Community of Gardens

When the Oak Hill city commission accepted the challenge from our Volusia County Council to create a "Green Space", they donated 2.7 acres for this project. While community volunteers were interested, the challenge seemed overwhelming. Concurrently,…

Note: This story contains reference to school and gun violence. As the principal and I watched the heavy machinery level the last of the dilapidated portable classrooms, an idea flitted across my mind. On a whim, I asked if a portion of the land…

As a student at New College of Florida in Sarasota, I fell in love with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Fellow students and I visited to luxuriate in orchid-filled nooks and get away from campus. When campus was steamy and oppressive, Marie Selby…

We have three Community Gardens in St. Cloud, Florida. Our Girl Scout troop has rented a plot for almost a year now. We have grown organic food for our local food pantry. Our last crop was twenty-five pounds of organic carrots. We have sweet potatoes…

Our yard started out as a typical urban landscape; lawn, a few shrubs and trees. Maintaining this look was dependent on chemicals and lots of water, so we started to look for alternatives. We started by reducing the lawn, and planting more shrubs…

In 1937 Gustav George Gerbing transformed about seven acres of family property along the Amelia River into a public garden, Gerbing’s Azalea Gardens, with plans for massive plantings of azaleas and camellias for viewing and for sale. The entire…