Over the weekend Andy and I were downtown driving through a very run down part of town that is trying to revitalize. Amongst some of the renovated buildings and mostly run down buildings we passed a green lot that caught my eye. I turned the car around to inspect and realized we had happened upon Over the Rhine's community garden!
There were dozens of raised beds in neatly mulched rows, a covered shelter area, compost piles, and a beautiful mural. I can't tell you how excited I was to discover that a part of town that seems so down and out with almost no green space had such a well maintained and welcoming community garden. It's exciting for me to see the gardening bug catching on everywhere and for people to want to grow more and improve their communities!
I was trying to show a student a picture of the mural project I led when I was in college, and I found your blog post. I'm so glad that the mural is still looking good! I haven't been to see it in several years. The colors still look bright. It was painted in 2003, and at that time there was a strong coalition of local gardeners who input their ideas for the image. That garden has been going strong since the 1980's.
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