[June 20, 2015]      

Throughout Lincoln, there are various community gardens where neighborhood residents can grow healthy vegetables so their families may enjoy fresh, locally grown food products.

The community garden projects started a few years ago, the brainchild of Lincoln Building and Safety Officer John Lebegue and Kathy Vinyard, who also works part-time in city offices for the mayor and the city administrator.

The gardens were established in vacant lots around town including this one at 417 North Madison.

Pictures by  Roy Logan

This garden is lovingly named "Hope Grows" and features small plots of vegetables, some planted in very creative ways.

 

One gardener took the phrase "raised bed" to heart, planting his/her garden inside a brightly painted bed frame complete with head and foot boards.

 

 

The large scarecrow on the property was made by the Lincoln Community High School Ag Class and features a metal body and clay pots for legs.

 

The birdhouses mounted on the white picket fence were the work of area school children who last spring decorated the houses and donated them to the garden project. Birdhouses were distributed to all the gardens in town.

 

This spring school children got creative with rain barrels. The large plastic drums were decorated in a wide variety of ways by the children. The barrels were then distributed to the gardens throughout the community as well.

 

On this particular day it was quiet around the gardens, with only urban farmer Jeremy Smith out tending his plants.