If Every Community Had a Garden We Could Feed the World

When Alan Day passed away, he left some land to his twin daughters, Ruby and Emma Day Branch, with the thought that the site would make a good community garden. The girls decided to take on that project with the help of their mother, Katey. They really deserve a lot of credit for taking this project to heart. Anyone who has tried to plant a family garden knows how much work is involved. Their community has directly benefitted and they have gained the pride that comes from conceiving a dream and seeing it through to the end. It's a wonderful example to us all.

Emma created this video about the creation of the community garden:

Alan Day Community Garden Video

The Alan Day Community Garden is now a thriving community effort in Norway, Maine. They began with a bequest of land, generous hearts, enthusiasm, seeds, shovels and hard work. Their model could be duplicated anywhere in the world. One of the neatest things they've implemented under the guidance of Garden Coordinator, Rocky Crockett, is a rain catchment system. It involves rain barrels that catch rain and then irrigate using gravity rather than electricity. Pretty nifty!

This is their mission statement:

The Mission of the Alan Day Community Garden is to cooperatively create an educational demonstration garden using organic, sustainable methods to support an enduring community food system.

Their website is already hopping with plans for planting in 2012. Their next event is on March 11, 2012: Community Meeting and Bulk Seed Order! If the worms had any hands to clap, they'd be clapping!

Alan Day Garden Community Meeting

Check out the entire website: Alan Day Community Garden Website

If you have questions you can email them at: AlanDayCommunityGarden@gmail.com