Planting one of the garden's two apple trees. L to R: Lisa Gross, Boston Tree Party; Maggie Campolieta, Boston Architectural College; David Price, Nuestra Comunidad; Sonia Booker, Boston's Hope resident; Peter Hinrichs, YouthBuild Boston. Click on image to expand
Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and YouthBuild Boston are pleased to announce the grand reopening of the Generations of Hope Community Garden! On Friday, May 27, YouthBuild Boston students and staff, local gardeners, Nuestra employees, and seniors from Nuestra's nearby GrandFamilies and Boston's Hope housing developments came together to kick off the growing season at a reopening event on the garden site. Attendees filled beds with clean soil, planted apple trees and vegetable seedlings, cleared brush, and celebrated the culmination of the redesign and renovation process over lunch.
In 2005, neighborhood residents and Nuestra staff began transforming a vacant lot on Nightingale Street in Dorchester owned by Nuestra into a community garden and gathering space. After extensive soil remediation, removal of buried oil tanks, and the installation of garden beds, the Generations of Hope Community Garden was born. In 2007, the garden was hailed as the Community Garden "Rookie of the Year" by the Boston Natural Areas Network.
The YouthBuild Boston crew unwinds after a morning at work on the plot. Click on image to expand
Unfortunately, security and maintenance concerns mounted over the following years as the surrounding neighborhood struggled with gang activity, drug use, and vandalism. Earlier this year, Nuestra, YouthBuild Boston, and students from the Boston Architectural College worked with community members to craft a redesign and renovation strategy to address these concerns. The garden's new design, developed over the course of several community meetings, features improved fencing and security lighting, increased growing space, new, durable equipment, and better visibility from the street, along with two new apple trees courtesy of the Boston Tree Party, a local fruit tree planting initiative.
The renovation of the Generations of Hope Community Garden is the latest project of the Partnership for Greening Blue Hill Avenue, an ongoing collaboration between Nuestra and YouthBuild Boston that seeks to promote sustainability and generate "green jobs" throughout Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. Over the coming weeks, YouthBuild Boston landscaping students will finish installing the garden's new layout and equipment. YouthBuild Boston students and staff will also work with community members to maintain the space in the following years, and will offer free workshops on a variety of gardening topics.
The Generations of Hope Community Garden is located at 87-89 Nightingale Street in Dorchester. Stop by and see what's blooming!
