The Queen's Greens
Community Gardening in the Piedmont Foodshed
Community Gardens
When people think of Charlotte, North Carolina, perhaps they imagine the skyscrapers, light rail system, and continuous urban growth of the city. What they probably do not think of are the little pockets of urban gardens located throughout Mecklenburg County. In what was once prime farmland in North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, specifically the city of Charlotte, lost much of its green space to urban growth and industrial development. However, gardening has come back into the urban landscape in the city through community gardens, patio gardens, farmers markets, and through food distributors. A community garden is traditionally defined as a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people. Community gardens utilize either individual or shared plots on private or public land while producing fruit, vegetables, and/or plants grown for their attractive appearance. Here in Charlotte foodshed, you’ll find a wide variety of community gardens ranging from student led, faith based, individually owned, and organization driven. Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation official recognize 19 community gardens throughout the county, although there are many more gardens hosted by churches, schools, and individual organizations. Through selected interviews audio clips, I have created a "Garden to Shelf" timeline of how produce is grown in community gardens in Charlotte, to its eventual distribution back into the community either as fresh produce or cooked food. These interviews provide the context of how food is grown, harvested, and distributed in the urban Charlotte community, while also providing personal stories about the joy that community gardening brings to both individuals and community members.
Community Gardens in the Piedmont Foodshed
The North Carolina Piedmont is the area located between the Coastal Plains and Mountain region. The Piedmont Foodshed extends from Union/Anson county, located in the southern region of the state, to Rockingham/Stokes county, located on the northern border of the state.
What is a Community Garden?
A community garden is traditionally defined as a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people. Community gardens utilize either individual or shared plots on private or public land while producing fruit, vegetables, and/or plants grown for their attractive appearance.
Interviews with Community Gardeners and Food Distributors
This website highlights interviews with community gardeners in Mecklenburg County, including Rebecca Byrd, Cindy McKenzie and Robert Suydam, and Ed Williams. It also highlights interviews with food distributors, including Lucy Bush Carter and Kim Buch. This site is designed to show you the "garden to shelf" life cycle of produce grown in community gardens.
The Queen's Garden Oral History Project
This website page stems from the larger project conducted by the History Department graduate class, "Oral History and Memory."
The primary goals of the larger class project, “The Queen’s Garden Oral History Project” includes: seeks to collect the stories of those who grow, cultivate, produce, and distribute fresh food in the greater Charlotte region. Our approach is two-fold. First, we will explore both the rewards and challenges of those who currently and historically have participated in and helped to create the region’s foodshed. By capturing and documenting the oral histories of farmers, gardeners, gleaners, and other organizations, we hope to portray the sometimes unexpected and creative ways that local food production and distribution has occurred and changed over time. Second and relatedly, we intend to explore how participants sustain themselves and their operations in the face of changing economic, political, and environmental challenges, and seek their vision for how all of Charlotte’s populations can meet their food-needs in the future.
Objectives: The long-term objectives of this project include archiving, transcribing, and disseminating these interviews to a local and wider audience. We intend to do this on a university-based website that will be accessible relatively soon after the completion of the project. In the long run, all interviews will be archived in the Goldmine Repository in Special Collections at the J. Murrey Atkins Library. This will ensure the preservation, contextualization, and continued availability of these resources to future scholars.
 |  |  |
|---|