Photo by Desiree Espada
When A.L. Nickerson had the idea for Lake Highlands Community Garden, long before it came to fruition in 2008, he little dreamed it would draw the numbers of interested families hoping to get a spot on the wait list. Today, community gardens are sprouting up all over Dallas, and another seed of an idea is bearing fruit – a garden tour this Saturday, appropriately called Connect the Plots.
“The goal is to get all the community gardeners and supporters together to share information, reliable suppliers, gardening best practices, war stories and pain remedies for those of us in our advanced years still gardening,” jokes Nickerson. “There are a lot of community gardens in Dallas, but nobody ever organizes anything for us to all get together.”
The free event will be held from noon to 4 p.m., and volunteers from each garden will be on site to answer questions. Each garden, he says, has something unique to make it worth the trip.
“We all have common problems with things like eradicating Bermuda grass, training and finding good suppliers and dealing with fire ants, but we all seem to be ‘reinventing the wheel’ when we have an issue,” adds Nickerson.” We all thought it was a great idea for the gardeners to get to know each other.”
Gardens on the tour include Lake Highlands Community Garden: 7901 Goforth near Flag Pole Hill, We Over Me Garden: 3837 Simpson Stuart Road on the grounds of Paul Quinn College, Our Savior Community Garden: 1616 N. Jim Miller Road, Unity Community Gardens: 2813 Troy Street plus other locations, The Community Garden at Cliff Temple: 125 Sunset at 9th across the parking lot from the main entrance to the church, Urban Acres: 1301 B. North Beckley, Deep Ellum Urban Garden: Intersection of Canton and Good Latimer under the I-30 overpass, Garden Café: 5310 Junius, Promise of Peace: 1435 San Saba, Green Grocer: 3614 Greenville Avenue, and Church of the Ascension: 8787 Greenville Avenue.
Annie Benjamin, local musician, songwriter and self-described “guerilla gardener”, will be singing at the Garden Café at 2 p.m.
You can find out more about the LHCG in a 2014 Advocate feature story here, including which LH food pantries receive produce grown on site. To secure your own plot, add your name to the waiting list at lhgarden.org. To volunteer, email lakehighlandsgarden@gmail.com.
LH Community Garden
