Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Matthew B. Mikolajewski
May 2002
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
This report was made possible by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and
through the support of the Wisconsin Food System Partnership and the Milwaukee
Urban Food Systems Initiative.
As an urban planning graduate student, the preparation of this report was
extremely beneficial. I must acknowledge those individuals who significantly contributed
to this report, and in turn, my education. Professor Welford Sanders, of the University of
Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Department of Urban Planning, provided valuable input and
assistance throughout all stages of this project and report.
Through meetings and informal discussions, the following individuals provided a
wealth of information about community gardening in Milwaukee and elsewhere: Mike
Salinas, Milwaukee Urban Gardens Inc.; Dennis Lukaszewski, University of Wisconsin –
Extension; Will Allen, Growing Power; Mark Weaver, U.S. Forest Service America’s
Outdoors Program; Martin Bailkey, University of Wisconsin – Madison Department of
Landscape Architecture; Sharon Adams, Walnut Way Conservation Corps.; Tim Locke,
Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee; Prof. Jerry Kaufman, University of Wisconsin –
Madison Department of Urban and Regional Planning; and the Milwaukee Community
Gardening Coalition meeting attendees.
RECOMMENDATIONS …………..………………………………….... 27
Community Gardening Organizations …………………….… 28
City of Milwaukee ……………………………………………... 30
Milwaukee County …………………………………………….. 31
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee …………………….…. 31
CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………….… 32
REFERENCES …………………………………………………….…... 33
Rental gardens are locations where people can rent garden plots for their
personal use. University of Wisconsin – Extension (Milwaukee County) maintains over
1500 rental garden plots at thirteen locations throughout the county. Extension
employees prepare the locations for planting, provide water, and give technical advice to
gardeners. A 400 square foot garden plot rents for $15.00 a season, and a 900 square
foot plot rents for $25.00. Typically, these garden plots have 85% occupancy with an
annual turnover rate of about 20%. Over half of Extension garden locations are over ten
years old.
Extension rental gardens vary in size, form, and ownership status. With over 800
garden plots, the Milwaukee County Grounds (City of Wauwatosa) community garden is
the largest maintained by Extension. At the other end of the extreme, Extension’s 3rd
Street & Bruce Street location contains only ten plots, and is nestled within a single lot
owned by the City of Milwaukee. Most Extension rental garden sites have 20-30 plots
on parcels owned by the City of Milwaukee. Although vegetables are most commonly
grown at rental garden locations, one will also find annual and perennial flowers.
Extension rental garden locations attract people from varying socioeconomic
backgrounds. Generally, renters at the County Grounds are individuals who travel from
outside the immediate area to garden. Those gardeners within the smaller,
neighborhood gardens are mostly local residents.
School gardens help to enrich the curriculum at seven local public and private
schools. School administrators and teachers generally maintain these locations. As
they are intended to help teachers assist with their environmental and natural science
classes, these gardens contain all sorts of vegetables and flowers, and are used for a
variety of different activities. School gardens, such as the one located at Victory School
(23rd Street & Ramsey Street), can greatly improve the appearance of the campus and
surrounding neighborhood. This garden includes a pathway and benches to be enjoyed
by all residents in the area.
Youth Gardens
Demonstration gardens, found at four locations, educate the public about the
importance of urban agriculture, while providing gardeners with valuable information. An
excellent example can be found at Growing Power (55th Street & Silver Spring Drive).
Growing Power staff provide formal and informal training sessions for people interested
in learning how to maximize the benefits of their garden plots.
Accessible Gardens
Accessible gardens provide space for gardeners with special needs at four
locations throughout Milwaukee County. These garden plots are often in the form of
raised beds that allow individuals with wheel chairs and walkers to garden. These
community gardens are available at public locations, such as Grant Park (City of South
Milwaukee), and private facilities, such as the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care
(City of St. Francis).
Metro Milwaukee residents and civic leaders are fortunate to have numerous
organizations committed to fostering community gardens. Through time, talent, and
financial resources, the individuals within these organizations have sought to promote,
maintain, and expand gardens throughout Milwaukee County. Some of these
organizations are described next.
This new non-profit organization has created a land trust for the purpose of
purchasing and developing land for community gardens. Milwaukee Urban Gardens Inc.
provides education, design guidance, and some maintenance assistance to groups of
individuals interested in gardening the sites that they obtain.
