They lift your spirits, prompt you to think, make you feel grateful and inspire you to do more. They connect you to our community, shining a spotlight on what's good about our city. They're stories that are Uniquely Milwaukee.
Driving past the corner of 6th and Howard, you might breeze by pollinators pollinating, sunflowers bending in the wind and tomatoes soaking up the sun. But, if you stop, you’ll find a window into the natural world and a community coming together.
This is the location of the Garden District Community Garden, a plot of land that has flowered because of the people who power it.
“We have raised beds, and we have in-ground plots,” Dawn Riegel explained. “We don't have an irrigation system, so we have four 250-gallon tanks that we have to fill, which we get a hydrant permit through the city, and that's how we fill it.”
This particular neighborhood garden is a true local hub where anyone can grow food, share gardening tips and much more.
“Our community garden is really a community,” Riegel emphasized. “All the people have befriended each other. You see a lot of people hanging out outside of the garden. They talk gardening a lot, and they hang out in the garden and give tips. We do a lot of events, too.”
They also welcome groups like the Centers for Independence (CFI), a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that supports people with disabilities and behavioral health needs through innovative, person-centered programs. One of those programs, Farm 2 Table, takes an agrarian approach to providing learning opportunities and work skills training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“It's a really nice environment for the clients because it's a little bit different than our in-house groups,” Erin Dentice, CFI manager for life services Erin Dentice explained. “They're able to showcase some skills that maybe we don't see in a traditional setting, which boosts their self-confidence and helps them to be the very best version of themselves.”
Nearly 70 clients help with weeding, watering, planting, harvesting and delivering produce. But the food isn’t just for CFI. Some of the produce is donated to local food pantries or sold at a monthly farmer’s market in the Garden District.
“The day that we come here is usually Wednesday morning, and it depends on what needs to be done,” Dentice said, standing among the garden’s hoop houses. “If it's the spring, we're working inside, oftentimes setting up seed trays or planting things that will later be transferred outside. Like we started some onions and some things like that in the spring. Right now, when it's very warm, they'll help with harvesting, picking tomatoes.”
The work that CFI’s clients put into the garden reaches even further into the greater community. Local restaurants like Braise, Semolina and Goodkind in Bay View buy the produce grown in the garden and use it in their dishes. Goodkind co-owner Katie Rose described this approach of working with local farmers and vendors as one of the best parts of her job.
“That's really important to us,” Rose said. “Also the locality, the ‘I know exactly who it came from, where it came from.’ That's extremely important. … We just know how it's grown. I know the love and the care that goes into it. We spend a lot of time and a lot of effort on the experience here at Goodkind, and part of that is sourcing the ingredients from people who feel the same way.”
It’s a feeling that seeds the idea that community literally grows from the ground up, sometimes from the very dirt your neighborhood is built on. When a space is made and created by community members who care, connect and aim to grow not only plants, but camaraderie and well-being, true magic happens that magnetizes people to stay and continue growing where they’re planted.
“Taking care of each other is extremely important,” Rose said. “Obviously, that's a huge part of hospitality, it's a huge part of the service industry, but there's more to it than that. There's so many different kinds of people, but if we just care about each other a little bit more, I think it could be a lot better out there.”
