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Syracuse’s community gardens have provided Aggie Lane with an escape from the isolation she feels during the coronavirus pandemic.

For Lane, who has worked for the community garden at 341 Midland Ave. for 22 years, gardening has long served as an outlet from her busy schedule as a community activist. But when the coronavirus pandemic put many of her plans on hold, she turned to the garden for a sense of support.

“It was appreciated to get out of the house and destress with nature and just be together after so much isolation,” said Lane, who is the principal organizer of the Midland Avenue garden.

Organizers and community leaders who oversee Syracuse’s community gardens said they have seen more city residents visit and connect with the gardens during the pandemic. As a result, the gardens have helped strengthen neighborhood relationships and provided healthy produce to those in need.

Syracuse Grows, a food justice program that oversees and provides resources to almost 20 community gardens in the Syracuse area, has helped gardeners continue to grow produce, said Sarah Brown, chair of the Syracuse Grows advisory board. While gardeners can grow and share food among themselves, some gardens function as donation gardens devoted to providing food for the surrounding neighborhoods.

Despite the challenges the pandemic has posed, Brown said many of the gardens have remained open.

“(Gardeners) have implemented some safety guidelines, such as spacing at the garden or wearing masks,” Brown said. “But they have still been coming together. They’ve still been growing their own food. They’ve been gardening communally and sharing that food.”

Syracuse Grows was unable to host its annual resource drive in April, during which members organize deliveries of compost, manure and wood chips to each of the gardens in the network. Instead, the organization partnered with another garden to collect seedlings for gardeners who would need them at the start of the growing season, she said.

Many of the gardens in the Syracuse Grows network are located in neighborhoods considered food deserts, Brown said. Residents in these areas don’t have grocery stores nearby and may have greater difficulty accessing healthy food, she said.

For residents in food deserts, community gardens can offer inexpensive access to high-quality produce.

“If you can save $20 on your food costs, that can be significant for some families who are in a lower income bracket,” said Frank Cetera, who operates the Edible Forest Snack Garden on South Salina Street.

Cetera saw increased interest in community gardening after the pandemic began. Many people, such as Lane, were simply looking for an outlet and a reason to leave the house.

The Salina Street garden, which allows any Syracuse resident to pick food from the plants growing there, is open 24/7, Cetera said.

“Good food, organically-grown food, is not cheap,” Cetera said. “You can spend a couple dollars just on a small container of raspberries, but we have many berries available for picking at our gardens so every little bit helps.”

Cetera is also the president of the Alchemistry Nursery Project, which promotes urban agriculture in Syracuse. Through conferencing sessions, he and other members of the project have offered advice on gardening and answered questions about how people can start gardens at home, he said.

“Some people who are more susceptible to coronavirus may not want to come into a garden space even if it is outdoors because there are a lot of people in that space,” Cetera said. “So we help them in their own homes by sending (raised beds) out and giving them seeds and so forth.”

Overall, gardening has provided a much needed sense of normalcy and social interaction to residents during the pandemic, Brown said.

Lane said she has appreciated the ability to connect with people during the pandemic who she wouldn’t necessarily have befriended otherwise. The garden has provided her with a valuable support system during an uncertain time.

“We were able to support each other and there was always checking in with each other,” Lane said. “During the pandemic with so much isolation I think, above all, (the garden) created connections.”

Published on September 16, 2020 at 11:12 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss