Top Five Community Gardens in Toledo

Toledo Local Features  |  By Michael Pierce  |  08/30/2015

The benefits of community gardening are enormous. No matter how big or small, when properly managed, they serve to combat hunger in impoverished areas, educate area residents of all ages about the value of nutrition and sustainable living, reduce neighborhood blight, and among other things, they build a deeper connection between members of the community. 

Despite having rough weather patterns this year, many of the gardens in Toledo managed to have a decent growing season - thanks to the hard work and dedication of the individuals involved.

A big reason for the success with many of these gardens is also thanks to Toledo GROWs - a nonprofit group that provides valuable resources and information to those interested in starting a community garden space. Toledo GROWs has helped implement over 150 gardens in the Toledo area over the past several years, and the potential for more projects is limited only by the amount of people interested in taking up the task. The best advice is to “Start small. Really, the best time to start planning for a garden for 2016 is now. Sit down and do all of the preliminary stuff now so that you’ll be ready by May”, says Alison Wood-Osmun - project coordinator for Toledo GROWs.

The five gardens highlighted in this article each have a unique story to tell, and are just a small portion of what’s out there.

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• Magyar Gardin

On York Street, in the Birmingham neighborhood of East Toledo, sits one of the longest standing community gardens in the city. Magyar is the Hungarian word for ‘hungry’; at the turn of the 19th century, many immigrants came from villages in Slovakia, Hungary, and Italy to work in the shipyard and the steel mill. Because the houses in this neighborhood were built really close together, many residents began to organize garden plots along York Street. As the decades past, much of the garden space began to erode. In 2007, a revitalization effort began thanks to former state representative Peter Ujvagi. 

“We went up there and found that two or three families still had gardens out there. Their parents and grandparents had done it, so the tradition was being maintained. Now we’ve got about 30 plots. We’ve got folks from the neighborhood and folks from other parts of East Toledo who now garden out there. It is more than a 100 year old tradition that is being maintained”, explains Ujvagi.

The produce goes to the families that are gardening and some of it gets shared with the neighbors. “In years where we’re very successful, we take some of the produce to the Seaway Food Bank”, says Ujvagi. Over the past seven years “We’ve made a bunch of improvements. We’ve put tiles into parts of the garden. We have a rain garden and a fenced area for honey bee’s. Right now there are four hives, and we’re also starting a little orchard.”

• Sofia Quintero

A number of revitalization efforts have taken place over the past decade in the Old South End. On Broadway Street, at the corner of Broadway and Crittenden, sits a colorful garden that is managed by Joe Balderas of the Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center. Founded in 1996, the Sofia Quintero is a nonprofit that supports the artistic and cultural expressions of the Latino community in Toledo.   

Balderas tells us that “The garden took off in 2003, when we started to improve the property. At that time we still didn’t own it. We decided to make a garden for the community, so we grow your basic tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, sweet corn, peppers, and cherries. We also have a rain garden, an apple tree, and a bee hive pen.”

The Sofia Quintero is also partnered with the Face Forward Program. This allows youths in the neighborhood have an opportunity to learn valuable life skills. “We’re also in the process of building a commercial kitchen with an area for a classroom to teach people how to eat and cook healthy and what produce to grow”, says Balderas. “We’re the only organization that has an open community garden policy, which means that anyone can come into the garden and pick what they want.” Excess produce is given to the organization to pass out to churches and senior centers. He explains that “We would rather give it away then just let it rot on the ground.”

• Collingwood Garden

Near the corner of Delaware and Collingwood, at the outer edge of the Old West End, sits a once-vacant plot that was converted into a community garden space by local activist Nic Botek and several friends. The Collingwood Garden, as it has been dubbed, is a prime example of how overgrown and unused lots that are scantily maintained, at the expense of the taxpayer, can be converted into a space that serves the community.    

Every week in the summer, there is some type of event taking place here; from gardening classes to yoga, musical performances, bon fires, and potlucks - the neighborhood is a much brighter place thanks to the Collingwood Garden.

“This is our third growing season, and this year we’ve had so much rain that we didn’t have to water at all. When we started, the soil was solid clay, so it will take a few more years to get the soil really established”, says Botek.

He further explains that “Interest in the garden has been growing pretty steadily - every week there is someone new stopping by that has never heard about it. This year we had a mural painted on the wall behind the garden, and we wanted a place to cook while we’re out there, so we also finished an outdoor grill this year as well.”

• Mano’s Garden

On Jackson Street, located directly behind Manhattan’s Restaurant, sits Manos Garden. The property is owned by Manos Paschalis, who also owns Manos Greek Restaurant on Adams Street - hence the name. 

A combination of beds that belong to individuals and ones that are open to the public, this garden has developed over the past five years and is maintained by Toledo GROWs garden coordinator Alison Wood-Osmun. “It was cleared in 2010, but we didn’t start developing it until 2011. My husband and I adopted it and added most of the amenities that are there now. We did raised beds because the ground is so lopsided, and some of the gardeners are older and it’s easier for them to care for a bed when it’s up off the ground a little bit”, she explains.

A few of the beds are specifically for Manos Restaurant, but according to Alison, “We have five beds that are public and on the perimeter we have five visitor beds. This year we added a tomato field for visitors. We also have a communal corn field and a communal herb cutting garden, which several of the little businesses on Adams clip herbs for their restaurants. All in all there are 30 garden beds.”

• Zepf Center

New this year is the Zepf Center garden. This one can be found behind the Woodruff Avenue location. The program supporting the garden is called ZONE, which is an acronym for “Zepf Centers Organic gardening and Nutrition Education program”. 

Spearheaded by Malcolm Cunningham, a social worker with the Zepf Center, this program is “an experiential learning program where participants (teenagers that receive services through Zepf) learn and develop skills related to gardening, nutrition, food preparation and storage”, he explains.  

The program has been in place for the last three years, but, as Malcolm explains, this year is “the first year that we're gardening at our own site. For the previous two seasons we gardened at Glenwood community garden in two raised beds. This year we have much more space. The produce we grow this year will go home with the program participants.” Every year the Zepf Center hosts a handful of family dinners. “We partner with chefs Drew and Tracy Ruiz, Toledo GROWs, and Urban Environmental Institute. Participants and their families, staff, and the chefs prepare and share dinner together - incorporating produce grown in the garden”, says Cunningham.  

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For those interested in getting involved with a community gardening project, contact Toledo GROWs.