History

The Gethsemane Community Garden was created in 2009 when members of Gethsemane Episcopal church had the foresight to turn the adjoining vacant lot into a garden. In doing this they hoped to provide fresh produce to the local food shelf and to promote community involvement. Once permission and some funding was received from the land owner, the parishioners got to work and began to bring their vision to life! They cleaned up, planted, maintained and harvested a small portion of the lot and were able to grow and donate produce back to our community in need.

Then, in 2012, a group from Hennepin Community College took over the garden and expanded the growing area to include all available land. They put up fencing, a gardener’s shed and added a picnic table to the community area. During this time a combination of students and community members gardened these plots for the community. After some time though, Hennepin Community College was unable to continue with garden upkeep and Gethsemane Church stepped back in to help.

In the spring of 2016 we reached out to the Community Garden Coordinator for the University of Minnesota’s Master Gardener program for any advice that he may have had regarding the garden space. He really encouraged us to think big and to consider making the garden a true community garden by renting garden plots out to our community members. With that in mind, the garden committee chair got to work, producing a handbook, commitment form and recruiting gardeners in record time. In addition, we were able to partner with various community partners, including Ameriprise, Thrivent and St. Olaf Catholic Church who donated funds and apparel for the new garden launch.

Throughout these last few years we have truly enjoyed how much we have been able to give back to our community. We had the opportunity to host the ‘Summer in the City’ youth camp (2018 & 2019), provided gardening workshops led by Master Gardeners, have consistently grown a thriving giving garden, created a beautiful community area by building a pergola with picnic tables as a gathering spot for all, planted flower beds to brighten the urban landscape and provided garden involvement for clients of Northpoint Wellness Center and Agate MN. Most importantly we engaged gardeners who live and work in downtown Minneapolis to enjoy growing organic food for themselves and others.

Each year, the GCG has continued to grow (pun intended!) by learning more and more about safe and sustainable gardening practices, community needs and even the needs of our much welcomed pollinators! Our garden has truly become a welcome retreat for all of our community and we look forward to a continued bright, healthful and vibrant future, for many years to come!