Remember the delightful British comedy “Good Neighbors”? It was about the adventures of Tom Good, who on his fortieth birthday decided the secret of life was self-sufficiency. So he quit his corporate job, and with his wife proceeded to transform their suburban property on the outskirts of London into a smallholding. Meanwhile, his upwardly mobile best friends, who lived next door, thought Tom and Barbara had lost their minds and winced each time one of their neighbors' schemes made it into the front yard where everyone could see.
Anyway, when I heard the Mountain View City Council had voted down a proposed new community garden this spring because the neighbors who lived near the site had feared their property values would go down, I pictured persnickety humorless Margot, the social-climbing neighbor of the Goods, smugly smiling up in sitcom heaven.
And yet the research on community gardens does not support the emotional “not in my backyard” reaction.
In a study published in 2006, NYU Law Professors Vicki Been and Ioan Voicu analyzed the effect of 636 community gardens on surrounding property values. They found the properties within 1000 feet of community gardens rose in value, while those farther away declined in value, over the 13-year period studied.
Community gardens have a long tradition in the U.S., from the vacant lot cultivation associations and school garden movement starting in the 1890s and lasting into the first quarter of the twentieth century to World War I's war garden campaign, the relief gardens of the Great Depression, the victory gardens of the World War II era, and finally the contemporary greening projects of the last fifty years.
I've had a plot at a community garden for several years, and I've noticed many ways in which the garden is a valuable community resource. It's a quietly busy place. Dog walkers are the biggest users of the path surrounding the gardens, followed by people from the surrounding neighborhood. Local artists set up their easels one day a week to paint the gardens. Children from summer recreation programs nearby tour the garden each week, looking for vegetables they can recognize.
Community gardens are interactive and friendly public spaces. I've had lots of chats with passers-by who were interested in a particular flower, sought organic gardening advice, or wanted to share a story about a parent's or grandparent's garden. Before the light brown apple moth quarantine restrictions, I gave away plants regularly.
Community gardens have a quiet beauty that reflects the ethnic and cultural diversity of the community. Each plot is an expression of a different personality, with a unique history, akin to an artist's studio, which makes a visit to one of these places intrinsically interesting.
And aside from their social and community value, community gardens are valuable for their role in providing food security and in helping people to eat locally grown food. A few forward-thinking cities are even including community gardens in their master plans and coming up with ways to persuade more community members to participate.
© 2008 Tanya Kucak