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URBAN GARDENER

The Greening Of North America



(For more success stories, visit www.cityfarmer.org.)

  • Puerto Rican community gardeners in New York cultivate vegetables, fruit, and medicinal and culinary herbs. They also construct one- and two-room wood frame structures known as casitas, or “little houses.”
  • Lettuce Link improves the nutritional opportunities of low-income people in Seattle through garden development in low-income communities, basic garden education, seed and plant distribution at food banks, and coordination of produce donations.
  • In 2000, volunteer garden leaders in Cleveland coordinated the planting of 206 community gardens covering 33 acres of previously vacant land. Over 80 percent of the gardens are found in Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods.
  • Vacant lots are a common sight in big urban areas. In Philadelphia, one of the largest comprehensive urban greening programs in North America is working to turn these blights into a source of pride and sustenance. The Philadelphia Urban Gardening Project reports that community gardeners eat produce from their gardens five months of the year, food is shared with neighbors and relatives on a weekly basis, and 40 percent of the gardeners share food with church or community organizations.

Additional topics

Job Descriptions and Careers, Career and Job Opportunities, Career Search, and Career Choices and ProfilesCool Careers Without CollegeURBAN GARDENER - Description, The Goals Of A Community Garden, Bearing Fruit, The Greening Of North America