In the spring of 2019, Phoenix Community Development Services (Phoenix CDS) and its community partners established a community garden on a vacant lot in Peoria’s North Valley. Throughout the growing season, neighborhood children and their parents enjoyed weekly educational sessions in the Sow to Grow Community Garden where they learned how to grow, care for, and harvest fresh vegetables and also learned to cook and prepare what they grew. Educational sessions were led by University of Illinois Master Gardeners and Junior League of Peoria volunteers. In addition to increasing access to healthy, fresh food for families living in the heart of one of our city’s food deserts, the garden is a beautiful, positive space in the neighborhood.
This project seeks to substantially expand the existing garden onto two adjacent vacant lots at the corner of Wayne Street and NE Perry Avenue. The expansion will provide increased production and better access to healthy food, a greater variety of produce cultivated, and create a welcoming gathering space for the neighborhood to enjoy. The expansion includes the addition of a greenhouse to extend the growing season, benches and tables to create an outdoor classroom, solar lighting for safety, a large butterfly garden as a central focal point, a stone pathway that meanders through the space to encourage exploration, new fruit trees and fruit bushes, and additional raised beds for vegetables and herbs.
