Community Garden Project

Today some fellow VISTAs and I took a tour of a community garden in North Toledo called The Greenhouse Project.

The project, which isn't far from downtown, behind the Unison building off Cherry Street, includes not only beds of flowers and veggies, but also a greenhouse, laying hens, bees, worms, compost and construction projects. There are plans for fish, meat chickens, turkeys -- maybe even goats.



The project is part of the Toledo Botanical Gardens - Toledo GROWs network. The site partners with the juvenile justice system, mentoring kids just released from jail or prison as they work at the site, learning planting and building skills.





It reminded me a lot of a book I recently read called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver, in which a family embarks on a yearlong project to live off the land as much as possible, with an emphasis on supporting locally-grown produce.

The tour was led by Bryan Ellis (pictured here), a local construction contractor who clearly loves working outdoors and with the kids.

One of the laying hens.

Some fresh eggs. People in the neighborhood often walk through to check out what's going on and take home fresh eggs.

Bryan rescuing the chicken named Tina Turner from pecking around the bees.

Inside the greenhouse. In the background is the start of what will be an aquaponics project, a symbiotic cultivation of plants and fish in a recirculating environment.

These are chicken tractors, aka mobile chicken coops. The meat chickens live inside and the pens are moved each day so they always have fresh grass and new bugs.

Some of the kids placed through the reentry system. They learn about planting, take trips and learn construction projects, including building picnic tables, decorative tressels and sheds, which they take orders for.

Read more in this article from the Toledo Blade. A video from The Blade is below. Rob, the kid interviewed, was there while we were there.