There are some great public gardens throughout Birmingham. However, there is a need to infuse more public urban gardens into schools, neighborhoods, and unused vacant land. The gardens could be used for outdoor learning sites while offering natural beauty.
Many of the gardens in Birmingham are bringing life to areas that were surrounded by blight. These areas serve as a place for people to gather food and fellowship with fellow gardeners and collectors of food. Oftentimes gardens are decorated with water features, sitting areas, and art pieces made of metal and wood. Adding fountain systems are a nice feature to use for promoting gathering places.
Merging art with gardening could highlight local Birmingham artists that illustrate organic gardening practices. The serene gardens that merge art with quiet places are known for serving as a place for quiet time and observing beauty. Some people say that gardens help with healing the mind and spirit. I believe that it can help bring about cohesiveness of communities, to serve as a gathering place for neighborhoods, to convene and to work on a common purpose to achieve a flourishing garden. Communities that work on creating gardens to personalize it to the neighborhood make it a more special space. Gardens can serve as the cohesive public element that ties together the land use and connect it to the surrounding community area.
In the past, Slade worked on turning an unsold property into an urban construction garden. The commercial site went unsold because of the economic downturn but it was turned into something the owner hopes will benefit the community – a vegetable and fruit garden.
This project was a finalist for a green award. We as consumers should be mindful of how we use land because it affects our environmental and economic future. We must be better stewards in order to leave the world better than the way we found it.
L’Tryce Slade, MRP, JD
www.sladellc.com
