Emerald Gardens Morningside Boasts Bumper Crop
Emerald Gardens Morningside has blossomed and grown since this time last year, thanks to people who know what it takes to create a community garden, and have the will to make it happen. One of those people is Gary Gray, who has pulled together a strong team of volunteers over the past several years and spends much of his free time working in the garden. He calls himself the “Chief Laborer of Love (LOL).”
The hoop house, which was constructed last year opposite the perennial garden, is currently home to weeds and not much else, but give it a little time. Gary says that the hoop house can hold enough warmth from the sun that he anticipates being able to eventually grow vegetables there all winter. But first he needs a water source, which he hopes to get in time for planting next spring. “I’ve talked with a neighbor who abuts the garden, and I’m considering building a water catchment system,” he says.
In the meantime, Emerald Gardens has a bumper crop of native perennials, tomatoes, broccoli, collards, curly kale, lettuce mix, beets, celery, cabbage, dino kale, bok choy, snap peas, Swiss chard, cilantro, basil, and dill. They’re distributed to volunteers, some local seniors, and whoever comes along to pick them.
Gary is the first one to say that a garden like this isn’t a one-person operation. In the fall of 2022, Morningside Community Organization (MCO) Board member Nic Hall designed a campaign that helped raise $3,000 to defray about half the cost of the hoop house. The hoop house was built by Mr. Kido Pielack and his Keep Growing Detroit team, Reggie Smith, Founder & CEO of Bridge Waters CDC, and MCO President Eric Dueweke.
This June, Branden Recker of Habitat for Humanity Detroit led about fifty volunteers from Rocket Group, who installed the water catchment system, built a fence, a workbench, composting bin, raised beds, and thoroughly cleaned up the garden.
Megan Summers, Jefferson Branch librarian, resident Dorothy Johnson, and Sharon Gray, Director of Funds Development for Emerald Gardens, planted the vegetable garden. “Without the help of these people,” says Gary, “the vegetable garden would not have happened this year, and the flower garden would have been out of control.”
