Perhaps you have a backyard garden.  Or even a front yard garden!

Decatur also has quite a few community gardens these days. Many of which have substantial waiting lists. There’s the famous Oakhurst Community Garden, but also the Scott Community Garden – located behind the Rec Center at 231 Sycamore St, the Sugar Creek Garden, the Refugee Family Services Farm, the Decatur High School Community Garden, and the Tanyard Community Garden – between Northern Ave and Peavine Creek.

So gardeners, we know you’re out there digging beds and spreading compost!  What fruits and vegetables are you planting (or planning on planting) this spring?  What grows well for you around here?  And what have you had trouble getting to grow?

Tanyard Community Garden photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute

“Decatur’s Kitchen Garden”, located on over an acre of land owned by the United Methodist Children’s Home just outside of the Decatur city limits, plans to break ground next Wednesday morning.

According to a press release put out yesterday…

Decatur’s Kitchen Garden is designed to foster community, offer education about healthy food traditions and growing practices, and enhance biodiversity through cutting-edge sustainable resource management. Through a Global Growers market initiative, good produce will generate supplemental income for community producers when it is distributed directly to DeKalb County residents through local markets, restaurant liaisons, community food co-ops and a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

“The Garden will host more than an acre of urban market garden space, to be cultivated by culturally diverse community producers from our local refugee communities and nearby neighborhoods,” stated Susan Pavlin, Director of Global Growers Network. “A range of annual and perennial foods, with an emphasis on specialty cultural crops, will be grown at this community market garden site,” she continued.

UPDATE: jkga provides a link to the Midway Woods Garden’s website.

Decatur Metro’s undercover, urban gardener reporter sends in photographic evidence of an urban garden in an abandoned subdivision development just outside the Decatur city limits on Oldfield Road.

Another pic and a map of the garden’s location after the jump.

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There’s some really interesting urban farming news tucked deep inside IMCA’s recent case study of Decatur entitled, “Healthy Decatur: A Holistic Approach to Sustainability“.  (h/t: 231 Sycamore)

First up, word of a possible community garden close to public housing…

[Active Living Director Dan] Magee has since contemplated starting a community garden near public housing run by the city’s Housing Authority. He is considering possible locations within the neighborhood or at a recreation center, and has made it a priority to identify champions who can build community support, involvement, and a sense of ownership. “That’s the community that needs it most,” he said, noting these residents’ poor access to healthy foods.

Secondly, a recent agreement with the United Methodist Children’s Home to convert two acres of their land into an urban farm…

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Photo Courtesy of Decatur Garden Tour.

Allison sends in the press release announcing this year’s Decatur Garden Tour. For the list of gardens on the tour, click here.  It doesn’t look like tickets are available yet, but once they are I’ll make sure to let everyone know.

DECATUR, GA — Step into autumn with the twenty-first annual Decatur Garden Tour, September 26 and 27. Explore 12 gardens, both private and public, across this charmingly eclectic intown community. From the stately and formal to the artsy and whimsical, the tour blooms with ideas to feed gardening inspiration all year. The gardens present unexpected plant combinations in vivid fall colors, sustainable and edible plantings, innovative outdoor living areas and serene water features.

Tour-goers will enjoy “art in the garden,” as the creations of local artists further enhance the outdoor environments. Other highlights include a Japanese-style garden featured in Backyard Living magazine and the renowned “garden rooms” of noted author and designer Ryan Gainey’s private home. The tour features Saturday evening hours, during which visitors can explore two gardens along with live music and wine.

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This year the Decatur Preservation Alliance and Oakhurst Community Garden Project-hosted Decatur Garden Tour celebrates its 20th anniversary on Saturday  Sept. 27th (from 10a-5p; 7p-9p) and Sunday the 28th (from 12p-5p).

According to the tour’s official press release, visitors will explore 12 private and 4 public gardens, including those of Cakes and Ale restaurant owners Billy and Kristin Allin and AJC wine writer Gil Kulers and his wife Eleanor.  Also new this year is a twilight tour with wine and entertainment in Ryan Gainey’s and Pandra Williams’ gardens. The tour will be complemented by a variety of gardening lectures and demonstrations, musical performances and children’s activities.   For the full schedule click here.

Tickets are $25 a piece, which get you into all events (including the twilight tour).  To buy them online or see a list of locations where tour tickets are sold, click here.

This morning Creative Loafing has a great little interview with Decatur’s most famous gardener.

Pathetically, I’ve never seen the gardens. But I did encounter Gainey at a commission meeting one evening. He is a definite presence. One of those people so comfortable with who he is and what he does that when he speaks up, you can’t help but pay extra attention to what he’s saying.

If you’d like to visit his gardens, his website RyanGainey.com assures us that “…Ryan’s garden is open to the public throughout the year. The garden is at 129 Emerson Avenue in Decatur, Georgia, about 5 miles east of downtown Atlanta.”

More articles and Ryan Gainey products can also be found at the website.