by Connie Oswald Stofko
Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo is looking for volunteers to help break ground on new community gardens and open established gardens for the season. The work will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, April 17.
While Grassroots Gardens now works with a total of 72 community gardens all over the City of Buffalo, just 11 gardens are on the list for extra help this weekend.
“All of the gardens are completely different,” explained Linda Reiter, community garden coordinator at Grassroots Gardens. “The gardens are all in different stages of development. Not all of them need the extra help.”
Neighborhood residents plan and maintain the gardens.
“Every single garden is their garden,” said Susannah S. Barton, executive director of Grassroots Gardens. “They design it and oversee it on a daily basis. We coordinate the large-scale volunteer efforts, like breaking ground on a new garden.”
To sign up to help in the community gardens this weekend, go to HandsOn Greater Buffalo.
As you start working in your own garden, please keep Grassroots Gardens in mind. They can use perennials and even healthy shrubs that you may be removing.
“If you’re dividing up your perennials, call us,” Barton said. “We’ll figure out how to get them.”
Phone them at 783-9653.
Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo is a non-profit organization devoted to helping people create and sustain community gardens on vacant land in the City of Buffalo.
Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo assists the residents in several ways:
- Land access. Grassroots Gardens can work with the City of Buffalo to request a lease agreement for vacant property that neighbors want to use as a community garden.
- Insurance. A community garden can be rolled under Grassroots Gardens’ insurance policy.
- Materials. While the residents do buy some plants and materials for the gardens, donations help a great deal. Grassroots Gardens recently received a $500 garden tool donation from Valu Home Centers. It also received a donation of various flowering shrubs from the Western New York State Nursery and Landscape Association (WNYSNLA) at the end of Plantasia, the garden and landscape show hosted by WNYSNLA.
For more information on how Grassroots Gardens can help you with a community garden, go to their website.
