Morgan's Corner: Yes, lettuce is sprouting in Ward F

April 25, 2012, 5:05 AM
By Earl Morgan/For The Jersey Journal

Elizabeth Perry fairly beams as she shows off the new but promising work she and a group of volunteers have wrought on the site of the "Unified Mothers and Mens Initiative Village Garden" that's sprouting to life on Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City.

The Village Garden joins a growing number of similar sites across the city staffed mainly by volunteers who secure a two-year lease on a vacant, city-owned lot, and then roll up their sleeves to make a million flowers or lettuce, cucumbers, whatever, bloom.

The portion of Ward F, located in the heart of the city, is its most populated and troubled, where overcrowding and crime wreak havoc on the quality of life. Yet, despite all the strum and drang, people like Perry are determined to make something grow. For them, community gardening, an activity being promoted by the city, is just the ticket.

Several community gardens are already flourishing. This newest one is just a stone's throw from the West District Precinct, and is under the initiative of Perry, an activist mostly known for her involvement in community education concerns. The space Perry chose for her garden is in a previously weed-choked lot just across the street from Kentucky Fried Chicken and Ideal Supply Plumbing.

The city has thrown up a cyclone fence around the space and mounds of wood chips and remnants of compost, provided by the city's Department of Pubic Works, are visible along with neat, almost perfectly aligned plots of fresh earth that are proof something new is going on on one of the busiest thoroughfares in Hudson County.

Perry, accompanied by her daughter Tiffany, stands in the middle of the garden surveying several square plots of freshly turned soil, surrounded by wood chips that were only delivered Sunday. One is already sprouting greenery -- lettuce seedlings, Perry said. The plot is being tended by one of the volunteer families drawn to the garden. Perry said she is grateful to Rodney Hadley, the city's DPW director, for his help and to the city for giving her the two-year lease on the lot.

Perry is also effusive about the volunteers who have already laid claim to spaces they tend in the garden and said she's encouraged by the outpouring of support she's received from merchants in the area. Perry says Peter Wells, the owner of the business whose building abuts the garden's west side, offered his wall as a mural space for artists and a single word in large scrawl, "ART."

Other merchants, knowing the gardeners need to line the bottom of their plots with cardboard or vinyl sheets, leave stacks of cardboard along the cyclone fence.

"We've had some really good response here," Perry says as she casts a 180-degree glance around her new domain.

But Liz envisions more for this garden than just planting and cultivating vegetables and flowers. To her it can also be an educational tool for inner city kids to experience the wonder of growing things, even participate in making that happen.

"I've already invited three schools in the area, Lincoln High School, School 12 and School 14 to be involved," Perry said. "And we are going to use a spot over there," she says, pointing toward an area on the lot's east side, "for spoken word artist to perform. We've got a lot of work to do."

All those interested in leasing space for gardening can call the City's Department of Public Works, Forestry and Parks, at (201)547-6584.

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