Good old SPUG has found a new home. The South Park Urban Garden is transitioning from Burns-Nathan to Burns-Jackson Park, by Emerson Academy. Start looking through those seed catalogs!
Here’s a quick overview of the future garden plans!
This spring, Community Garden team leaders Zac Reed and Luke Wuertemberger jumped into working with the City of Dayton and Historic South Park, Inc. to find a new location for South Park Urban Garden (SPUG). The City plans to sell our old location for new housing developments in the near future, so it was time for us to move.
We are happy to report we have successfully secured a site in Jackson-Burns Park just down the street from our current spot (the big City park near Emerson Academy) and work has already begun.
We’re planning to do as much as we can this year, so the new garden is ready for the 2023 planting season.
Volunteer Jackie Van Tilburg applied for a City of Dayton Mini-grant to fund the new garden, and we were awarded approximately $3,000 in funds. HSPI will outlay the funds, we’ll do the work, and the City will reimburse HSPI for us.
The monies will fund building materials for our raised beds, dirt to fill them, some picnic tables, and a tool shed.
The City is game to put in a new spigot in like the one we have at our current site. We’re working with the water department to get that started this fall if all goes according to plan.
There are still many volunteer opportunities, like constructing the raised beds! It builds character! Zac Reed has already built quite a few, so obviously he’s going to have the most character! Is it a competition? MAYBE!
Plus, your volunteer time goes towards our required matching portion of the Mini-Grant. Every hour you work, the City credits us with $28. That’s why we’re going to be careful recording your volunteer hours moving forward. So you see, your contributed time will help us out on multiple levels.
We send regular emails, so let us know if you’d like to sign up or have any questions.
Questions? Email South Park Urban Garden or like our Facebook page.
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