This garden in Topeka's Oakland neighborhood uses plants to help grow a community

A garden in Oakland is going beyond plants to growing a true sense of community.

Going into its third growing season, the Topeka Oakland Gardens has transformed the playground area at the former Lundgren Elementary School to a flourishing arrangement of gardens where the produce grown benefits its closest residents.

Located at 1020 N.E. Forest Avenue, the garden is open from 5-7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, as well as some Saturday mornings. Volunteers or sponsors can connect by emailing oakland.gardens2021@gmail.com. Community members can also follow Topeka Oakland Gardens on Facebook.

"I think it's pretty remarkable," said Joe Schneider, a volunteer and co-chair for the nonprofit in charge of the gardens.

“Over the last three years, not only have we physically expanded the space and what we plant in it," Schneider said, "we are getting more and more interest in it, more and more people coming by, more and more people wanting to join in.”

Growing is for the greater good at Topeka Oakland Gardens

The garden grows good food for residents, along with educating them on growing practices and techniques to help with their own gardens.

Schneider said a great deal of gratitude needs to be given to Community Resource Council, which leases the space for the garden, as well as provides former classrooms indoors for further opportunities. Beyond that, the gardens are tended to entirely by volunteers.

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The Capital-Journal recently caught up with volunteers Kathy Moen, sister Sharon Ackors and their mother Micky McDaniel, or "Mayor Mickey" as she's known in the area, as they cut grass, trimmed plants and helped pick and weigh produce for those stopping by.

"We started out originally with these three bog beds," said Moen. "We call them bog beds because the water runs off and it gets real boggy here."

As Moen gave a tour of the garden, she noted the newest additions, including a native plants area and an orchard with apple, pear and cherry trees.

"We're going to be able to use these plants to make medicines, to make teas and to encourage the bees and the butterflies, the pollinators, to help support them," Moen added.

Currently, there are 23 garden beds with produce planted intermittently throughout the seasons. Each plant takes careful consideration regarding how and where it will be planted with some varieties taking that a step further.

Vining plants — such as winter squash, cantaloupe and watermelon — are planted using a traditional "plow-and-plant" technique, while a bed of potatoes grows through layers upon layers of straw, which the 88-year-old McDaniel said looks strange from how she's used to growing them.

“See, I'm originally from Minnesota, so I didn't know about this kind of potato planting," she said.

Topeka Oakland Gardens shows, 'You can grow anything'

McDaniel, who has lived in the same house on N.E. Winfield Avenue in Oakland since 1960, knows the work involved in a successful garden.

For the past 60 years, she has tended to her own gardens, even sharing a story about the night she gave birth to her second youngest daughter.

"That night I delivered, I picked a bushel of green beans out of my garden," she said.

These days, McDaniel can be seen putting in work for the community garden by helping tasks like tallying the weight of produce harvested and picking plants that don't require bending over.

Last year alone, the garden harvested more than 2,000 pounds of produce and is on track to produce even more this year.

As Schneider puts it, a key factor in the garden's success is its soil.

"If it's true Oakland soil, that hasn't been disturbed a lot, it's outstanding," he said. "You can grow anything."

Where are other community gardens in Topeka?

In Shawnee County, there are more than 30 community gardens.

A full list and map are available on the Shawnee County K-State Research and Extension website, and applications to apply to create your own community garden are on the City of Topeka's website.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka Oakland Gardens show what community gardening is all about