Community Garden a ‘go’

Community Garden a ‘go’

Marion man ready to turn vacant lots into produceproducing hot spots

news@theeveningtimes.com

God gave James Hudson a talent for growing things in his garden and he has always tried to share that bounty with his neighbors.

Now, Hudson would like to share his knack for growing produce with the city by planting a community garden on some city owned vacant lots.

“This is just an idea to bring the community together,” Hudson said. “I have a garden myself. It’s a pretty large garden. The Lord has given me wisdom to plant more than I really needed. So I give them away to my neighbors, the people I work with, and the church. So I was thinking that with some sponsorships that we might be able to purchase some plants and make this available for the community.”

Hudson approached the city council in November about whether they had any land he might be able to use.

His initial idea was to plant turnip greens, mustard greens and kale. But now, Hudson told the city council that he would like to expand that to add broccoli and cabbage.

“I expanded my garden to include other plants,” Hudson said. “I planted 42 broccoli plants and 59 cabbage plants and had success with those.”

The city owns several lots behind the police station and Brunetti Field which they said Hudson might be able to use for a community garden.

Hudson said the lots would be good for a garden, but is now asking permission to remove a concrete driveway that separates the lots, and for some help from the city to clean them up and get the land ready to plant.

“I explained to the city that they have a driveway there,” Hudson said. “I have a friend who has equipment to remove that, but the mayor would have to give me permission to get that done. Also there are a lot of leaves and wood that will have to be removed, then maybe they can bring some dirt in and we could till it.”

Hudson said the property also needs water.

“It would be a very good garden,” Hudson said. “But the property doesn’t belong to me. So I’m just waiting to hear specifically from the mayor what the restrictions

are.”

Mayor Frank Fogleman said while he fully supports

Hudson’s ideas for a community garden, there are several issues that will need to be worked out.

He would like to hold a larger public meeting with Hudson and anyone else in the community who is interested in the idea sometime in the near future.

“It’s a little bit broader than I expected — and that’s not bad,” Fogleman said. “I thought he wanted to just plant greens every fall and let the community come and get them. But now that he has branched out to cabbage and a few others, and he wants a concrete driveway dug up and needs water, I told him rather than have the discussion at a council meeting, let’s schedule another. It just opened up a bunch of questions.”

By Mark Randall