CADIZ, Ohio — Harrison Soil and Water Conservation District has created a 400-square-foot community garden at the Harrison County fairgrounds with the help of various donations.
We started the garden last year as a project to add some green space to the fairgrounds and an opportunity for Harrison SWCD to give back to the community. This garden has given us a space to model and educate people on backyard gardening.
Workshops
In its first year, the community garden consisted of row gardening in three terraced raised beds. New this year, we have added a low tunnel, square foot garden, tee pee pole, vertical pallet gardens, rain barrel, pollinator garden and row planting.
This endeavor has sparked an interest of many people wanting to learn more. We now host a Backyard Food Production workshop the first Tuesday of each month, March-August, at 6 p.m.
During these workshops we have covered topics such as insect control, the benefits of bats, soil fertility, bee keeping, rain barrels, food preservation and a wide variety of others.
Benefits. Community gardens have many benefits that often go unnoticed. Sometimes, we get so busy and wrapped up in our daily lives and schedules that we forget to stop and take in the real reasons we should be thankful.
Community gardens can develop a sense of pride for the people who are tending to and taking care of them. In smaller communities, this can develop strong bonds of friendships and most of all trust and respect for one another.
Gardens have proven to be a therapeutic space for people to come, sit, relax and enjoy. Also, raising your own produce has many health benefits and cost savings because you know how the plants have been raised and you do not have to go and purchase these pricey items from the grocery store.
We encourage people to participate in the maintenance of the garden and once it’s time for harvesting feel free to enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
