Community Gardens and Soil Charts

The American Community Garden Association provides a broad definition of what constitutes a community garden:

“It can be urban, suburban, or rural. It can grow flowers, vegetables or community. It can be one community plot, or can be many individual plots. It can be at a school, hospital, or in a neighborhood. It can also be a series of plots dedicated to "urban agriculture" where the produce is grown for a market” (http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/).

Community Garden

Community gardens, like the one located in the Beall’s Hill Community near Mercer, allow people to increase sustainability in the area and to better relationships between people in the area (http://bealls-hill-garden.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-planting-date.html). The food produced by the community garden provides people with healthy, organic food that they may not have had access to before the garden’s existence. In addition, community gardens can provide benefits that might not be thought of at first. A community garden improves the quality of life for people in the garden, provides a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulates social interaction, encourages self-reliance, beautifies neighborhoods, produces nutritious food, conserves resources, creates opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education, reduces crime, preserves green space, creates income opportunities and economic development, reduces city heat from streets and parking lots, Provides opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural connections (ACGA).

Before creating a community garden, potential planters might want to test the soil of location in order to assess soil composition and its fertility. A soil sample can be taken and used to determine these factors. The Munsell Soil Color Chart can be used to help determine the soil type and composition. The Munsell Chart was created by Albert H. Munsell and became the official color system for soil during the 1930s. The color for the chart is determined by the soil sample’s hue, value (lightness), and chroma (color purity). For a detailed explanation of how to use and read the Munsell Chart, you can visit http://www.soilsurvey.org/tutorial/page7.asp#b

Munsell Soil Color Chart

Munsell Color System

Unfortunately, contaminants are present in the soils of some urban areas and need to be tested before people create a community garden. One of the leading soil contaminates is lead, due to the use of lead paint, gasoline containing lead, lead-arsenate pesticides. However, the presence of soil contaminates does not mean people cannot create a community garden in the area. In areas of low lead contamination, measures can be taken to remove lead from the soil, such as adding phosphate to ground, or covering the contaminated soil with mulch. Also, people can add clean soil to the garden and plant crops which do not produce vast, deep root systems. If the soil contains high lead or other metal concentrations, gardeners can construct raised beds with the bottom separated from the contaminated soil. The raised beds can contain clean soil and be used to grow a variety of crops.  

Community Garden with Raised Beds