Urban Agriculture & Watershed Management

Muncie, IN

 

North Street Urban Garden is a local foods project in downtown Muncie. Located on the 300 block of East North Street, (adjacent to Elm and Jefferson Streets), participants grow organic food in a vacant lot for our neighbors and local food kitchens. The project attracted the attention of the EPA when we submitted a request for a grant to demonstrate on-site stormwater management technologies. To date, we have maintained - in an otherwise depressed area - a small productive community garden and constructed a pergola to harvest rainwater to replace municipal water for irrigation.

Future projects will build upon the initial foundation of empowering the community through education, awareness, and stewardship of the land. Among those projects are:

• Pervious paving
• Rain garden
• Demonstration of reclaimed and bio-regional materials
• Alternative building construction
• Produce stand
• Entrance Gate

The Urban Garden project has been and continues to be a valuable insight into how to make a widespread impact with a small investment. Our ultimate goal is to generate a model for replication where underutilized urban land can be renovated into a source of food production, recreation, stormwater management and aesthetic beauty.