Community Garden ? El Mirage, Ariz.
Community Garden ?
El Mirage, Ariz.
The El Mirage Community Garden was an effort to revitalize a vacant city-owned lot situated amid the city?s poorest neighborhoods. Elderly residents from farming families, elementary schoolchildren and their teachers, neighborhood groups and master gardeners worked together this year to transform the desolation into two acres of lush greenery. The garden now provides nutrition and exercise as well as an educational venue where residents learn environmental stewardship and social skills. Increasingly, the garden is also seen as a place where work yields food for gardeners? families and income when gardeners sell what they grow. Through small grants and product donations from many local contributors, the garden remains resilient and has become a source of community pride.