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Community Gardens
Muskingum SWCD was awarded a $50,000 grant through the NACD’s Urban Agriculture Conservation Grant Initiative in 2016. With this funding, the Urban Greens program was created. The Urban Greens program started with three community gardens in the Putnam Historic District in Zanesville, Ohio. The original mission of Urban Greens was to provide fresh produce and gardening opportunities to those in the area designated as a “food desert”. As the program continues to grow, we have transitioned our mission to focus on “Growing with a Purpose”. With this initiative, we are connecting with food pantries in the county to grow to their specific needs and to provide education around conservation practices in the garden and growing your own food.
Follow our Urban Greens Facebook page about Growing Food, Growing Community. Together we're working to develop urban agriculture projects in Muskingum County.
Visit Us On FacebookBrighton Grows
The Brighton Grows Garden is located on the corner of Cliffwood Avenue and Baker Street beside Coopermill Manor. The garden has around 5,240 sq. ft. of gardening space split between three large plots. This garden was not an original Urban Greens Garden and was inherited by the Urban Greens program in 2019. One of the three large plots at this garden is designated for growing for the Veterans Association. Not only is the produce given to the VA, but the veterans themselves often work in the garden as well. A new Youth Garden was also established in one of these three plots this year! The James Singer Garden Club has already prepped and planted here in the Fall and will continue to grow and maintain the garden for the 2024 Season. In addition, a circular herb garden was planted for the residents at Frank Cook Senior Housing.
Restoration Park
There are 32, 4 ft. x 8 ft. raised beds at Restoration Park on Muskingum Ave. Community members can reserve these beds for their own personal use, whether that be vegetables, herbs, or decorative flowers. The Dollar General Warehouse donates bags of soil that can be used in the beds, if needed, and there is a water spigot on site. MSWCD can also assist with supplying some seeds to those reserving beds. The beds are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis, and we have had a waiting list in the past, so sign up quickly when registration opens in Early March!
Zanesville Community High School Garden
The garden is located behind Zanesville Community High School on Moxahala Avenue. This garden started as an Urban Greens site that provided fresh produce to the Zanesville City Schools Summer Lunch Program. During the Summer and Fall of 2021, the site provided fresh produce for the Zanesville City School’s chef to use when preparing lunches for the district. The ZCS Vocational Agriculture Program, through the Mid-East Career Center, has taken advantage of this site and it now serves as an educational site for ZHS/ZMS students alongside providing fresh produce for Zanesville City Schools.
Marshall Greens Garden
This garden is now a 1.5-acre site that first grew produce for the South Zanesville Food Pantry (SZFP), the second largest in our county, serving approximately 500 families and individuals a month. In 2022, this site alone provided 6,000lbs of produce to local pantries. In 2023, we worked directly with the 16 pantries in Muskingum County Hunger Network and several others outside the network as well as the Muskingum County Center for Seniors to provide just over 14,000lbs of produce to those in need! In 2024 we will grow the educational opportunities this site provides around conservation practices and growing with a purpose, including season extension with a high tunnel.
Maple-Harding Garden
This site is a recently revitalized community garden which services the residents of another Zanesville Metropolitan Housing Authority site that is for senior citizens. Senior citizens are invited to help in the garden and many have their own garden plot that they tend to. Thanks to a group of Boy Scouts who adopted this site as a project in 2022, we have fourteen new garden bed plots available (free to the community)! The scouts have a continued presence in this garden, and our hope is that the seniors will mentor the scouts in the garden throughout the season. The food raised will be going to the housing residents and will be placed in the new garden pantry outside the garden for those in need in the surrounding community. Excess produce will be taken to local pantries and hot food services. We continue to work toward revitalizing this space and its soil with the help of Imlay’s Uniforms, the scouts, and community volunteers!
High Hill Community Garden
The High Hill Community Garden is located at High Hill Presbyterian Church in Chandlersville, Ohio and was created in an effort to give the vastly spread-out community (mostly elderly) easier access to fresh, healthy foods. Members of the church played an integral role in not only growing this food, but also delivering it to those in need. They were inspired to volunteer at the Urban Greens High Hill Garden as a result of many conversations with older people in their community in which they expressed concern about a lack of access to healthy foods due to prices and/or an inability to produce crops (such as they had done in the past) due to age, disability, or a lack of resources. Members of the church grew and delivered produce to 35 families, which fed 97 people in the surrounding community last year!
Growing With A Purpose
Urban Greens is starting to transition from simply growing produce and delivering it to a pantry to Growing with A Purpose. We are starting out with one partner for the 2022 growing season, the South Zanesville Food Pantry, to grow to their specific needs. The South Zanesville Food Pantry is one of 17 food pantries recognized by the Hunger Network in Muskingum County. Through discussions and surveys with their clientele, the South Zanesville Food Pantry is discovering what food is wanted by their community members. With this knowledge, we can focus on growing to the specific needs and wants of the community. We will slowly introduce new foods and teach community members how to prepare the food they may be unfamiliar with. Our ultimate goal is for these members to gain an understanding and appreciation of the food they are presented with, and eventually want to start growing for themselves in an urban setting.
Program Overview Fliers
Internships
MSWCD is looking for volunteer interns for the summer of 2022! If you are interested in applying or learning more about our internship opportunities, you can find the application HERE.
Volunteering
We are always searching for eager community members to get involved! We can always use the extra manpower, whether it be building things for the gardens, weeding the beds, sorting seeds, or giving thoughtful ideas. If you are interested in volunteering with Urban Greens contact the Urban Ag Specialists at Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District at (740) 454-2027.
