Harwood

Featured Community Garden: Action Buzz Neighborhood Garden

Written by KT LaBadie
Tuesday, 28 October 20
Originally published on Mid-Region Council of Governments

The Action Buzz Neighborhood Garden, located at 1255 8th Street, just celebrated it second successful growing season.  This once vacant lot in the historic Wells Park/Sawmill neighborhood of Albuquerque is now an oasis of green and a place for community members to gather.  

To learn more about the establishment of this garden and its success, I talked with landowner Dory Wegrzyn and Wade Patterson, Director of Arts and Community Development for the neighboring Harwood Art Center.

What's the history of this project?  Where did the idea for this community garden come from and who was involved in its implementation?

Wade Patterson: When I first came into my position at the Harwood Art Center, the Sawmill/Wells Park Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan had just been approved by City Council and the Mayor. Having provided input into the plan's drafting, we at the Harwood were interested in finding ways we could partner with local residents and organizations to help implement aspects of the plan. We have been here at 7th and Mountain for a long time (2011 will be Harwood's 20th anniversary) and we felt it was time to increase our role in (the) community....

The MRA Plan calls for the establishment of community gardens along with strategies to deal with the large number of vacant lots and a desire for increased open space. I approached the Wells Park Neighborhood Association to see if they could recommend any landowners that would be interested in allowing a project like this to go forward on their property and that is how I found Dory Wegrzyn. We have a contractual agreement for use of the land and Dory has...been a principal organizing force behind the project. It's a great relationship.

How many seasons have you been in operation and how many garden plots do you currently have in cultivation?

Wade Patterson: This is our second season and we currently have 22 raised bed spaces, approximately 9'X3' each and rented for $25/plot for the season (March 15 to November 7). The garden spaces are constructed using straw bales as the retaining walls and soil from Soilutions. We intend to convert to more permanent, wooden raised beds next season.

Also, four of the 22 beds are "community plots" open to anyone in the area. Residents are asked to take what they need and leave the rest for others. In addition to households in need which can use this free food, we also want people in the neighborhood to feel like this is a space for them, even if they do not actively garden there.

How is the community garden project funded?

Wade Patterson: Financial support for the project in its first year came from the Harwood, the Wells Park Neighborhood Association, Sawmill Area Neighborhood Association, the Sawmill/Wells Park MRA Education Committee and the Sawmill Community Land Trust. The Land Trust has been particularly supportive because they also serve as the financial management body for the MRA implementation funds.

We are currently in our second year and financial support this season has come through a generous grant from the Albert I. Pierce Foundation (Mr. Pierce was a former Director of MRCOG, incidentally). These funds have allowed us to engage children in the project, hire a part-time Garden Manager, and provide free public workshops.

As the property owner, why did you choose to use your land for a community garden?  What costs/benefits do you receive from allowing this particular land use?

Dory Wegrzyn: I bought this land years ago to someday in the future build a house or two for my retirement. There was always a lot of tall weeds to cut and broken bottles to pick up.  I had worked in the area at the Sawmill Community Land Trust as Project Director for 7 + years and grew to love the neighborhood and the jente (people) who lived here.   With my experiences and commitment to community based planning and organizing in area neighborhoods I had thought that this lot could be put to better use than weeds. As a gardener and farmer I liked the idea of  a community garden or pocket park until I could design and build a couple of houses. I expressed this interest to Jessie and Fred Sais who have been very active in the Wells Park Neighborhood Association and one day Wade Patterson called me and that was that.

There is no cost to doing this I still pay my property taxes but actively participating in this community garden project has been nothing but a benefit. I love gardening and farming. I live in the south valley, have a little land and a tractor but urban gardening is just as important to our community.  One of the best parts of this process has been the interaction between the neighbors and kids who live in the area. The project has been a blessing and a learning experience. I love to go there and have the Palencio kids come running out to see what's growing, what seeds they have found to plant and see them pick the produce for their mom to cook dinner.

I think that as an Anglo outsider, the use of the property as a community garden has helped me to establish relationships with next door neighbors that may otherwise have taken years to cultivate. But the garden cultivates more than vegetables it cultivates cultural and generational good will.  Sharing a basket of tomatoes or a pot of green chile stew with your neighbor is what makes the heart of a community. I would do it all over again and hope to continue for another 3 years of commitment to the community garden.

How has the garden affected the surrounding community since its conversion from a vacant lot?

Wade Patterson: Overall, the reception by the local community has been very positive. The first season, however, I think we gave people a bit of shock in turning this vacant lot into a more active social space.

At the beginning of this second season, we had an open house/work day and invited everyone in the neighborhood to stop by and see the project. This time around, the interest from local residents has been even more positive and supportive. People have volunteered time, plants, blessings, and emotional support. The property had become a site of undesirable activity over the years with illegal dumping and drugs becoming a local issue. Many people have commented that the garden project is a huge improvement over that kind of activity. And they are thankful for a more social productive use.

Also, one of the intentions of the project has been to provide a social hub around which newcomers to this gentrifying neighborhood and long-time residents can interact on a more personal level. I think this type of interaction helps people find common ground and build real social relations that can diffuse tensions around changing realities.

Besides gardening, how else is this community space used?

Wade Patterson: Its not unusual to see children from neighboring houses playing in the space, especially in the evening. A neighbor donated a climber and the activity of gardeners coming to tend their plots seems to attract young people. We also hold free public workshops (funded with support from the Albert I. Pierce Foundation). So far this year there have been two workshops - one on keeping chickens in an urban environment, and one on how to build and maintain healthy soil.

We also have work days occasionally throughout the season and some of these double as open houses to attract people into the space to see what we are doing. This year we also participated in the Green Built Tour (the first time a garden has been featured) and that also brought in a lot of new people to the space. Lastly, the space is a cut-through to an alley behind the property and so some residents also pass through the space when in-transit. It's a pretty lively space, but is most often used by the gardeners who relax, read and tend their plots.

Do you think projects similar to this are possible throughout Albuquerque?  What are some of the barriers to implementing a similar project?

Wade Patterson: Absolutely! Dory and I have, from the beginning, been concerned with structuring this project as a model for what could be done elsewhere. Its not so much that we think the way we are going about this is the best, but in the course of putting this project together, we realized that there really is little information out there to help guide others. Creating a model and process for how this could be replicated provides a reference point for others. Other models will take on different forms, for sure, but if they use this or similar projects as a model, they can save themselves some trouble and focus their energies on improving what we have done instead of reinventing the wheel.

As for challenges, I would say funding and water access are the biggest obstacles. Projects like this really need a dedicated individual(s) or an organization tending to the big picture, applying for funding, etc. Depending on the arrangement with the landowner, though, this could be easy or hard. For us, we had concerns about the quality of the existing soil and so decided to go with raised beds. Had the soil been of good quality and clean, we could have saved quite a bit on that front.

Thanks Wade and Dory for taking the time to share all of this wonderful information.  The Action Buzz Garden serves as a great model for future community gardens in the Albuquerque area!

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