Muscatine, Iowa – The Solomon Community Garden, on land owned by Deb and Dwight Brockhouse, allows gardeners to grow vegetables and flowers that they may not be able to on their own land.
Each plot is given to a different gardener, and Deb Brockhouse said many different individuals maintain sections of the garden. She said the community garden was a perfect fit for her property.
“The Blue Zones was wanting to start community gardens and I was always interested in how I could share my property because there are people that don’t have gardens, and why let this land go to waste?” she said.
Jean Clark has been planting different vegetables in the garden for years, and she said that the space provides an opportunity for her and others to grow food they would not have been able to grow at home.
“It gives people who don’t have property and access to sunlight a chance to garden and to grow some things that they couldn’t do otherwise,” she said.
Each year, the Solomon Community Gardens also hosts a community party to celebrate the harvest and help educate people on the benefits of growing their own food.
At Project Buy Local, we are especially impressed that some of the gardeners also sell their harvests at the local farmer’s markets in the area! Now, that’s the definition of buying local if we’ve ever seen it!
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