About the Author
Ellen Burke
Ellen is an associate in the Sausalito office of SWA, and has a specific interest in agricultural landscapes and their role in creating truly sustainable environments. She was awarded the 2008 Patrick Curran Fellowship to study economic and design strategies for integrating agricultural programs into designed landscapes, and has published her research in 'On Farming' (2010, Actar), on-line magazines The Grist and Civil Eats, and the blog GrowCity, as well as designing pro-bono projects with the Alameda Point Urban Farm. She believes that "while farmland near urban centers faces intense pressure from development, urban centers often lack sufficient open space for recreation and rely entirely on imported food. As landscape architects, we are in a unique position to develop a new model for the relationship between agricultural and urban areas, bringing areas of production closer to places of consumption. Understanding agriculture as a landscape component that can be integrated into the urban and suburban context, at a variety of scales, will preserve traditional forms of production, enlarge and diversity open space networks, strengthen local food security, enrich the urban form and create the potential for new agricultural modes."
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Victoria Street Community Garden - Design Interview
The Victoria Street Community Garden is located on a formerly derelict parking lot in Houston, TX. Sixty individual raised plots, along with a community orchard, group demonstration beds and community gathering spaces were designed by SWA Group and installed by volunteers over a two day period. Scott McCready and Eli Lechter talked to me about their experiences designing the garden, and lessons learned.
Q. Can you describe the features of the garden?
A. The garden contains sixty 4'x 4' raised plots for community members, group raised planters for demonstration and teaching, a natural play garden for young children, a shed and deck, a picnic lawn, community orchard and a community gathering space.
Q. Who will manage the garden?
A. The garden is managed by Volunteers of America (VOA), a non-profit organization. Identifying long-term personnel at VOA to be involved was one of the project's challenges.
Q. What infrastructure was needed for the garden?
A. An irrigation system serves the primary public areas (shared use lawns and gardens) and individual plots were designed to accept future drip irrigation. Security concerns prompted a different set of infrastructure, including lighting, access control and an 8' fence to keep out feral dogs.
Q. Were there any permitting issues?
A. The main permitting issue was related to the fact that we were relying on volunteer efforts and on an extremely tight schedule. The city did require a full project review and eventually the Mayor's Office had to get involved to expedite the review process so that the project could stay on schedule.
Q. What did you learn about designing for agriculture from this project?
A. We had to consider proper solar orientation for the garden plots, the suitability of the materials and soil depth. The project would be built by volunteers and that affected the way we designed. We thought a lot about scalability of program to allow the garden to grow as it becomes adopted by the community, and realized how important community participation is for a project like this. The greatest cost for the project in the end wasn't related to the program improvements (community spaces) but rather to site preparation and utilities and security. These items are much harder to fundraise for. Finally, we learned that middle school students work as hard or harder than adults!
Q. The images of the garden under construction show the use of a pre-fab system for the raised beds. Can you tell me a little about it?
A. The raised beds were installed using a product called Gro-Pod. It's a pre-fab raised bed unit, with integrated irrigation and cedar plank edges, and it allowed us to just lay out the garden, rather than construct each raised bed. It also isolates the growing medium from any potential contamination in the site soils. The product is new on the market, and this is a good testing ground to see how it holds up in a public application.
Q. Any last insights on designing community gardens?
A. Volunteer projects need a simpler plan for layout and construction to ensure reasonable quality. Design considerations must take into account labor, access to heavy machinery and the uncertain nature of volunteer availability. Coordination of large groups is always a challenge, but the results are quite rewarding - despite all the problems, the project succeeded in transforming an eyesore into a vital gathering space for a community in need of such opportunities. With a bit of creativity and sweat, a lot of work can be accomplished without huge resources.