The America’s Outdoors program, of the U.S. Forest Service, promotes the
creation and protection of public open spaces, including community gardens, throughout
Milwaukee. Although the Forest Service does not maintain direct control over these
Growing Power
The City of Milwaukee provides short-term leases for individuals who would like
to garden on city-owned vacant lots. In general, the city does not view gardens as
permanent, and the sites are often developed into other uses when such opportunities
become available. Along with city administrators, the local Alderpersons play a crucial
role in the presence and permanence of community gardens within their districts. If an
Alderperson does not support a garden within their district, it stands less of a chance of
remaining a permanent fixture within that neighborhood.
Milwaukee County
For decades, rental garden plots have been located within the County Grounds
(City of Wauwatosa). In recent years, the county has sold a substantial amount of its
land holdings to private entities, removing garden plots. Although the county appears to
be willing to work with gardeners to relocate their plots, permanence of community
gardens on county land remains somewhat uncertain.
Directly related to the notion of land tenure is zoning. Currently, the City of
Milwaukee does not have zoning provisions that exclusively allow for, or protect,
community gardens. As a result, community gardens are often on sites zoned for other
uses, such as residential or commercial. When development proposals that are
consistent with the underlying zoning of a site evolve, gardeners have little recourse to
protect the elimination of their sites.
In other communities, such as Portland, Oregon, community gardening has
already been written into the city’s zoning ordinance. The Portland zoning code defines
park and open areas as:
The ordinance goes further to specify that with special limitations, community gardens
are allowed within all residential, commercial, and open space zones of the city. In fact:
“uses in the Park and Open Areas category are allowed by right” (City of
Portland, 33.100.100, 33.110.100, 33.120.100, 33.130.100).
Comprehensive and neighborhood plans often include provisions for public open
space, generally in the form of parks and playgrounds, not gardens. One exception to
this practice is the comprehensive plan for Seattle, Washington (Seattle Department of
Neighborhoods and Friends of P-Patch 2000). The open space network portion of this
plan supports:
Some object to community gardens because they are not always maintained in
the most aesthetically pleasing manner. Naturally, this does not have to be the case.
Community gardens can be very attractive public open spaces. A couple of texts have
highlighted what needs to be considered when making decisions about the location and
layout of a garden site (Naimark 1982, Sommers 1984).
Many of the ideas presented in these texts are reflected in a set of site
assessment guidelines that have been developed by Milwaukee Urban Gardens. The
issues considered by Milwaukee Urban Gardens when choosing a location for a new
garden include soil, light, drainage, water, distance to major streets, views, slope, site
layout, neighboring buildings and uses, and accessibility (Milwaukee Urban Gardens
2001a). Likewise, when choosing a site, Milwaukee Urban Gardens looks to the
surrounding neighborhood to determine whether or not a community garden is included
in any neighborhood plans, neighborhood demographics, amount of public open space
already within the neighborhood, and the proximity of existing community gardens to the
proposed location (Milwaukee Urban Gardens 2001a). When taken n
i to thoughtful
consideration, all of these ideas will help one chose an appropriate site for a community
garden. This is the first critical step in developing an effective garden design.
Once a suitable site is located, one must develop an appropriate landscape plan
in order to create an aesthetically pleasing environment within. Milwaukee Urban
Gardens has developed a set of guidelines that it uses when developing a landscape
plan for its gardens. These include providing raised garden beds, mulched pathways,
attractive fencing, well-designed compost bins, sitting and socializing areas, children’s
play areas, garden sheds, public art, and lighting (Milwaukee Urban Gardens 2001b).
Finally, special attention must be given to the perimeter of the garden. Vegetable
gardens may not always appear attractive, especially during the winter months.
Maintenance
Funding
Government Cooperation
Public Education
Through its Parks and Recreation Department, city staff work with residents and
non-profit organizations to maintain 23 community garden locations throughout the city.
Some of Portland’s gardens are located within parks, others are on public sites, such as
schools, with the remaining sites found on privately owned land, such as churches
(Portland Parks & Recreation 2001). As already indicated, Portland’s zoning ordinance
supports community gardens as a legitimate land use. Thus, they are afforded more
protection from development pressures than found in many communities.
