April 28, 2010: Boulder County
Growing Trend: Transition Louisville Promotes Sustainability Measures
Members of Transition Louisville hope their one vegetable garden grows into many, part of their goal of promoting sustainable living and local food production.
The group has about 150 members, and about 15 members spend their Sunday afternoons planting and tending their crop of arugula, tomatoes, hard squash, peppers and potatoes.
Transition Louisville member Shari Heinlein said the garden is a great way to go for those who don’t have time to tend a garden on their own.
“You have different people coming to tend the garden,” she said. “You have neighborhood backup.”
Dave Clabots, a Transition Louisville member and a city councilor, said the group hopes other residents will allow them to use their land so they can produce even more local vegetables.
“My goal is to get everyone to plant,” he said. “Or if you don’t want to, maybe your neighbor does.”
The garden, at 501 South St., is on Transition Louisville member Barbara Butterworth’s property. Butterworth said one reason she gave up her backyard to the group was a simple environmental one.
“I had never liked growing and cutting grass,” she said. “It’s a waste of our resources.”
Transforming her backyard from lawn to garden would result in using water in a mindful way and cutting down on pollution from power tools, she said.
David Greenwald, one of Transition Louisville’s original leaders, said the group is negotiating with an undisclosed school in Boulder County, adjacent to Louisville, to create a garden on a piece of its 29-acre parcel.
Greenwald said the agreement should be finalized in the next month. The group’s garden on Butterworth’s property is for members only, but the school garden would be a CSA — community supported agriculture — garden. Transition Louisville members and maybe families of students at the school, would be able to buy “shares,” which would give them a portion of the garden’s bounty.
Get more information about Transition Louisville here.
