Happy New Year Grow Appalachia Friends and Followers!
Like many of our partner sites across the Grow Appalachia region, OTR People’s Garden, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is busy planning for the 2017 planting and selling season. Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden just hosted our first of the year meeting, where we reviewed our garden plot map, addressed housekeeping agenda items, and brainstormed recruiting ideas to encourage even more neighborhood families to garden with us this summer.
Fun fact! During our meeting a little piece of history came out of a box in the basement of the Civic Garden Center, a photo of the community members who first founded Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden! This photo was taken when the garden first took shape in the early 80’s. Originally the garden was named Glad Community Garden until a name change years later. Pretty amazing! Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is currently the oldest community garden in Cincinnati, OH.
Some of the most exciting pieces of news we addressed at our meeting is something the community and gardeners have been wanting for some time…… a fence upgrade! The Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati is working with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to spruce up both fence entrances to our city garden. Addressing our fence issues will help our urban garden by keeping unwanted trash out and will will make it easier to open and close. In addition, we are keeping our fingers crossed until we find out if we will earn a summer grant that will allow for a cooking and growing program, along with an awesome children’s program which would be held once a month in our garden during the summer! More garden highlights and happenings will be announced via our monthly blog posted on the 25th of each month. Stay warm out there friends, spring will be here soon!
PS: Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is accepting new gardeners this year. If you are interested in learning more about our garden and programs please contact Coordinator- Christina via email:chowarth83@gmail.com
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” ~Andrew Wyeth
In 1980, members of the Over-the-Rhine community in Cincinnati, Ohio joined forces with the Civic Garden Center and purchased four vacant lots on East McMicken Avenue which they ultimately transformed into a productive vegetable garden known as the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden. This historic Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden was the first community garden in Cincinnati and is an excellent example of people coming together to improve a neighborhood.
Beginning in 2014, the Civic Garden Center’s Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden began collaborating with Grow Appalachia and Paul Mitchell the School Cincinnati after the then Admissions Leader and Green Team Leader, Christina Matthews, along with a neighborhood art teacher, Ali Burns, decided to apply for a grant from Grow Appalachia to support the garden. Christina Matthews, personally met with John Paul Dejoria, the CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems and founder of Grow Appalachia, in Toledo, OH where he agreed to donate $10,000 toward their efforts.
The Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is Grow Appalachia’s only urban partner site. And although it is located in a neighborhood that continues to see high crime rates, it is viewed by many of the residents as a respite from some of the pressures that exist outside its fences. It is also purported to be the longest continuously active community garden in the country!
Paul Mitchell the School Cincinnati eagerly became involved with the garden as a direct result of the culture established in its schools. The culture of Paul Mitchell’s schools encourages individuals to do more for their community by giving back. The Green Team focus on civic responsibility, recycling etc. Christina Matthews’ vision was to meld the goals of Grow Appalachia, Paul Mitchell Schools and the OTR People’s Garden in an effort to improve the Over-the-Rhine community.
Six years later, the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden has accomplished more than anyone could have ever imagined—growing approximately 500 to 1,000 pounds of fresh food and flowers per year! More importantly, it provides a space for the community to heal, teach, empower, and feed each other. Just last year the garden offered 17 free garden classes with topics that included cooking, generating income from a small garden plot and building affordable season extensions. Events like these brought 250 new friends and volunteers to the garden in 2019!
Christina Matthews, was so inspired by her years of involvement with Grow Appalachia and the People’s Garden that she resigned from Paul Mitchell Schools in 2016 and launched her own flower-farmer-florist business—The Flower Lady OTR. Now Christina devotes all her time and energy to what she loves—growing a business in conjunction with volunteering her time with Grow Appalachia, The Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden, and in the OTR community. Life is flourishing!
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