Good afternoon, for our show this week we had Kitty Wallace and Lena Young Green live in the studio to talk about community gardens.
Background on the guest speakers:
Before, Kitty Wallace was a President of Tampa Garden Club. She is currently the Garden Coordinator of Tampa Heights Community Garden, Co-Founder of the Coalition of Community Gardens-Tampa Bay. Lena Young Green has worked for the State of Florida for almost 20 years. Formally, Lena has also served on the Citizens Advisory Board. She also has worked with the Hillsborough Planning Commission’s (HPC) Comprehensive Planning.
How the community garden was built:
For 4 years Lena went door to door to get the Neighborhood Plan together. The neighborhood wanted a community garden on public land. Meanwhile Kitty and Lena joined forces through lots of city meetings. Eventually in a city council meeting Kitty said, “I have a shovel and seeds in my car right now… and we are ready to get going!”. In total it took Lena and Kitty in total 20 years from beginning to end to get the community garden done.
Kitty and Lena created the Coalition of Community Gardens. There will be a 5th annual conference and it will be held on August 27,2022 from 9-3 at the Tampa Heights Community Center. This conference will have outstanding guest speakers, a tour of the garden, lunch provided, and networking.
Presently these busy women have numerous other projects. They have helped set up gardens and they mentor people that want help to learn how to garden for themselves. With women like these, they bring together those that care to make a difference in this world. Y’all get out there and make a difference too!!!!!
Coalition of Community Gardens- https://coalitionofcommunitygardens.weebly.com
Plan Hillsborough- planhillsborough.org
Tampa Heights Garden-https://tampaheightsgarden.weebly.com
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