Compton Saves its Community Garden.
Can Their Strategies Benefit Your Personal Garden, Your Child’s School or Even a Passion Project You Might Undertake to Help a Neighboring Food Desert Community?
Soil regeneration offers many benefits, from healthy, local food and carbon sequestration, to pollinator habitats, water retention and temperature moderation. Projects like 4p1000.org and KisstheGround.com promote regenerative agriculture on a national and global scale, while GreenOurPlanet.org, FindHorn.org, RonFinley.com, Damers First School in Poundbury, England (and so many more) organizations plant and grow locally.
Food deserts can be some of the most challenging, even though there are plenty of vacant lots. It takes passion, commitment, wisdom, community, partnerships and resilience. For instance, Dr. Sherridan Ross retired as a surgeon, and returned to his hometown of Compton to bring greater health (and less obesity and malnutrition) to his own community. He brought together the owner of a vacant lot, a church community, gang members (who created uplifting “tags” on their garden beds), the local firemen (the garden’s first customers), musicians and a Cordon Bleu chef to create a sanctuary where kids could learn to love their vegetables… and grow them, too. As a master gardener, Dr. Ross also offers free gardening classes.
Last month, without warning, the owner of the lot put it up for sale. Dr. Ross and his team had to move fast to save their garden. And…
They did it.
I interviewed Dr. Ross today to discover just how they saved the garden. Was it a public/private partnership? Can others use their roadmap to create gardens in their own community? We also discussed the importance of their “gleaning” beds in bringing healthy produce to those who need it most.
Dr. Ross is a wealth of wisdom. The information in our interview can help you with your own garden, to set up a school garden or to improve the health of your own community. Go to youtube.com/@EarthGratitude to watch it back.
Check out Cordon Bleu chef Temu of the Compton Community Garden discussing the importance of gratitude at the link directly below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq0bpymQ5vg
You can check out other regenerative agriculture and garden projects that were featured in our 2023 Earth Gratitude online global celebration at the link below.
