Edisto Court Community Garden

Written by Lori Donath

Tuesday, 06 March 2007 00:21

This garden is located at 1905 Wiley Street (between Superior St. and Edisto Ave.) Since its beginnings as a seed of an idea, the Edisto Court garden has yielded corn, watermelons, sunflowers, collard greens, cabbages, and eggplants. To find out more, come to one of President Bessie Watson's monthly Community Council Meetings. Meetings are announced on the signs at the entrances of the community.

The Edisto Court Community Garden results from the efforts of Sara Williams, Emily McCravy, Matthew Kip, Mike Leonard, and Bessie Watson, as well as the young Kings and Queens of the garden: Franzia, Shatia, William, Tre, Mooney, Javier, Shakia, and many more. Approximately six neighborhood children won prizes for their produce from the garden in the 2006 SC State Fair.

Easter 2006 the garden got off on the right foot when the Columbia Society of Friends helped to plant flowers donated by Grice's Nursery and Mike Leonard tilled the lot strewn with old cinder blocks (only the first of several times he would till for Common Ground!) For Mother's Day Sara and the children planted tomato plants in buckets and prepared cards featuring Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation to the elders of the community.

In June 2006, Lou Staley of the Haskell Foundation talked with about five adults and twice as many children about eating habits and proper nutrition, and demonstrated healthy and tasty cooking techniques using red chard from her own garden in Eau Claire. Sara has been working closely with the children and has been doing outreach with their families and other of her neighbors, sharing talents such as musical, culinary and mechanical aptitude, and resources such as nonviolent intervention, driving lessons, and weedwacking. August 26 we hosted a garden party with a cook-out and African drumming, which brought out a few CPRCers, a pastor, several neighbors, and a number of kids who had not come out to the garden before.

Another cookout at the garden Oct. 1 drew mothers and children from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. October also featured a cookie-making party with four children who submitted home made cookies to the SC State Fair Nutritious Cookie Contest. The children also harvested their vegetables and submitted them to the fair, winning second and third place for collard greens, second place for eggplants, third place for okra, and first, second, and third place for gourds (a.k.a. meritorious vegetable category).

Community president Bessie Watson, along with about six children, made a guest appearance to be recognized at CPRC's fair trade celebration/fundraiser Oct. 12. The following week independent film maker Jacky Schuller accompanied Lori and Sara to the site of the gourd winnings to capture footage of the prize veggies and conversations with officials. (The State covered the exciting winnings and Edisto Court garden happenings in an Oct. 22 Metro article by Bertram Rantin, "Youth find garden a rewarding hobby"
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/15811650.htm?source=rss&channel=thestate_local
.)

During 2007 the garden hosted over 50 middle school students organized by teams of City Year volunteers. That March our partnership with City Year helped us get the garden mulched and ready for growing following vandalism by a developer with a backhoe who had interests in the adjacent properties. Except for a couple of group work sessions and flyering efforts that year, the garden was fairly quiet. In the fall, and through 2008, neighbors Billy and Paul began tending their own plots in the garden.

All residents of the Edisto Court community are welcome to eat vegetables and herbs from the garden.

For more information about the Edisto Court Community Garden, come to one of President Bessie Watson's monthly Community Council Meetings. Meetings are announced on the signs at the entrances of the community.