GARDEN WARRIORS: Putting Down Roots

When the snow melts in Sharon Duwaik’s backyard, little green shoots will soon peek from the soil. By summer, her garden will be blanketed with a colorful array of vegetables: peppers, tomatoes, chard, cucumbers, ginger and a cilantro-like herb called “summer sesame.” At the end of the growing season, a dozen gardeners will harvest their produce from Duwaik’s backyard, but none of them will be Duwaik herself. She prefers to give all her plots to the elderly people living in the apartment building behind her north Aurora home.

The Blue Chair Community Garden that Duwaik has been running at 1416 Dayton St. since 2008 is one of 16 community gardens in Aurora that have flourished in recent years. Altruistic residents like Duwaik have made it their mission to dig a better life for others in need of cultivating food and friendships.

“It’s very popular,” Duwaik said. “It has all its little quirks that come with it but it’s become very popular.”

Quirks indeed. Odd treasures have been found underneath the earth such as doll’s heads and pottery shards. Gardeners across Aurora fend off rabbits, foxes, bugs and derelict humans wont to steal veggies and gardening tools. And gardeners grow produce in soil so dry it could be mistaken for sand.

The trend toward tilling dirt in a plot of shared soil blossomed in the 1980s from the idea that community gardens bring people together.

It gained traction when the economy took a turn for the worst.

In 2008, people started to look for more affordable ways to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and there was a growing interest in buying local, said Abbie Harris, spokeswoman for Denver Urban Gardens. DUG, which was established as a nonprofit in 1985 with three gardens in northwest Denver, helps develop many of the gardens in Aurora and the Denver metro area. It has seen interest in community gardening grow exponentially over the past five years.

In 2007, there were 72 gardens in DUG’s network. Today, there are 126 with 13 new gardens sprouting up later this year. That’s a good amount for a state that last year faced some of the worst drought conditions ever, and is bracing itself for another arid year. Like bees to honey, people are also drawn to community gardening because it’s cheap. The average plot fee is $35 for a piece of land that averages about 150 square feet.

The University of Colorado School of Medicine also caught on, having recently launched an organization called BRANCH (Bridging Research and Aurora Neighborhoods for Community Health). That group, along with DUG, will roll out the North Middle School community garden in May — the first garden at a middle school in Aurora.

Community gardens have also gained popularity in private neighborhoods. The Murphy Creek Metropolitan District forked up $12,200 to develop the Garden at Murphy Creek, which opened to residents of that neighborhood last July. Residents there say property values have already spiked because of it. A house near the garden sold last summer for 5 percent more than the asking price.

Four other community gardens are private, including the garden at Excelsior Youth Center and the garden at Forest Manor, run by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

In north Aurora, community gardens are gathering places for groups of people as diverse as the vegetables they grow. At 1675 Beeler St., people from Nepal, Burma, Korea, China, Mexico and Russia grow several types of leafy green vegetables, root vegetables and herbs for tea.

At a potluck dinner in March, about 150 gardeners from Aurora and Denver serenaded 80-year-old Arzella Dirksen for her birthday. Dirksen has tilled soil in community gardens for three decades — longer than anyone in the group. Surprised and emotional, Dirksen thanked the crowd. “It isn’t just about growing vegetables,” she said, “it’s about growing relationships.”

Public community gardens in Aurora run by Denver Urban Gardens:
Beeler Street, 1675 Beeler St.
Blue Chair, 1416 Dayton St.
Delaney Farm, 170 S. Chambers Road.
Mountain View United, 10700 E. Evans Ave.
Parkview Congregational Church, 12444 E. Parkview Dr.
Spencer Garrett Park, 11009 E. 17th Ave.
Wood Adventist, 1159 S. Moline St.
North Middle School, (opening in May) 12095 Montview Blvd. – Call DUG at 303-292-9900 for availability
All Saints Lutheran, 15625 E. Iliff Ave., 303-752-4083
St. Mark’s Lutheran, 111 Del Mar Circle, 303-366-9702
The Gathering Garden at New Hope Church, 17699 E. Hampden Ave., 303-690-0143

Growing Together in Aurora
Between 2004 and 2008, Denver Urban Gardens collected information from about 500 people about why community gardening is fulfilling for them. Their findings:
100% of community gardeners said their main reasons for gardening were to be outside in nature and to get their hands dirty. Almost 80% of them gardened as children.
More than 50% of community gardeners meet national guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake, compared to 25% of non-gardeners.
As well as eating better and being more active, gardeners are more involved in social activities, view their neighborhoods as more beautiful, and have stronger ties to their neighborhoods.
95% of community gardeners give away some of the produce they grow to friends, family and people in need; 60% specifically donate to food assistance programs.
In addition to more positive ratings of physical and mental health, gardeners see the world differently — emotionally, spiritually and culturally, as well as socially and environmentally.
Community gardens promote stronger neighborhood leadership, outreach, and volunteerism.
88% of people who do not garden want to see gardens in their neighborhood.