The Beautiful Vegetable Garden makes the local newspaper

Gardener Phil Downs aims to feed residents, beautify city
By Beata Mostafavi | The Flint Journal
Saturday July 26, 2008, 12:03 AM

FLINT, Michigan -- Sporting a straw hat under the glare of summer heat, Phil Downs strolled through the corner of a north Flint neighborhood that was once barren, abandoned and sprouting with weeds. "It was just nothing," he said.

But on a recent sizzling July morning, in the midst of vacant homes, Downs showed how the corner has literally bloomed.

The patch of land now shimmers with lush green and red leaves and is sprinkled with tomatoes, squash, sweet peas, beets and dill.

"I was told that it would never happen," said a smiling Downs, 61, while working in the eyesore-turned-vegetable-garden with a crew of community volunteers.

The soft-spoken retired Chesaning School District social worker and master gardener designed the veggie garden to spruce up the neighborhood and provide food to area residents.

Downs got in touch with the Genesee County Land Bank, whose leaders had explored the idea of urban gardening as a way to transform vacant sites and was searching for someone to help.

"It's amazing the way something can start from nothing and can become so beautiful," said Lavonna Huddleston, 40, who lives a couple of houses away from the garden. "He's doing a beautiful thing."

Huddleston, who sometimes helps out with garden work when she sees Downs and other volunteers there, said empty spots attract trouble.

Some people even warned Downs that a vegetable garden would never last here, that someone would come along and destroy it.

But neighbors, whom Downs calls "garden angels," watch guard over their neighborhood treasure decked with a "Keep Genesee County Beautiful" sign.

"It really does improve that corner," said Lue Flood, 67, who lives across the street and provides water for the garden. "It helps the neighborhood. Sometimes you'll see all these people out there getting food."

Downs' vision is that gardens like this could bloom all over the city and that more locals, especially those in low-income areas, can learn how to grow their own food.

"I feel it's helping the community, giving them the opportunity to learn some skills," said Downs, who grew up on a farm and has taught garden seminars in the area.

"It gives you a chance to save money and eat healthy food."

Downs, who spends several hours a week with other volunteers taking care of the garden, is most concerned about food safety and affordability. He also would like to see a local program that gives people access to free compost.

Access to water and a lack of compost are the biggest challenges for urban gardens, Downs said. He looked at more than 30 sites before picking this spot on the corner of Home Avenue and Chestnut Street that has sunlight but also shade from a nearby silver maple tree.

The garden lover designed the site to look like a perennial garden with plants that have different textures and heights and are divided by a weaving walking path.

Land Bank lead planner Christina Kelly said Downs' garden is a pilot project and it is hoped that more will follow.

"He's really passionate and wants people to be empowered to grow their own food and use wetlands wisely," Kelly said of Downs.

"The vegetable garden he designed on this site is very attractive. It's a good example of how you can put a vacant property back into productive use. It's just extremely valuable."

2008 Planting Grows Beyond Expectation

We added about four inches of compost to the existing beds before we planted this Spring. That was enough to allow the tall plants to stand upright.

We planted both the seeds we ordered and the plants we were given. Everything has grown rapidly. Too rapidly, as it turns out, we don't have the diversity of plants we intended as the beans, squash, and tomatoes have grown so quickly that slower starting plants were shaded out.

To eliminate the problem with our trellises failing as the fruit became heavy, we have strengthened both the long trellises and the tomato cages. So far so good. The plants were easily trained onto the trellises.

We have begun harvesting lettuce, summer squash, and radishes. The neighbors have taken the vegetables as we wanted. The community as begun to be more involved as we hoped they would.

We'll be having a recipe exchange/cooking demonstration in the next couple weeks.

Dill and the long winter's rest

Gardeners have the habit of winter dreaming about next year - it looks like some good progress is in the works for the Applewood Gardening Initiative. Genesee County is greening up and beautifying! Stay Tuned...

A gift from the garden.

Dill is the herb that Scandinavian mothers use (in a tisane) to lull their babies to sleep. Completely safe, the seeds and foliage are both useful.
We harvested some great dill plants at the fall garden cleanup. I didn't think they would produce, we planted them so late! We didn't harvest seed, but the plants grown in that beautiful compost were wonderful.

I brought the plants home, dried the leaves in my handy dehydrator, and filled three spice-sized jarfuls for our gardeners. A jar of dillweed in the market runs about $3.50 these days. We got a good return on a few plants!

I learned something else from our garden this year (I grew up in town and didn't learn gardening at my mother's knee like so many folks) - I learned to just keep planting, dill at least... it's never too late!
And keep planting the love of gardening and the skills to garden successfully, it's never too late for that either.

Spotlight!

Our hardest working urban gardener was named Community Champion by the Keep Genesee County Beautiful campaign this weekend!

Big Congratulations to Melville Kennedy!

(You deserve it, Mel.)

Garden Seminar 9/6/07

This was a wonderful event, and the best send off I could want! Thanks to Jenn Hill for the pictures, and thanks to all of you for doing such great work.

Long live the veggie garden!

Tuesday update

Phil, who had the original vision to build a demonstration vegetable garden that would be both attractive and productive, doing a little last minute cultivation before the neighborhood get-together. Wish us good weather!

Finally, a photo of Mel! a lifesaver for this garden, among many gardens!

Make that two photos of Mel :)

Hi Helen! You should get double time for this job!


I missed getting Sharron in the camera lens this time but she donated her weed- wacker to the cause today, as well as some herbs to fill in the gaps.
Sharron has the nicest comments to hear while gardening, like pointing out to us "how many shades of green there are" that make the garden beautiful. The eye of the artist, that.
By the way, the weed-wacker wasn't needed as the Land Bank (I think) came by recently and trimmed the grass paths and the rest of the lot. (Thanks!)
I must say, the trimmed grass really sets off the shapes of the beds.

today in the garden

No matter how late the start, a garden in August means bounty. Harvesting has begun: Mel took a couple of quarts of green and yellow wax beans over to "Lou", our water angel who lives (and gardens) across the street, and I took home some beautiful radishes and swiss chard (see the photo below). I hope Phil put the lettuce in some icy water to revive it, although he is going out to dinner this evening. He has enough for salad for a week!
Mel, I'm sorry I never get your photo. (He really is there every week working, come rain or shine.) And Sharron, I thought your picture turned out well!
By the way, last week we canvassed the neighborhood and got to meet some of the neighbors, inviting them to pick, weed, water, and come to our get together next week.
I think by the looks of the tomato plants and the peppers that they were the big winner with the neighbors, judging by the lack of ripened fruit. I pinched the basil and cut off some over-ripened okra, and there was a lot of beans, chard and lettuce that could have been harvested.
Phil discovered a tiny cucumber today, and we've all had a taste of the stevia, lettuces, cherry tomatoes of various varieties, and 'Mariachi' peppers. I am personally looking forward to the eggplant and tomatillos. I think Sharron is rooting for some sunflowers. And the corn is tasseling, and the runner beans are twining.
It is, as Phil dreamed it, a beautiful garden. Veggies can be beautiful. We are learning as we go, because as you all know Rome wasn't built in a day. But it is amazing what a small group of volunteer gardeners can do in a short amount of time.