In March, the LPH Community Gardens were just beginning to wake up. Home gardeners were planning their beds, seedlings were getting started indoors, and fresh compost was being added across growing spaces.

Now, the season is fully underway.

Over the past month, neighbors, staff, and volunteers have been busy turning those early plans into action. Garden beds have been prepared, plants have been distributed, and growers across the neighborhood are getting tomatoes, peppers, herbs, greens, flowers, and other starts into the soil.

One of the most joyful moments of the spring was our plant distribution and garden planting workshop. Home garden participants came together to pick up plants for their gardens and to lend each other a hand in planting. Some arrived with careful plans. Others asked questions, traded ideas, and talked through what might grow best in their space. Like so much of the garden work in Lower Price Hill, the workshop became more than a handoff of supplies. It became a chance for neighbors to learn from one another and build excitement for the season ahead.

There has also been plenty of hands-on work in the gardens. Neighbors and volunteers have cleared beds, moved soil, planted starts, watered new growth, and helped prepare all the shared spaces that will carry the season forward. These early weeks require a lot of physical effort, but they also bring people together around something hopeful and practical.

This spring also brought an unexpected opportunity. When we learned that a nearby garden was going to be demolished, our team worked to rescue a composter and greenhouse for future use in the gardens. Preserving these resources took coordination, time, and many helping hands, but it means we now have valuable infrastructure that can support gardeners in future seasons.

That kind of resourcefulness is central to the LPH Community Gardens. In a neighborhood where access to fresh food and green space can be limited, the gardens are not only places to grow vegetables. They are places where neighbors share knowledge, care for land, build relationships, and create something lasting together.

As plants settle into the soil, the work from earlier this year is becoming visible. The plans made around workshop tables are now taking shape in backyard beds and community garden spaces. The growing season is still young, but already the gardens are full of possibility.