project leader
Peter C
location
425 South Professor Street
(corner of South Professor Street and West Hamilton)
latest update rss
2019 Summer garden improvements

the project

 

Legion Field Community Garden--formerly a baseball field--has been a place for neighbors and friends to gather and grow food since 2010.  We offer individual plots to community members and use community areas to grow vegetables for Oberlin Community Services, a local organization that provides assistance to low income residents. We are working with other garden and food security organizations to teach sustainable gardening skills to our residents. Project funds will purchase tools and garden supplies for households starting their own home gardens. Our goal is to support 25 families from their initial startup through the third year when skills and garden are well established.

We have grown each year to accommodate both new and experienced gardeners and adapt to their specific needs. We adopted a more flexible garden design that maximizes our cultivated gardening space. Gardeners can now scale their own plot size to meet their individual skill and objectives. We also host VISTA  Summer Program members who assist our volunteers with growing produce for the local food pantry. Additional space is available to expand gardening activities and create a more biodiverse ecosystem that supports our annual and perennial crops. 

the steps

1.  Promote project through our network of food security organizations beginning April 2022. 

2. Publicize our project through the Oberlin Farmers Market  May-October 2022.

3. Utilize local and internet media platforms to reach more potential new gardeners starting  April 2022 

why we're doing it

Oberlin community garden brings community members together, improves access to healthy food, and while promotes environmental sustainability. 

budget

Revised budget (07/10/2019):

Our funding for improvements has been partially funded with an additional grant but we still need to raise $600 to match this grant. The improvements to raised beds, fencing around the garden and composting systems will ensure that our hard work will be rewarded by a bountiful harvest. Any amount donated will help to demonstrate that our community garden is an important asset for our community.



PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED = $600
ioby Platform Fee waived
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $19
TOTAL TO RAISE = $619

Original budget:

We plan to hire a program manager to develop internships and opportunities for local high school students to work in the garden. We will need to be able to pay the program manager. We plan to pay the program manager $4,000 for the summer. We want to pay the manager more than the mininum wage in Ohio. We have decided to pay $10 an hour and estimate that the program manager will work 40 hours a week. This equals $400 a week for a little over 2 months. 

 



SUBTOTAL = 4,000
ioby Platform Fee $35
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $120
TOTAL TO RAISE = $4,155

 

updates

2019 Summer garden improvements

We are jumping into the season as the Spring rains abate with 3 new student workers hired July 1st.  Their positions have been funded in partnership with Oberlin College's Green Edge Fund. The students are now working on the individual plots for use by our gardeners who grow their own vegetables. We are expanding the plot sizes to provide more growing space and less pathways to maintain. Our funding for improvements has been partially funded with an additional grant but we still need to raise $600 to match this grant. The improvements to raised beds, fencing around the garden and composting systems will ensure that our hard work will be rewarded by a bountiful harvest. Any amount donated will help to demonstrate that our community garden is an important asset for our community.

Legion Field Community Garden community Survey Responses!!

We recently began asking our neighbors to tell us how our Community Garden benefited them.  We started by knocking on doors and leaving postcards where no one was home.  Our survey goal is both to communicate our mission and to hear how neighbors percieve the community garden as part of  their neighborhood. The responses have highlighted the "added value" that community gardens bring to neighborhoods. Many commented that the sight of neighbors working together to produce food was reassuring. "Seasonal displays of colorful flowers and vegetables" was another added value to what was once a vacant mowed field. They particularly mentioned the fruit trees that announced Spring with their blossoms and provided fruits for the picking in late summer. These responses strengthened our interest in expanding our current orchard to provide more varieties of  fruit and nut bearing species. We obtained grant funds from the City to plant 18 more saplings in Fall 2018 including hazelnut, persimmon, hop hornbeam, and paw paw as well as several pollinator species. Our youth program Manager will be teachhing our high school youth to care for this growing orchard this spring!

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Therese P and John D
  • Michael Sabiers
  • Anonymous
  • Barry R.
  • Anonymous