Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Communitarian 'Common Ground' Community Gardens


In this slow transition to communitarianism, 'green space' is being developed into sustainable gardens, housing, and providing employment opportunities. This new trend has caused many cities and towns to change zoning rules to allow for community gardens in some unincorporated areas. Volusia County, in Florida, recently rezoned to allow for community gardens. How do we know that these garden spaces are actually communitarian? Although the naming of the gardens may be a coincidence, their similar name is very telling.

In the news article from Volusia County, the local correspondent pointed to Common Ground Farm in DeLand as an example of a successful community garden. The buzz words common ground are based on the title of Amitai Etzioni's book title, where he presents his case for communitarianism.


Let's take a look at some of the Common Ground Community Gardens across the country. Note the link provided under each of these photos. Each has started sustainability and unity as their purpose for existing.


North Richland Hills, TX, at Davis Memorial United Methodist Church 



Additional common threads running through all of these gardens is eating local and growing a greener world. The idea is to transition agriculture from predominantly unsustainable large farms into a system of community-owned sustainable collective gardens...and it's working. We can be assured that Transition Towns had something to do with this new trend.

Update 2/16/2014
A planned food forest for Seattle, WA.


"...and their shall be famines..." Matthew 24:7