish the region’s food banks.
“We’re a relatively poor county, but we have lots of water, land and fertilizer,” Bach said.
Building a community garden that’s powered by community members as well as food bank recipients to supply fresh produce to the area’s hungry is a win-win situation in Bach’s eyes. The food banks benefit from an abundance of things like winter squash, cauliflower and carrots - items that are healthy, but that will keep longer than other produce. And food bank recipients learn that they can help themselves weather the economic storm by growing healthy food.
“If there was one thing we learned after Hurricane Katrina, it was that, instead of waiting for the government to provide for us, we’ll have to provide for ourselves,” Bach said. “With the garden, people would realize ‘Hey, we can do this ourselves. We can produce our own food.’”
As the owner and resident-manager of a low-income hotel in Olde Towne St. Helens, Bach sees food bank recipients every day and knows the food banks are in need of fresh, healthy produce.
“If we produced an acre of winter squash, we could provide so much for the food banks. And the good thing about squash is that it’s high in fiber and is low glycemic, so it’s good for people,” Bach said.
While others are panicking about the financial crisis, Bach sees an opportunity for communities like St. Helens to focus on what’s really important.
“I’d like to see people start focusing on the tangibles ... on making sure people have shelter, have enough to eat and are being cared for,” Bach said. “Growing our own food is inherent in all of us ... and I think that, once we quit relying on others to do it for us, we’d all feel a lot more comfortable about the economy and what’s going on in the world right now.”
The Master
Oregon State University Extension Service Agent Chip Bubl knows the pitfalls of community gardens.
“The problem is that people don’t like to go to them,” Bubl said.
Without constant care, the weeds take over and the garden dies.
“There have been community gardens in all of the communities in Columbia County,” Bubl said. “But, historically, people here who wanted to garden had access to land.”
However, with more people moving into apartments, Bubl noted, times might be changing.
Still, Bubl, who is the agricultural chairman for the Oregon State University Columbia County Extension Service, thinks the best gardens are those people have to think about each and every day.
“I tell people to plant their gardens where they can see them from their favorite window, maybe where they sit in the morning, so they remember,” Bubl said.
But Bubl knows there’s a disconnect between generations when it comes to gardening — if you’re under the age of 45, your grandparents probably gardened, but your parents probably didn’t, so the knowledge tended to stay with the older generations.
That’s why Bubl, along with the Columbia County Master Gardeners program, is actively searching for young people who want to garden but have no idea where to begin.
For those who qualify, the master gardeners will come out and help build a kitchen garden in the yard. They’ll provide the know-how, the fertilizers and the starts. The families will provide the labor and reap the harvest.
“We’ll come in and do the rototilling, add fertilizer ... and show them the basics of seeding and weeding,” Bubl said. “Weeding is very important to a new garden and for beginners, it can be hard to know how often to weed ... or even what is a weed.”
You might say the master gardeners will act like surrogate grandparents, teaching the younger generations how to grow their own food and tend their gardens. If anything, the program will help dozens of families throughout Columbia County cut down on food costs this summer.
The Organizer
Columbia County Commissioner Rita Bernhard loves the idea of community gardening so much that she’s pulling people from across Columbia County together to help out.
“It seems like there’s an interest in doing this and I think it’s good for the community,” Bernhard said. “The timing is perfect because there are a lot of folks out there in need.”
Bernhard agrees that a community garden plot, where families who want to grow their own food but don’t have the yard space, is a good idea. But she also likes the concept of building a larger garden plot for the area’s food banks.
“There’s a huge demand at the (St. Helens) food bank right now and they distribute to all the other food banks,” Bernhard said.
Bernhard worked the phones last week, contacting people who might be able to help get the community garden, as well as the food bank garden, going.
The community garden is simple enough — there’s a plot of land behind the St. Helens Senior Center that used to be used for community gardening. Although the senior center is expecting to start construction on an expansion and remodel next year, the garden plot would work in the short-term.
Stephanie Klepel, owner of St. Helens Nursery, has been trying to organize a community garden and hopes to use the senior center plot this year.
“We’re using the community gardening concept that’s been used in different cities around the country,” Klepel said. “We’ve been working on it for over a month ... now we just need to get boots on the ground and get going right away.” The community garden advocates are collecting names and phone numbers of interested participants.
If you’re interested in having a garden plot in the new community garden, call Klepel at St. Helens Nursery at 503-366-0308.