What’s on with the American Community Gardening Association?

In addition to woody ornamentals and flower gardening, I’ve been interested in garden vegetables (and eating them!) since I can remember—planting lettuce seeds and seeing the tiny chartreuse cotyledons against dark brown Ohio soils at ~age 4 ½. I grew up with gardening, but many haven't. This weekend the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) held its 31st annual conference in ATL, so I applied for a scholarship, was granted a partial one, and off I went. The conference was filled with folks dedicated to being a force for good. What’s not to like?


The program was densely packed with tours of community gardens across Atlanta and with a great variety of educational sessions. Programs ranged from childhood obesity, rainfall retention, biointensive gardening, school programs to raising chickens and goats in community gardens, and from healing gardens to how to preserve the harvest by canning. Several classes addressed the problem of losing garden land, while fundraising and grant writing were not neglected.         
             
First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the group via video message as did the Secretary of Agriculture, Ferry-Morse attended and gave away wheelbarrows of free seeds to community gardeners representing 37 states and 6 countries. There were plenty of both networking and fresh vegetables on the menu. All in all it was a great conference. Thanks to ACGA for my scholarship and thanks to the local planning committee for their hard work.
 
Author's photos of Sugar Creek & Oakhurst Community Gardens.