Seven community gardening projects in the greater Ypsilanti area have received mini-grants to support their efforts through Ypsilanti nonprofit Growing Hope's new Sprout Grant program. 

Growing Hope Program Director Dayna Popkey oversaw the grant program, including creating a very simple application, meant to overcome any barriers to application for representatives of small, grassroots projects. She says a couple of applicants didn't fit the qualifications or submitted proposals for the same project (grants were for gardens as a whole, not individuals), but otherwise, all applicants got some funding, ranging from $200 to $600.

"Maybe we didn't give everyone their full request, but we were actually able to give some funding to every garden that applied," Popkey says. 

Grants were targeted at community garden projects that serve under-resourced populations or areas around Washtenaw County. The grantees were: 
 

• Frog Island Community Garden, for installing a path to assist with ADA accessibility;
• Parkridge Community Garden, for the purchase of a tiller;
• M.E.S.S. House Community Garden, for the purchase of tools, construction of raised beds, and installation of fruit trees in the effort to build a community farm; 
• Chidester Place Community Garden, for fencing to keep out deer and other wildlife;
• Normal Park Community Garden, for measures to keep grass and weeds out of garden paths;
• Alley Garden, for repurposing recycling bins into raised garden beds along a path throughout Ypsilanti's Southside; and
• Cross Street Village Gardeners, for starting a small herb and vegetable garden with a fence and tools.

Popkey says that Growing Hope serves as the fiduciary for a few community gardens, but Normal Park was the only one of those that received a Sprout Grant. 

"We have been working with community gardens a long time, and there were still some community gardens on the list we had never heard of before," Popkey says.

Alley Garden project pivots

When Jasper Gary-Bey applied for his Sprout Grant for the Alley Garden, he had a vision to repurpose discontinued red recycling containers to nurture a garden along an overgrown alleyway behind some houses along Jefferson Street on Ypsi's Southside. 

But the project had several strikes against it. Gary-Bey couldn't get every adjoining neighbor to join in on controlling invasive wild grape vines and other weeds in the alley, and a test showed the soil was no good for growing a garden. It had been poisoned with a two-foot-thick layer of toxic electronics and other items that had been dumped in the area for years. And the final straw was that the bins themselves didn't hold up well to multiple Michigan seasons, so they became very brittle after a few years.

Gary-Bey has pivoted to pursue less of a concrete alleyway and more of a conceptual path of raised and container gardens through Ypsilanti's Southside, which has limited grocery options. He imagines it connecting the Cooperative Orchard of Ypsilanti (COrY), dozens of residential front yard gardens, and the garden at Parkridge Community Center. 
Doug CoombeJasper Gary-Bey.
"I know not all the neighbors will participate, but if we can put one of these raised beds in front of, let's say, every other neighbor's house and connect the community gardens, we would create a path," he says. "Somebody could just walk down the sidewalk and get some corn, some peppers, some herbs."

He plans to use a Native American custom of planting the "three sisters" – corn, beans, and squash – in the same containers, but to also make herbs, tomatoes, and other items freely available in the neighborhood, including fruit from the trees at COrY.

The 2024 growing season is ending now, but due to grant requirements, Gary-Bey has to use the money this year. He plans to buy stakes, ground cover, and supplies for raised beds, then store them over the winter to start the project in spring of 2025.

Cross Street Village gardeners create a memorial to past residents

Gwendolyn Copeland says she and other residents at Cross Street Village, an apartment complex in Ypsilanti for folks aged 55 and over, have been wanting to "beautify our orphaned strip" for some time. The apartment management has made an effort to beautify the complex's central courtyard and fix some broken concrete, but there was a section along one wall that had been untended and overtaken by weeds.

Copeland applied for a Sprout Grant on a whim, thinking she probably wouldn't get it. But the $200 her project was awarded will allow her and other gardeners at the senior apartment to grow vegetables and herbs, perennial bulb plants, and a fruit tree. 

Cross Street Village residents Ken Fulton and Regina Sims came on board shortly after Copeland won the grant, and they've been recruiting other residents to take responsibility for various zones in the garden. 
Doug CoombeGwendolyn Copeland at Cross Street Village.
"If they want to grow herbs, they would select plot number two," Sims says. "If they want to grow tomatoes, they'll be in plot number one." 

Fulton says Growing Hope staff have already met with the gardeners to consult with them on how to ready the beds for next spring. While they've provided expertise, the Sprout Grant specifies that Growing Hope cannot provide volunteer labor. So the Cross Street Village gardeners are hoping to recruit some sororities, fraternities, or other youth organizations to help with some of the heavy lifting.

The grantees will also create a memorial wall to the gardeners who came before them and established many of the plants still growing in the community's courtyard today. Sims is the project member with artistic flair, so she's been asked to come up with an attractive arrangement for the wall.
Doug CoombeRoger Smith working on the gardens at Cross Street Village.
"There were people that were previous gardeners, and guess what happened? They've moved on or have passed away," Copeland says. "So we can memorialize the people from the past by putting a date and their name on a tile."

Popkey says Growing Hope is evaluating the first year of the Sprout Grant program and deciding how best to continue supporting local community gardens in the future. For instance, Growing Hope's urban farm has "giant piles of compost and mulch that people can come and take, and it's open to the community," Popkey says.

"But we're trying to think creatively going forward, how to give more consistent support to senior living communities. They might have mobility issues, and it's not that easy to come load a truck full of mulch," Popkey says. "We're planning for next year, thinking about ways to give more hands-on, ongoing support."

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

All photos by Doug Coombe.