Garden Tour Builds Community in the City
Linda Goertz
City planners pouring over maps, zoning laws, meetings with politicians jawing-are these really the things that create a community? Or is it possible that simply digging in the dirt-dreaming, sowing, tending and sharing with other gardeners-could spark a neighborhood's spirit of connection?
This past year in mid-southeast Portland, residents of the Foster-Powell neighborhood added zing to their summer with a first-ever neighborhood garden tour, and it was by all accounts a rollicking success. Many visitors came by bike or on foot, others by car. While most were southeast Portland neighbors, at least on family haled from Vancouver, Washington.
One garden host, who counted over 40 visitors, enthused, "I loved one of the visitor's comments that she had been to garden tours in the fancier neighborhoods, where lots are sometimes an acre of luxurious landscaping...but she liked this one because the houses/gardens were more humble and she could get ideas she could really use in her own yard!"
City planners pouring over maps, zoning laws, meetings with politicians jawing-are these really the things that create a community? Or is it possible that simply digging in the dirt-dreaming, sowing, tending and sharing with other gardeners-could spark a neighborhood's spirit of connection?
This past year in mid-southeast Portland, residents of the Foster-Powell neighborhood added zing to their summer with a first-ever neighborhood garden tour, and it was by all accounts a rollicking success. Many visitors came by bike or on foot, others by car. While most were southeast Portland neighbors, at least on family haled from Vancouver, Washington.
One garden host, who counted over 40 visitors, enthused, "I loved one of the visitor's comments that she had been to garden tours in the fancier neighborhoods, where lots are sometimes an acre of luxurious landscaping...but she liked this one because the houses/gardens were more humble and she could get ideas she could really use in her own yard!"
