As reported by Examiner.com, Grand Rapids has some 45 community gardens sprouting up around the city, and the longest-running of those has a record number of gardeners on a waiting list this year. That trend coincides with a national greening movement taking root in urban areas across the country.
According to excerpts from the story:
It was 9:00 p.m. before Norma Jansma, the volunteer coordinator for Hillcrest Community Gardens, had a moment to sit down and talk about the gardens this week. She and a handful of others from the garden committee had just finished the tedious job of marking 100+ garden plots with stakes and string. And, did I mention, she has a full-time day job too?
Jansma, has played a key role in the year-to-year operations of the volunteer-based community garden for the past 8+ years. "It has become a lot more popular, says Jansma, "and Grand Rapids has taken an interest in organics and the environment. We have fifty people on the waiting list this year. Last year it was thirty. Three or four years ago you could have called me now and still gotten a plot."
Read the complete story
here.
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