It is important to note the similarities between Seattle and Portland. In both
situations, the cities devote staff members to community gardening. Within the two
cities, the staff members receive significant support from non-profit organizations and
volunteers. Finally, both communities legitimize community gardening through
resolutions from their mayors, common councils, land use plans, or zoning ordinance.
These three factors combined appear to be the driving force behind the success of
community gardens within both of these cities.
The rapidly growing city of Madison has taken steps to ensure the presence of
gardens in this community for years to come. Since 1990, community gardens have
been supported by several common council resolutions and land use plans. In 1997, the
city formed an advisory committee on community gardens. This committee published a
report in 1999 that outlines the current condition of gardens within the city and ways in
which community gardening can be further promoted and expanded. Today, there are
24 gardening sites throughout the city that are largely managed by non-profit
organizations. The location of the gardens is evenly divided between public and private
land. (Herbach 1998, City of Madison Advisory Committee on Community Gardens
1999)
Troy Gardens illustrates the success of Madison’s community gardens. For
several decades, this garden has been located on a piece of land, owned by the State of
Wisconsin, on the north side of Madison. Nearly 400 people benefit from vegetables
grown within the garden. In 1995, the State of Wisconsin decided to sell the land.
Fearing the elimination of their garden plots, local gardeners, land trusts, and community
organizations banded together in an effort to preserve the land for open space uses.
The land will soon be sold to the Madison Area Community Land Trust. Five acres will
be developed by the trust for co-housing, leaving 26 acres to be used for community
gardens, community supported agriculture, and other open space uses. (Troy Gardens
2001)
• Continue to lobby municipal and county elected officials and staff about the
importance of community gardens within Milwaukee, and the need for their
protection.
• Develop a maintenance plan for all gardens, to include a discussion about who is
responsible for maintenance of the garden, what must be accomplished, and
where necessary funding will be obtained. A maintenance plan may provide
neighbors, municipal staff, and elected officials with greater peace of mind
regarding the appearance of a potential or existing garden.
• Give greater attention to the quality, rather than the quantity, of community
garden plots. Although the recent decline in community garden plots is alarming,
greater energy should be given to the improvement of existing gardens to help
• Market and sell produce and refined products from Milwaukee’s community
gardens. The economic and educational value of entrepreneurial activity is yet
another potential benefit of community gardens.
• Catalogue and maintain more information about individual gardens. The positive
impacts that community gardens provide for surrounding neighborhoods must be
recorded.
City of Milwaukee
• City staff and elected officials must recognize the positive role that community
gardens play in maintaining and redeveloping Milwaukee’s neighborhoods.
Community gardens provide resident-driven open space, recreation, and food at
a relatively low cost to the city.
• When appropriate, the city should require that a community gardens element is
included in neighborhood plans. The city should also address community
gardens in the comprehensive planning process that Wisconsin’s Smart Growth
legislation mandates.
• The city should provide longer leases for community gardens on city-owned
parcels. A longer time frame, such as ten years, would enable community
gardening organizations to make additional improvements to their garden sites
without fear of losing the space after only one or two seasons.
“Fertile Ground: Planning for the Madison / Dane County Food System.” 1997.
University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
Kaufman, Jerry and Martin Bailkey. 2000. “Farming Inside Cities: Entrepreneurial
Urban Agriculture in the United States.” Working paper. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Meyer, Diana A., et al. 2000. “Dudley street neighborhood initiative.” In On the
ground with comprehensive community initiatives. Columbia, Maryland:
The Enterprise Foundation.
Pothukuchi, Kameshwari and Jerome L. Kaufman. 2000. “The food system: a stranger to
the planning field.” Journal of the American Planning Association, 66 (2).
www.cityfarmer.org/foodplan.html, October 15, 2000.
Troy Gardens. 2001. Promotional material and presentation given at the Community
Open Space Summit, Appleton, Wisconsin, October 12, 2001. Sponsored by the
Urban Open Space Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin.
Yeh, Lilly. 2001. Speech given at the Community Open Space Summit,
Appleton, Wisconsin, October 12, 2001. Sponsored by the Urban Open
Space Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Organizations
Growing Power
5500 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53218
Phone: 414-527-1546
Email: info@growingpower.org
Web: www.growingpower.org
America’s Outdoors
United States Forest Service
310 West Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 100
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203
Phone: 414-297-3693
National Organizations