Discussion about entry: "Still Growing" Senior Community Rooftop Garden - Competition Winner

Comments

Fri, 05/28/2010 - 09:45
Popinjays

This will be a wonderful chance for someone who has a deep love of gardening to continue to do so. Assuming that raised beds are used, someone who finds ground level work to be difficult could still get their hands in the soil. Furthermore given the high cost of fresh vegetables this would be a way to increase health eating.

For someone with a love of growing things it will be a way to stay connected with the daily progressing of life; to have a reason to get up and keep going.

I hope that this worthwhile project can be supported

Fri, 05/28/2010 - 13:20
Deanna

Hi Adam,

Thank you for reading our proposal and making such positive comments.

Yes, we are using a combination of raised beds and containers. Aside from the practical necessity required for planting on a rooftop as opposed to in the ground, the raised beds and containers allow seniors with mobility issues some flexibility (forgive the pun) in how they can participate with the gardening.

Now that construction of the raised beds is well underway and the planting has begun, our members realized that a garden this size requires a lot of bending over, even with the raised beds. So, they used some of the lumber to build sturdy "window" boxes that they have secured to the top of the half-wall parapet that encompasses the entire roof line.

I was just on the roof last night to take photographs of the progress and found that these boxes were just the perfect height for me to stand over without strain. Plus, because they are secured to the top of the parapet, they are visible from below. Now anyone walking down the street who looks up at the building will be able to see flowers and herbs growing and know we are doing something inventive up there.

Thanks again for your interest and comments!

~ Deanna

Mon, 06/14/2010 - 18:27
blyon

I was delighted to see the article in the BDN...miss you all and you certainly are still growing. Have a great summer everybody-I can just taste those tomatoes.

Wed, 06/16/2010 - 13:11
msarkar

On May 27, 2010 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers Revelation to Action: Your Place. Your Idea. Your Change. competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.

All the best, The Changemakers Team

“I was really drawn to this initiative because I’ve noticed that the elders in our community are so often forgotten and I just thought this was one of the most inspiring stories and will lead to social impact among the aging population who still have the ability to foster change.”

“This platform was extremely participatory from a community design perspective. A case study written about this initiative in action documenting the process can have a lot of scale. This idea has the potential to sustain itself through many communities. The senior population is very overlooked and this project really speaks to that.”

- Changemakers Revelation to Action: Your Place. Your Idea. Your Change. Judges

Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:42
Deanna

Hi Mohenna,

Thank you for your thoughtful and positive comments about our rooftop garden. Thank you also for acknowledging the member-driven community participation inherent in our project. I'm a grassroots community organizer at heart and making connections among people, ideas, issues and actions is very much something I am intentionally bringing to my work as a support/resource for the seniors as they take ownership figuratively and literally of this senior center.

Your suggestion that a case study written about this project could be of benefit to other communities has got me thinking about ways we can intentionally build into our project scaling up from just our rooftop to a model for other communities. I know there is much to be learned from documenting and analyzing our process and results -- we are learning so much every day even as we are in the midst of the work.

Distilling our experiences into something that other people can use to spark the conversation of converting otherwise unutilized rooftops into green growing space has implications not only for replicating this in other senior center or assisted living environments, but also for people working on food security, access to green space, local farming production and distribution, urban and downtown redevelopment, and so many other issues.

We've been talking about how we would best allocate the funding if we win this competition. I will propose this week that we consider setting aside some funding and time/labor to document our actions from the mindset of preparing a case study and evaluating our lessons learned in a manner that can be packaged as a model project.

Thank you so much for the idea!

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 17:10
Mainegal

Hi Deanna,

I think the idea is a fabulous one for all involved.

Many Seniors have had gardens most of their adult lives and now find themself at a point where they are unable to plan,purchase the seeds or plants, or are not able to physically care for a personal garden.

That does not mean they cannot do anything but just cannot do much of the actual labor by themselves.

Fresh vegetables in the summertime is part of the essence of living in the State of Maine.

A large toss salad,filled with your own produce somehow tastes so much better on a warm summer day, than some of the hothouse veggies imported from other places.

The sharing and social aspects of the program make it very appealing to many seniors who are alone, or have limited access to
events.

Great Job Deanna and all your helpers at the Hammond St. Senior Center.

Izzy Sander