Reflections on Wangari Gardens

Part of this summer's program involves taking the youth to other urban agriculture sites in the area, including Wangari Gardens, a community garden located a few blocks from Common Good City Farm. On their visit to Wangari earlier this week, the crew workers were asked to write about what they found most beautiful about Wangari Gardens. Here are some of their responses: "The most beautiful part of Wangari Gardens is the sunflower. Why? Because the sunflower, in my opinion, defines beauty. At first, a sunflower is a seed, which eventually grows into something big and bright and beautiful, just like a woman." -Brittany Owens "To me, the most beautiful part of Wangari is the people working at Wangari. I believe the people working at Wangari is the most beautiful thing because the people are the ones who grow all the wonderful and delicious food that the outside people love so much, and the workers also grow all of the nice flowers at the garden. The people are also the most beautiful part of the garden because they are not only helping the outsiders but they are also helping the animals that love to come to the garden. " -Alexander Morst "The most beautiful thing about Wangari is the fact that the hills act as an incline or dip into the garden, almost as if Wangari was a bowl being fed to the entire community. Even the spiraling grasses are a sign that the garden will replenish each year and be a never-ending feast for the community." -Endré Osborne "The most beautiful place for me at Wangari Garden would be a zig-zag shaped bed. It is filled with delightful vegetables of the brightest shades, from purple collards to the brightest red cherry tomatoes. It is filled with a diversity of different types of veggies that work and live together, knowing they are all just one seed trying to grow. Much like humans, they compete for space and soil so that their offspring will grow biggest and strongest. There is much to learn from these rainbow colored majesties, much indeed." -Eliamani Ismail