Greening Up East Wheeling
Community garden brightens spirits, neighborhoodBy LINDA COMINS
The seeds of "greening" East Wheeling are being sown in a new community garden that is providing residents with tangible benefits as well as a symbolic spirit of hope.
Inspired by a university student's vision and helped by an array of area volunteers, Housing Connections Inc. has established the community garden on a vacant lot on 14th Street. Wheeling residents and representatives of Laughlin Memorial Chapel and the YWCA Wheeling's Family Violence Prevention Program are tending the 12 garden plots, raising vegetables, herbs and flowers.
"We're growing seeds of happiness, peace, love, joy and hope," Wheeling resident Janice Raheem commented as she worked in her section of the garden."We also have people working with us."
Todd Gilbert, director of development for Housing Connections Inc., explained that the garden project has a two-fold purpose: to enhance the revitalization of East Wheeling and to honor the nonprofit agency's mission to promote "green" environmentally-sound development in the city neighborhood. While the organization owns 27 properties throughout Wheeling, its main focus is on "Old 14th Street," between Wood and Jacob streets, he said.
Housing Connections is committed to providing affordable housing for low- to moderate-income residents and revitalizing East Wheeling. "We're a green agency," Gilbert said. "Our houses have to be green."
The 14th Street garden is a prime example of recycling: the vacant lot has been recycled; stones have been moved from another site to mark borders and create walls; rainwater is captured to water the garden beds.
The garden is located on a lot that was cleared when Housing Connections removed a condemned building that was beyond repair, Gilbert said. "This property was not functional to build on," he explained.
Pointing to chunks of sandstone that now form borders and divide individual garden plots, he said, "All of the stone came from three doors up, from a house that we had to tear down." Reportedly, that house had been built in 1884, he said.
Gilbert related that Daniel Swann, a senior English major who resides at Wheeling Jesuit University's Mother Jones House, approached Pamela Wood, executive director of Housing Connections, with an idea for starting a community garden. She liked the idea, and work on the project began in May.
Nine Wheeling Jesuit students spent two days preparing the site; community residents joined the effort. "All of the work has been done by volunteers," Gilbert pointed out.
Belmont Aggregate donated 10 tons of topsoil for the garden and the East Wheeling Business Council provided funds to purchase other items needed for the project, Gilbert said. In June, he installed a 63-gallon barrel to collect rainwater from a downspout of an adjacent house for watering the garden.
"All of the plots have been claimed, mostly by individuals," Gilbert said, surveying the flourishing garden. Flowers have been planted in a few plots, but most of the plots are being used to grow vegetables, including collard greens, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, green beans and hot peppers.
"It's starting to look real good," Raheem remarked. "It's a community, joint effort." Wheeling resident Pamela Lee, who also is maintaining a garden plot, noted that some of the flowers are starting to attract butterflies to the garden.
Gilbert envisions other benefits to the project. "I hope it will become a place where we will be able to start a market economy," he said, with gardeners selling their produce or bartering for other goods and services. In addition, he said that when people are outside working in the garden, "not sitting in your home watching TV, you become a community."
Raheem agreed, saying, "It transplants into other things ... it becomes self-sustaining ... that's so important in the community. People want to be part of something good."
Gilbert also can see the site serving as a garden of meditation. "We want people to come in and be positive," he commented. "It's so important for people to find peace and tranquility."
Lumber is needed for other phases of the project. The gardeners want to add a workbench, a bulletin board to list community events and a Victorian-style fence and gate. Donations for the garden can be directed to Gilbert at Housing Connections, 304-230-1193. The agency's office is located at 56 13th St.
Housing Connections rehabilitates existing houses and constructs new structures where appropriate. "The ones we can save, we do save," Gilbert said. "The ones we can't save, regrettably we tear down. We try to salvage all the materials we can."
Aided by a Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation grant, Housing Connections officials want to open a re-use center where salvaged building materials - such as bricks, trim, fireplaces, and cabinetry - can be donated and resold at reduced costs, Gilbert said. "We would be creating jobs, not putting material in landfills, and providing building materials to people who might not be able to afford quality material," he explained.
Citing the value of recycling, Gilbert said, "The earth is finite. It is a limited resource. We cannot continue to act like it's not."
