There are so many amazing ways we can choose to give back to our communities -- mentoring at-risk youth, delivering meals to the hungry or collecting items for those in need. These are just a few ways to make an impact. However, pockets of civic-minded people across the United States are choosing to use the power of gardening to drive change in their cities and neighborhoods. These green thumbs (both established and aspiring) are putting down roots in both expected and unexpected places in record numbers with the backing of their local policy makers and support from private business.
We've been enjoying the benefits of green space for centuries going back as far as ancient Persia. In the United States, using shared green space to grow food became popular in the 1890s, a concept that has changed through the years from Victory Gardens in the 1940s and 50s, to the rebirth of gardening to fight urban decay in the 1970s.
For decades, academics and organizations like the American Community Gardening Association have been noting the benefits of community gardening. Studies have shown that greening vacant lots in certain areas reduces crime rates and improves residents' feelings of safety and well-being. In addition, the act of gardening within a community expands access to healthy foods; increases property values; jump-starts neighborhood revitalization; encourages human interaction; and helps families reconnect to nature.
Today we're seeing the role that green space plays in improving and building communities expand in new and interesting ways. Of course, traditional pay-per-plot models are still popular, but people are using gardening to grow much more than fruits, vegetables or flowers.
Helping children learn by getting their hands dirty has increased from pre-school to high school through pioneering groups like The Edible Schoolyard Project which launched Edible Sac High. City dwellers are expanding their growing abilities by moving to the roof. For example, all 110 plots in the 30,000-square-foot rooftop garden opened in 2012 by Seattle P-Patch have been assigned. The medical field has also caught on to the power of green spaces to reduce stress and speed healing, leading hospitals to build healing gardens.
Every year I get to see green spaces change neighborhoods, cities and individual lives. As director of ScottsMiracle-Gro's community garden initiative, GRO1000, I visit gardening projects across the country and see for myself the many ways people are growing. This year I'll go to an intergenerational fruit and vegetable garden in Miramar, Fla.; an early childhood garden in Houston, Texas; an urban youth farm in Tallahassee, Fla.; a botanical walkway in Mesa, Ariz.; and a community garden driving social change in Minneapolis, Minn.
What hasn't kept pace with this growth is the funding and structural support needed to sustain our nation's community gardening and urban farming movement. These projects are not only hungry for funding for materials, infrastructure and expenses, but also information about community organizing, sustainable gardening practices and issues like securing property insurance and organizing a non-profit. Additionally, many projects exist on rented or borrowed land -- meaning all of the hard work that went into building the garden or green space could be lost if the land is sold or developed.
Organizations like the United States Conference of Mayors, the civic partner for GRO1000, are doing their part to help provide the resources to support projects across the country. However, much more is needed to ensure the positive work that is being done through gardening and urban farming across the country can continue and increase.
Corporations, foundations and governments need to join together to invest in this green infrastructure that is advancing our cities, neighborhoods and the residents that inhabit them in so many ways. The benefits community gardens and urban farms have on the health of our cities and people are too great not to ensure these spaces -- and those who tend to them -- have the land, resources, knowledge and programs to grow something greater.