By Thea Hassan:
When PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) planned the community garden on Hampshire Street, they only had one requirement in mind: gardeners looking for a plot to sow.
Due to the garden’s location, the pamphlet developed to raise interest was distributed in English, Spanish, and Burmese.
“If we wanted to reach out to this community, we had to do it in a lot of languages,” said Josh Smith, PUSH horticulturalist.
More than half of the gardeners to apply were Burmese refugees.
The piqued interest from the refugee community made sense. The majority of the refugees coming to Buffalo from Burma and Nepal were farmers in their previous countries, according to Chelsea Wagner, of Journey’s End Refugee Services.
“They used to make their living planting, so they’re interested in this kind of stuff,” said Smiler Greeley, a Burmese member of the community garden, and cultural liaison at Journey’s End Refugee Services. Greeley was speaking at a public forum on Tuesday held by the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) addressing the potential of community gardens and urban farms to serve the refugee community.
Wagner spoke of the cultural significance of certain flowers and plants to refugees, such as the marigold in the Nepalese culture, which is used in festivals and daily rituals. She told stories of refugees who had sewn seeds into their clothing to smuggle them into America.
The community garden on Hampshire Street was established this past spring, and is the third community garden built by PUSH.
“It is by far the most successful garden,” said Sean Ryan, PUSH’s neighborhood redevelopment director. Ryan speculates the reason for success was a new approach.
After the three year acquisition process for the vacant lot, the group began to prepare the site by removing decrepit trees, abandoned tires, concrete residual, and other various debris.
“It’s an awful lot of site prep to bring it back to square one before we can do anything,” said Smith.
Smith then began to investigate the best practices in Community Gardening, including a trip to the community gardens in Ithaca, NY.
The result was the first PUSH garden to target experienced gardeners, rather than trying to teach new gardeners. There was also a fence installed, with a gated lock, at the garden members request, citing concerns of theft and trespassing.
This was also the first time a $25 rental fee was charged for each gardener. PUSH speculated these additions created a psychological sense of ownership that had not existed in their previous two community gardens.
Due to the combined success of the garden and an apparent interest expressed by much of the refugee community, many groups such as the PPG and Journey’s End are working to expand community gardens in locations with high refugee populations, particularly those of Burmese and Nepali origin.
“You can’t make your life on this, but this is fun. It’s fun and it saves money,” said Greeley (photo – center).