We meet again.

While the goal of this class is to raise money to help sustain the Filbert Street Garden, the social mission is to provide a collaborative gathering between people to remember the past, connect with the present, and preserve for the future so that growth is possible.

While this class is meant to focus mainly on the areas of Brooklyn and Curtis Bay, I have found in my previous research that the neighboring community of Fairfield has mirrored the growth and break down of Baybrook. I wish to further my research within the community of Fairfield and see what I can learn about the use of gardens. This would continue into attempting to gain an understanding on whether or not the use of local and community gardens, as well as the amount and location of grocery/dry good stores, helped Fairfield. Understandings like these might give us incite on why the Baybrook communities need community gardens and how it can be used to not only grow flood, but also help grow the community. Chris Landers' piece about the Baptist church and the community that flocked there every Sunday even though no one lived in the area anymore shows that people want somewhere to go and to be together. While a church and a garden are two very different things they both bring people varying benefits. We want this garden to be loved and invested in by the community's residents. So much so that even if they leave the neighborhood they still feel a connection that will either bring them back to the garden or entice them to continue the tradition elsewhere.

In order for this event to succeed we need to take a page from Delores Hayden's book on place memory. We need to create the opportunity for events to happen that will forever stick in a persons mind. Whether they are 6 or 56 we want them to say "Remember that fantastic day at the garden? We should make that a weekly thing." Simply by introducing an idea and giving it back to the public the concept of the garden can stick and years from now people will be taking their kids and their grandkids to the garden with the hopes that they too will fall in love with the place.


Children learn best with use of reward, and what is more rewarding knowing that you are able to enjoy something you created all on your own? Teaching kids to garden is not only convenient, since the garden is right next to the school, but it will also teach them how to garden and eat fresh. (The only reason I was willing to try green beans when I was little is because I helped grow them in our families garden and now they are one of my favorite veggies.)

I know I am jumping ahead a bit but thinking forward to the event I wish thinking about the possibility of having people (not only kids) plant seeds to take home and start their own gardens. May be a possible income option?
Also a garden and park clean up would be nice again this year.

Chris Landers, "The Church at the End of the Road: First Baptist Church Of Fairfield Ponders Giving  Up The Ghost, But Not The Spirit,” City Paper, February 14, 2007 

Delores Hayden, “Place Memory and Urban Preservation,” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as Public History (Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1997) 44-78.