Suburban Farm and Sunken Greenhouse Build Community

Annalisa Pedraza

Spring Creek Community Garden

Annalisa Pedraza joins us from Bozeman, Montana, where she manages the Spring Creek Community Garden.

“Right now we have 30 members and that feeds about 25 households.”

Spring Creek Community Garden was founded by Richard Weaver after he inherited 3 acres of land in the middle of a subdivision. He removed the grass to create an urban farm and a sunken greenhouse.

“We split it family style. Nobody has their own plot.”

The greenhouse is filled with fruit trees and bushes.

Unlike many community gardens, everything is shared. There are no individual plots; and members divvy up the harvest based on what they feel they have contributed.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see a video about Spring Creek Community Garden.

Growing New Gardeners

The gardeners hold a weekly potluck dinner, using garden produce. Pedraza finds that the social interaction is an important part of gardening.

While she’d love it if these get-togethers encourage people to become community-garden members, what she would really like is if they inspire people to make more community gardens.

“What we really hope is that they replicate that elsewhere.”

Annalisa’s approach to growing in based in permaculture. She has recently started her own business, Rising Crane Permaculture, to help other people grow food.

“I wasn’t inspired by the whole currant and gooseberry thing.”