Since January I have been working on Madison’s newest and most centrally located community garden, Crowley Station. We are located at 201 S Hancock St, Madison WI atop the city well that sits there. Through a partnership with the city utilities and the First Settlement neighborhood a $10,000 grant was given to our group provided we could plan, organize, and prove that this garden could sustain itself starting next year. Well, we did it! This has been our first full month of planted beds and it’s growing splendidly.
I’m so proud of the planning team that I’ve been working with. Each person brings a very unique set of skills to our team. We have an engineer, a graphic designer, some teachers, some planners, some visionaries, and some activists. From my previous work on community development I know how rare and special it is to not only have a dedicated core group of ten people on a project, but also people with valuable skills and the time to do something! It even looks like many of the planning team, not to mention the other garden members, will be joining us next year.
This community garden is super urban. We built raised beds out of cedar and made name plates out of copper sheeting. We have a small compost tumbler and a rain catchment system. There are also some smaller round planters made out of concrete. The garden space looks out over the lake and John Nolan Drive. The neighborhood group is also putting in some bike racks this fall. The site already had a rotating art feature bring a lot of drama to the site.
This project has kept me on my toes all year. It’s nice to finally have it up and running. Now, I just need my green beans to grow faster!
Esoteric Moment 