Kingfield Garden Grows Both Plants and Community in Second Year

Suzanne Lillyblad has been nurturing seeds in her home since February, watching as they unfurl into tiny starter plants, and waiting anxiously to bury them in her plot at Kingfield Community garden when the weather warms enough. 

The Kingfield neighborhood started their first community garden site last year, which has a similar goal to dozens of other community gardens in Minneapolis: to grow both plants and community.

The gardeners lease land from Jackie Hayes, owner of the Center for Performing Arts, where the garden is located. Last year was a successful year, although there some issues with too much shade, which make it difficult for some vegetables such as tomatoes to grow (this year they’ve eliminated the most shady plots, making them communal gathering spaces), according to Sarah Linnes-Robinson, the executive director for Kingfield Neighborhood Association. 

Suzanne Lillyblad had a plot in the Kingfield Community Garden last year, and is looking forward to taking part again this year. “I’m very proud of what as a community we could accomplish,” Lillyblad said. “We started with a big patch of grass.” From that patch of grass, volunteers prepped the site, removed trees, and turned the land into a garden. “It was really impressive what we could accomplish as a group,” she said.  

Lillyblad liked the community aspect of the garden, both those who had garden plots and neighbors who would spend time enjoying the tranquility of the garden. Not to mention the excitement of picking her own greens for dinner.  

This year, Lillyblad said, the garden has gotten some excellent donations from Minnesota Green, and the group is still going through the process of working out the schedule for work days. Each gardener agrees to volunteer for two hours per month.

Adrienne Frank will be gardening for the first time this year at Kingfield Community Garden. She’s hoping to meet neighbors, and wants to have access to organic foods without pesticides for her five-month-old child. Frank lives in an apartment, so the only way she can garden is through a community garden. She’s never had a garden before, so she’s been researching and hopes to learn from friends and other gardeners the tricks of the trade.

While Frank has always been interested in organic food, having a child strengthened her desire to think twice about the food she prepares. Her child will soon be eating solid food, and she’s looking forward to making it herself from the produce of the garden plot. 

The two main gardens in Southwest Minneapolis are Kingfield Community Gardens on 38th Street and Pleasant Avenue and Room to Grow at 39th Street and Van Next Avenue. Linnes-Robinson said there was a need for more community gardens in Southwest Minneapolis, especially in Kingfield, but there is some difficulty in finding open spaces.

“We need to get creative,” Linnes-Robiinson said, whether that means finding a church, reaching out to a nonprofit organization that is willing to share or lease their space, or even private or government land, such as space near the freeway. 

A model for how gardens can really become a center for community is the garden at Sabathani Community Center, which had a strong sense of community prior to the garden’s inception. Sabathani ‘s garden has a number of community building programs planned for this year, such as a monumental sculpture that will be erected this summer by Marcelo Araujo of the Zenteotl Project. 

One place that newbie gardeners can go for information and support is Gardening Matters, a non-profit organization that specializes in supporting community gardens. Their website is packed with information for communities interested in starting their own gardens. Gardening Matters offers workshops and classes where people can learn everything from how to get access to a hydrant to leadership training.  

Gardening Matters can also help communities figure out how to achieve long-term land access for their gardens. The organization also has a map of all the community gardens in the city, so if there is one near you, you can stop by and see how things are growing.