It's Time for More Community Gardens to Spring in Kokomo, Indiana

I live in the small, mid-western American town of Kokomo, Indiana. Our town is not very well known. We were mentioned once in a Blues-Brothers movie. Forbes magazine has penned us the "third fastest dying town in the United States." Over-all, Kokomo is probably best-known for being confused with a "tropical paradise" mentioned in a the song "Kokomo," by the Beach Boys. Smaller towns allocate smaller services for their citizens. While Kokomo is small, we usually have at least 1 option for everybody's taste. We even have a decently-sized community garden.

Kokomo's community garden is located in the green-house at Ivy Tech Community College. I took a quick glace at Purdue University's college website, and it gave a great view into the history of our city's only community garden.
"In the spring of 2003, a pilot program consisting of a partnership between Ivy Tech State College Kokomo, Purdue University - Howard County Extension and Purdue Master Gardeners from Howard County Master Gardeners Association, was established to create the Community Garden Project. The initial purpose of the gardens was two-fold: to supply fresh produce in support of various organizations in the community who feed the hungry and serve as live laboratories for free public seminars." (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/mg/spotlights/howard_county.html)

The community garden at Ivy Tech is completely volunteer-run. In their first year. despite flood damage, volunteers managed to donate 5,000 pounds of produce to over 9 different community charities.

The seminars held in the community center have also been a great success.Topics lectured on (at no charge) include, but are not limited to, Home Composting, Basic Garden Class, Herbal Tea Gardens, Growing and Using Herbs, Rose Gardens, Water Gardens, Kitchen Gardening, 25 perennial Favorites and Winter Sowing.

It does upset me a bit that our city does not have more to offer when it comes to community gardens. I suppose it's about time I started one myself!!

Until that day, I am fine with growing my own fresh, Indiana tomatoes right here in my back yard, while occasionally taking a break to bring you the news.

For Associated Content, I'm Mike Wilson.

For more information on joining or contributing to the Ivy Tech Community Garden, please visit www.ivytech.edu.