A Community Grows The ability of a garden to connect people not only to the ground but
to each other is evident at the South Waterfront Community
Garden. Among the tall towers on the west bank of the Willamette
River, a community garden grows tended by neighbors who live within
walking distance. The garden was made possible by a donation from
Dike Dame of Williams & Dame Development. Dike Dame gave the
neighbors temporary use of the land to grow a garden when the downturn in
the economy stalled the development project. The South Waterfront
Community Garden is tended by 37 neighbors who have made 13 raised garden
beds that are now filled with tomatoes, (some donated by Al’s Garden
Center) basil, chili peppers, strawberries, blueberries and
lettuce. The plan next year is to have more flowers in the garden for
color. Garden Manager Debbie Cronk recently sent us this letter,
telling us about a “pesto making party” the gardeners held,
and explaining how the garden has grown community, as well as
crops.
 We had a wonderful pesto making party this evening. We had the
ingredients lined up and the gardeners came along with basil from their
gardens and used the cuisenarts lined up ready to go. It was very exciting
to see how different the pesto tasted with different types of basil. We
have taken people who have never gardened and now they have producing
garden beds and actually made pesto and grilled many vegetables from their
garden. This community garden has brought people together from all 5
building in the waterfront. I think the social aspect of the garden is
what has surprised us the most. The developer, Dike Dame,
gave us the land for the community garden when he was not able to
build due to the downturn in the economy. He gave us money to start the
garden in a staging area for the high rise buildings. It has helped us to
become more of a community all pulling together to build this
garden. He came to see the garden recently and his only comment was
"it should be bigger”. We are working on an expansion by
the end of this year. If you are in the South
Waterfront I would enjoy showing you are garden. Thanks to you, we
have more tomatoes than we ever thought we could use but they seem to
disappear! Thanks for all your generous support during this first year of
our garden.
Debbie Cronk, manager, South Waterfront Community Garden If you would like to learn more about the South Waterfront Community
Garden visit their website at http://www.southwaterfront.com/green_living/south-waterfront-community-garden/
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