By Kristine Thomas
Molly Ainsley, Bernadette Melé and Shannon Willis envision a patchwork of community gardens scattered throughout Silverton.
Each community garden would be designed, planted, tended and harvested by people from each neighborhood. For example, one garden could be planted with just tomatoes to be canned for sauces and salsas and another garden could have beets, broccoli and brussels sprouts.
All the gardens would be organic and receive the support from community volunteers striving to make their vision a reality.
The Patchwork Community Garden members are working with the city of Silverton and private property owners to identify plots of land for community gardens.
The group meets at 2 p.m. the third Monday of the month at Seven Brides Brewery. The next meeting is May 16. Everyone is welcome to lend a hand in creating community gardens, Melé said.
The garden created by church members and volunteers across the street from the Silverton Church of Nazarene on Water Street is an example of what Patchwork members envision throughout Silverton.
“That is our demo garden,” Melé said. “We are helping the families at that garden to show others what’s possible.”
The group also received permission from the Silverton City Council to have a garden adjacent to the Silverton Senior Center.
“Our hope this year is to have three community gardens and add more next year,” Melé said.
Melé, Ainsley and Willis are working to create community gardens because they want community members to have access to healthy, locally grown food.
“We want our community to be self-sustaining,” Willis said. “We want them to know where they food comes from and want them to know how grow food.”
Ainsley made the switch to organic vegetables when she was raising her children and realized there was “little if any social, political or regulatory protection against the chemicals that were being fed to us in our foods.”
“I became a member of food coop and had a garden and the rest is history,” Ainsley said.
She would encourage people who love good, healthy food and want to help develop local resources to make the step to get involved with Patchwork Community Gardens.
Both Ainsley and Melé envision the Patchwork Community Garden as a resource to train people on how to grow organic gardens and provide them with the tools and resources to be successful.
If you would like to be part of a garden in your neighborhood, contact Bernadette at 503-873-1148.
