How do our gardens grow? With her vision
Jan Jarboe Russell
San Antonio Express-News
Mar 29, 2009
Linda Hardberger, San Antonio’s First Lady, may not have Michelle Obama’s biceps — few do — but Hardberger’s political timing is enviable.
Shortly after her husband, Phil, was elected mayor in 2005, Hardberger started the first of what has become a network of 19 community gardens in San Antonio.
In the wake of the recent publicity about Mrs. Obama’s well-intentioned planting of a kitchen garden at the White House, I contacted the mayor’s wife to ask her what has become an essential question this spring: Why garden?
Everyone who picks up a hoe has an individual answer. Mrs. Obama wanted to encourage the growing, harvesting and eating of healthy food. Some of us who grew up on farms miss the tactile, physical connection to the seasons — the planting in fall, the harvesting in summer — that gardens require.
In the beginning, Hardberger’s motive was to clean up some of the many vacant lots in San Antonio and replace them with green gardens planned and maintained by neighborhood associations.
“When Philip was running for office, I went to events all over the city — schools, churches and senior citizen centers — and I kept seeing so many empty lots that needed cleaning up,” said Hardberger. “I thought these places could be put to good use and that perhaps neighbors could come together to plant a garden of their own choosing.”
The two of us visited one of those spaces at the corner of South Presa and Jacobs Street, just south of downtown San Antonio. It’s a small space but last week it was blooming with red lettuce, cilantro, peppers, kale, squash, beets and many varieties of flowers.
Once this garden and others flourished, Hardberger’s motives for the projects also expanded. “Kids who thought that peppers and lettuce came from grocery stores worked alongside their grandparents in these gardens,” she said. “Now the children know where food comes from and have the pleasure of growing it themselves.”
The total cost of the beds, soil, tools, mulch, the plants themselves and a small irrigation system of the garden on South Presa was $8,500. Like each of the community gardens that Hardberger has initiated, this one was financed without public money. Hardberger is the chair of the community gardens initiative of Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas, a nonprofit urban land trust. The alliance has raised money for each of the gardens from donors such as the Kronkosky Fund and the Lattner Fund.
One of the reasons these gardens have thrived is that Green Spaces Alliance has a strict set of eligibility requirements for neighborhood associations that want to start gardens. For instance, a minimum of five unrelated people must agree to take responsibility for working the garden. Other requirements are that land for the garden has to be within walking distance from residences. The garden has to have access to water. The gardens have to be established in communities that need them — in other words, ones lacking in open space or parkland.
What’s interesting is that different neighborhoods planned and executed different kinds of gardens. While the LaVaca Neighborhood Association chose a vegetable garden for the small space on South Presa, the Denver Heights Neighborhood Association wanted more opportunities for community. That garden has playground equipment and a space for personalized tiles.
“In a big city like ours, neighborhoods tend to lose their individual identity,” said Hardberger. “What I’ve noticed is the community gardens are a way for neighborhoods to express their own uniqueness. The garden becomes a civic brand.”
Though her husband is prohibited from running for mayor again due to term limits, Hardberger will continue her work with Green Spaces Alliances, which expects to have at least 50 gardens planted and in full bloom by 2013. In the future, she would like to see lessons from the garden incorporated into the curriculum of local schools.
Much has been made of Phil Hardberger’s accomplishments during two terms as mayor, and they are significant. But in a calm, orderly way, Mrs. Hardberger’s community garden initiative has taught children where vegetables really come from, inspired a few thousands neighbors to work together in every season of the year, and replaced many ugly vacant lots with green spaces. It’s a good thing term limits don’t apply to her.