Twenty-five years ago, the Chattanooga Area Food Bank planted their flagship food garden in the downtown Gateway community on the Westside in an effort to give the residents an opportunity to grow their own food.
Since then, a heated greenhouse has been added to the raised beds to allow the residents to start their seeds early.
Tools, soil, seeds, hoses and other necessary garden supplies are all provided to the residents free of charge, courtesy of the food bank.
To increase access to fresh produce for individuals and other member agencies serving low-income families, a new teaching garden with 23 raised beds was built in 2010 on the site of the food bank’s headquarters on Curtain Pole Road. Garden coordinator Jane Mauldin said the teaching garden has already produced nearly 3,000 pounds of food for food bank clients receiving emergency food boxes.
“The whole emphasis of this program has always been self-help. We see ourselves as a facilitator for helping people grow more food,” Mauldin said.
The Chattanooga Area Food Bank provides for some of the most basic needs for 20,000 people around the Chattanooga area, according to their website. In 2011, the agency distributed 11.9 million pounds of food to those in need throughout 20 counties in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.
As a means to continue funding these community programs, the CAFB is once again presenting their spring garden tour for the 25th year in a row.
What: Chattanooga Area Food Bank’s 25th annual spring garden tour
When: Saturday, June 2, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday June 3, 1-6 p.m.
Where: Self-guided through Chattanooga, Signal Mountain, East Brainerd and East Ridge
How much: $15, free for children under 12. Tickets are available at all gardens on the tour.
For more information: Call 423-622-1800 or click here.
On June 2 and 3, six public and private gardens will welcome visitors during the self-guided tour that includes Signal Mountain, Chattanooga, East Brainerd and East Ridge. The Evelyn Davenport Navarre Teaching and Enabling Garden at the food bank is also on the tour this year.
Dona Smith calls herself a “trial-and-error gardener,” but over the past 20 years, she has created a series of beautiful and natural landscapes surrounding her stately French-style Signal Mountain home.
Smith said she is looking forward to welcoming visitors to her home, which includes a small fruit orchard, a courtyard garden, a lavender garden, several shade gardens and a sun-loving perennial garden, each carefully but subtly accented with lichen benches, hand-carved stone birdbaths and natural boulders.
“I’m also expecting to learn from [the visitors]. Maybe they can tell me some things. I hope that it looks like the plants belong where they are, that it all looks natural,” Smith said.
A second teaching garden on the tour is the Montessori School Sensory Garden. Created in 2009, the garden has become an outdoor classroom for the facility’s 245 children.
“The sensory garden is full of things to touch, taste, smell, see and hear,” according to the program brochure, which includes illustrated driving directions to each of the six locations.
Other gardens on the tour showcase unique outdoor rooms, water features, urban small space gardens, koi ponds and terraced sanctuaries, each representing “a work of art and love.”
This year, a special commemorative garden calendar featuring local gardens will be a gift to supporters who donate $20 or more to the garden program. The 18-month calendar features color photographs of local gardens featured on the tour over the past 25 years. Gardening tips and an events schedule are also featured. The calendar will be available at locations on this year’s tour.
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