Old Town Lansing now has a 625 square foot community garden. The garden is directly across from Su Casa and Friedland Industries.
Chad Badgero, with the Old Town Commercial Association (OTCA), and other community members have been working on the getting a community garden in Old Town since December.
Badgero is working with the OTCA through AmeriCorps, an organization that works with nonprofits to focus on the revitalization of local communities. Badgero says its always been one of his goals to install a community garden in Old Town.
Badgero’s been surrounded by gardens his whole life because his father was the head of the Michigan State University (MSU) Horticulture Demonstration Gardens for 30 years. Now Badgero’s taken on his own initiative, securing enough funding to create a garden on a vacant lot.
The garden has tomatoes, squash, three different kinds of peppers, cucumbers and pumpkins. Badgero hopes the produce will be ready for sale at the Old Town Farmer’s Market by the end of the summer.
Badgero says there’s enough room to expand the garden into a 2,700 square foot space.
“Hopefully in the future it’s something that the community values and if it can be sustained, we can fill the whole thing,” he says.
Community members are volunteering to tend the garden. Local businesses are donating supplies and local artists are donating their artwork.
If you’re interested in volunteering at the garden, you can email Chad here.
Source: Chad Badgero, Old Town Commercial Association
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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