Mid-City Community Garden

The Mid-City Community Garden is an organization of professionals, volunteers and supporters of the Mid-City neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Mid-City community realizes that gardening improves the quality of life of people in our community by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education. Mid-City members help organizations work to promote and support all aspects of community food and ornamental gardening, preservation and management of open space, and integrated planning and management of developing urban and rural lands. The garden is a proud member of (ACGA) American Community Gardening Association.

The City Center and Mid City Community Garden partnered to develop a strategy for the garden. The garden includes a set of raised beds, a compost area, a chicken coop, teaching and potting areas, and communal spaces for the market. The strategy is flexible, as the plot will change over time, so the focus was to develop raised beds which harvest rain water for irrigation, so that each bed functions as a unit regardless of its location. The project promotes community interaction and local food systems, creating an opportunity for local growth and development.