near & far IN OUR BACK YARD / EXPLORING MICHIGAN
Jake Steffee and Gordon Griffin enjoy coffee and conversation at Common Ground Coffee Shop at 1319 E. Fulton St. At left, canines run around Hillcrest Dog Park on Lyon Street. Below, Tammy Van Sweden serves soup at Schnitz Deli, 1315 E. Fulton St.
Neighborhood residents receive first priority for available plots, but it is open to residents from across the city and usually has a waiting list. The Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association owns the nearly 5-acre property, which has more than 120 plots rented to gardeners. The site also features a variety of perennials, fruit trees, all sorts of berries, grape vines, herbs and composting areas. T he gardeners came together to erect a peace pole a few years ago and, with the help of a grant, added a pollinator garden with Michigan native plants to attract butterflies and bees, Jansma said. “I’m especially partial to the garden — that’s become my hobby,” she said. “It’s just a nice community thing to do. It’s a huge, diverse set of people. A lot of older people are in their 80s and have been gardening for 50 years. Now we have a lot of younger families, college professors. It’s kind of a progressive neighborhood; people are interested in what they’re
eating and not putting chemicals in their food.”
Last summer, gardeners donated more than 100 pounds of produce to God’s Kitchen and local food pantries, Jansma said. T hey also come together every year for a spring cleanup and seed swap. The all-volunteer Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association formed in the late 1980s and incorporated as a nonprofit to buy the community garden property and protect the land from possible development, Jansma said. T he neighborhood association is currently fundraising to erect a permanent sign at the gardens, said Bob Allen, association president. The association also organizes a dumpster day, neighborhood garage sale, annual community picnic, block captain program and puts out a newsletter three times a year, he said. Residents like Mary Ellen McNaughton consider Hillcrest Community Garden the crown jewel of the neighborhood. She lives on Arthur Avenue and has had a plot at the garden since shortly after moving there in 1979.
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