The Frogtown Green community garden, Our Village provides a beautiful and relaxing place of outdoor respite to gardeners
7/04/2024
About this Project
Our Village is a community garden on the west end of Frogtown, St Paul’s most diverse community. Built on a former landfill which has been completely remediated, the garden is a haven for 30+ families who live in an adjacent low-income high rise apartment. In addition to 40 raised beds for vegetable gardening, Our Village includes several native, perennial and annual flower beds, a mini-forest of 600 trees, and a small orchard of a dozen fruit trees including peaches, cherries, pears and apples. Gardeners and their families often relax and chat under wisteria-clad pergola, or while sitting at the picnic table.
The garden began when a longtime bowling alley and strip mall was demolished and the land was purchased by a company that imports furniture and home goods. The new owners wanted to benefit the community, so they contacted Frogtown Green, which was then in its early years. They offered us the use of approximately a half acre of land. We were in the process of advocating for a large nearby park with an urban farm, so we thought this would be a great way to demonstrate the benefits of urban gardens. We built raised beds and started planting trees, and the gardeners have been showing up ever since!
Some of Our Village beds are very productive, and some are not. Our goal is less to raise massive amounts of food, and more to provide a beautiful and relaxing place of outdoor respite. Life in the high rise where most of our gardeners live is stressful, with police and fire calls almost every day. We are happy when the gardeners are successful in raising some tomatoes peppers, or okra, but we are just as happy to see them sitting and enjoying the sun.
Each spring, beds are assigned to 32 gardeners, on a first-come, first-served basis. Frogtown Green provides tools, water and mulch; maintains the garden’s compost bins and tool shed; and replenishes garden soil. The gardeners are responsible for keeping their own beds weed-free, and they may take whatever produce they grow. Ramsey County Master Gardeners maintain 8 demonstration beds around the garden’s perimeter, sharing the produce and flowers from those beds with the community.
Project Insights
Along with the marked environmental improvement that the garden has made on the land (see attached photos) we believe that the garden benefits everyone who participates in it, whether as an active gardener, a passive visitor or even a passerby. The garden is located on the edge of a strip mall with a liquor store, gas station and dry cleaner nearby. It’s on a busy transitway, with commercial trucks passing by all day. And yet it feels like a little oasis.
We have found that its best if Master Gardener volunteers simply garden side-by side with the Our Village gardeners. By modeling best practices, we can overcome significant language and cultural barriers and simply enjoy one another’s’ presence in the garden.
Project Summary: Our Village
Project Lead(s): Patricia Ohmans and Chris Stevens
Many thanks to: Several Ramsey County Master Gardeners have joined us so far this year, but repeat volunteers are Joe Van Thomme, Shari Pleiss and Katie Novotny.
Collaborators: Our Village is a community garden managed by Frogtown Green, a neighborhood environmental organization.
Project Focus: This project supports the Nearby Nature priority of the Master Gardener Volunteer Program: Encourages access to plants and green spaces for health and wellbeing by working with community groups to co-create projects.
Patricia Ohmans
RCMG volunteer
Frogtown Green Projects Co-lead