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HISTORY of Farm in the City

In 1996, a group of neighborhood residents, artists, educators and parents decided to start a community garden at Dunning Field, a park located in the Midway Area of St. Paul. They built sixteen raised beds and planted them as a demonstration garden for children who enrolled in the youth program they offered for the first time that summer. The original focus was on organic gardening and teaching children the relationship between what they ate and their own and their community's health.

By 1997, the garden program was beginning to take on a stronger art focus, in great part due to the partnership with Concordia University, the next-door neighbor to Dunning Field. Karla Ness, a fresco artist and professor at Concordia helped to structure the curriculum of the summer program and engaged her students in art work that supported Farm in the City, including the staging of a huge fall harvest festival. Since then, service learning partnerships with Twin Cities colleges and universities have been a regular part of Farm in the City's program. Karla designed the Farm in the City logo.

In 1998, Farm in the City grew once again. We added more raised beds, opened some of the beds to individual gardeners in the community, and created a gardening program for new Americans who lived in Skyline Towers, the building directly north of the garden. The summer program increased in size and scope as well. The teachers included a garden artist and puppeteer, a musician, a poet, a quilt artist and an ecologist. A Council of All Beings was the culminating event of the summer program. A quilt made up of squares designed and sewn by Farm In The City youth, 1998

1999 was a year of transition for Farm in the City. The old recreation building at Dunning Field was torn down and replaced by a larger, modern facility. Construction required the demolition of the raised bed garden. The new American program was moved north of the new building and the children's program relocated to J.J. Hill Montessori School a half mile east of Dunning Field. Concordia University agreed to let Farm in the City build gardens on their campus. Two circle gardens were installed in the spring of 1999 on the north end of the campus. The summer program teachers focused on fusing graphic arts with poetry inspired by the garden. Chicks on Sticks made their premiere visit to Farm in the City, starting the now annual tradition of teaching children how to stilt-walk.

Chicks on Sticks at Farm In The City, 1999

In February of 2000, Farm in the City became a 501(c)(3) organization, making the transition from a really great idea to a free standing program with strong community support. We also started offering school year programs in horticulture and environmental arts in the spring of 2000. That summer the garden at Dunning Field was permanently moved north of the new recreation center. It was essentially the same size as the previous garden, but no longer composed of raised beds. There were four individual garden plots, a large collective plot for the new Americans, and vegetable gardens for the youth. For the first time, the new American program and the summer youth program operated in the same place at the same time. In 2000 we also created a labyrinth garden next to the circle gardens on Concordia's campus. Based on a seven path Minoan design, the labyrinth provided children with the experience of designing a restorative garden.

The new Farm In The City garden, north of the
Recreation Center at Dunning Field, 2000

In 2001, an ethnobotanic garden was added to the east of the Dunning Garden. This set of garden plots allowed Farm in the City to demonstrate the contributions of plants from regions all over the world to local economies, medicine, spiritual practice, clothing and, of course, food. St. Paul Parks and Recreation offered a vacant lot on Lexington Parkway to Farm in the City for additional garden space. This new garden has twenty individual plots, a phytoremediation demonstration and ornamental flowers, herbs and shrubs. Many more Skyline residents were able to raise food for their families with the availability of these additional plots. The theme for the summer program was "moon on the water." Teachers included two ceramists, a fabric artist, an environmental educator and two garden and cooking instructors. The program enrolled 98 children and teens in the summer youth program, the largest number ever. The school year program focused on theatre, mural design, garden design, and cooking. The mural was built and installed over the summer on the campus of Concordia University, next to the circle gardens.

The Moon Garden, 2001

By 2002, Farm in the City had started working on several other community garden sites in addition to Dunning Field and Concordia University's campus. In 2001, we created a community garden at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center on Lexington Parkway across from Central High School. We also took over responsibility for planting and maintaining the Highland Park Senior High School Community Garden. When the 2002 season started, we had a summer youth program at Dunning, a teen market garden program at Jimmy Lee and Highland, a new program with deaf Hmong gardeners at Jimmy Lee and our continuing new American program for Skyline Towers English Language Learners.

Perhaps the most dramatic event of 2002 was the moving of the mural walls from one location on the Concordia campus to another, necessitated by the college's decision to build a new library. Thanks to Concordia's generosity and the ingenuity of the Kraus Anderson construction crew, the mural was moved without any damage whatsoever. The new garden at Concordia is located between Buetow Music Hall and the Science Building and features a much larger Minoan labyrinth, perennial gardens, the mural walls and seating areas.

In the Summer of 2002, Farm in the City ran a week-long summer program for Japanese teenagers. Based in the gardens and focused on the natural environment, this program brought together Japanese and American teens around the global issues of conservation and environmental protection.

The first summer for the deaf Hmong gardeners
at Farm In The City, 2002

2003 marked another year of expansion at Farm in the City. We transitioned the market garden program from the teens over to the deaf Hmong gardeners and increased our sales to chef-owned restaurants, local co-ops and at our market stand. Our summer youth program enrolled over 100 youth and the program itself continued to get better and better as we worked to integrate horticulture, environmental stewardship, cooking and the arts. For the first time, we offered morning gardening classes at Liberty Plaza, a housing project two miles east of Dunning Field.

Our sciencescape project, made possible through a grant from the 3M Foundation, is an example of how art work created for the garden can explain the invisible science at work in the garden.

We also installed "Harvesting the Sun," a sculptural piece created by board member Eddie Owens out of recycled metal materials.

Also in 2003, a group of deaf Hmong gardeners worked with Nick Schneider, the market garden coordinator, at five sites scattered around the Midway Area in St. Paul. They grew traditional market crops such as beets, beans and herbs as well as many vegetables used in Asian cooking.
Several chef-owned restaurants, including Chet's Taverna and Cafe 128 in St. Paul, bought produce from Farm in the City. Whole Foods Market and the Hampden Park Co-op also bought our vegetables for their stores. Bonnie's Bread Store, a Great Harvest Bread Company, at 534 Selby Avenue in Saint Paul, hosts Farm in the City's market stand in front of their store on Saturdays through the growing season.

The Sciencescape Bench,
under the Bean Temple, Summer 2003