Our Mission
Patterson Park Community Garden aspires to be part of the solution to end hunger. To that end we built a Giving Garden on plot C7.
There is hunger in our neighborhood though it is well hidden. Most of the children who attend our local school, for example, qualify to receive free or reduced cost lunches. In our county about 18% of people live in food insecure homes. Yet, In Austin we have a year round growing season, plenty of land and many gardeners happy to share resources and expertise. It is unconscionable that anyone in our zip code should suffer from hunger. We know we won’t the solve the problem by ourselves but we can certainly do something rather than nothing.
Step one was to build the plot. We used a method that required no money at all to demonstrate that successful gardening does not require a lot of money. Members gathered cast off cardboard, fallen leaves and coffee grounds and then we hosted a construction ‘party’ on March 24, 2018 attended not only by garden members but good-hearted people from the community at large.
Our Methods
With a little water and time those materials broke down to create a rich friable soil ideal for growing vegetables. Since then we have been regularly planting the site with donated plants and seeds from our members and from the Sustainable Food Center. Anyone visiting the garden is welcome to use the plot to learn about gardening and to take home some locally grown organic food.
Patterson Park Community Garden 