Community garden faces hitch in its water supply

When the Tonopah Community Garden had its first volunteer day in the spring of 2010, 80 people showed up, filling the garden's founder, Rosalind Brooks, with hope that her project would hit the ground running.

The turnout, unfortunately, was inflated by Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" volunteer promotion. The next weekend, one volunteer showed up.

And that's the way things have gone ever since for the 5-acre experiment in community gardening on Tonopah Drive near Bonanza Road, where it seems everything is two steps forward, one step back.

The garden, however, now faces its toughest hurdle yet -- a hitch in its water supply.

"The water was actually donated for the first year," Brooks said. "I would've shut down long ago if it weren't for that. I'm going to have to start paying in July."

At $8,000 a year, it's a bill she fears the shoestring nonprofit won't be able to pay for more than a couple of months.

One avenue is finding the right sponsor or institution to partner with, which is an ongoing effort.

Brooks said she's interested in discussing another possibility: establishing a lower water rate for these types of projects to make community gardens, which are considered an important part of urban revitalizations, easier to start and maintain.

Water, of course, is a contentious issue in arid Southern Nevada, and policymakers probably would have a hard time swallowing such an arrangement.

"There is not a discussion currently about that," said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who sits on the board of directors for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

"I don't know how you justify that: You'll have people say, 'Well, my use is drinking,' " he said. "Once you start picking and choosing, you're going to alienate a lot of people."

That's exactly the opposite of what community gardening is supposed to do, said Angela O'Callaghan of the University of Nevada's Cooperative Extension.

"Community gardening brings people together in a way that almost nothing else does," she said. "It's a visual and horticultural focal point.

"Especially if it's an area that's kind of desolate and has been allowed to go low maintenance, you put in some plants that can produce food and it's a bonus."

Dozens of such gardens are thriving in the valley already, she said. Most of them are affiliated with senior centers or schools. The Three Square Food Bank has one, and another is being developed at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs.

One of the keys to having a successful garden is working as part of a group because getting started is a huge task.

"The best way is when you have a group of people -- it doesn't have to be a big group -- who think it's a good idea," O'Callaghan said. "Going it alone just doesn't do it."

Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Barlow, whose ward includes the garden, said it has quickly become a community resource.

"There have been a number of community events that have taken place at the Tonopah Community Garden," he said. "All of the elementary schools in the area take their kids out and teach them about horticulture, being green, eating healthy."

He said he's not sure what can be done to ensure the garden has the resources it needs but said his office will work with Brooks.

"This is a garden that the entire community supports, and it's a garden that is most definitely needed," he said.

Brooks, a former teacher, said she knew almost nothing about gardening when she started, making the project infinitely harder.

"It was a lot of trial and error," she said. "A lot of stuff died.

"I really had to do everything myself. I learned so much."

For now, there is greenery in what was once a vacant, debris-covered lot.

People are raising tomatoes, melons, peppers and many other fruits and vegetables -- even grapes -- and there are chickens laying eggs and goats providing milk.

Of the 30 cultivated plots, 14 are maintained by people who have purchased the right to grow there, which is for now the garden's main source of income.

The water challenge won't make Brooks give up, she said: "That's not even enough to make me stop the project."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.

Trending topics:

• Alan Choate
• Angela O'Callaghan
• Gardening
• Las Vegas
• Ricki Barlow
• Rosalind Brooks
• Steve Sisolak
• Tonopah Community Garden
• Water

Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. fred.flintstone Jun. 28, 2011 | 8:10 p.m. Report Abuse

   Libs do not care about ROI as the bigger and more costly the project becomes the embrace it. See that is why the libs REFUSE to cut ANY program that benefits the leeches. This program in its infacy is similiar to the many social programs started decades ago. Starts with a seed paid for by someone else and when that person no longer wants to pay then they hit the feds and the taxpayer up to cover a program that is not cost effective. Leeches one and all.

2. fred.flintstone Jun. 28, 2011 | 5:00 p.m. Report Abuse

   @Webb just like the left winger leeches take whatever they can from the right winger working class. Most if not all of the leeches are on the left side of the aisle. I can back that up with facts unlike the hate filled rhetoric the lefties push daily (to include you, the uniformed and ignorant). Keep watching MSNBC for your daily fill of tripe and you will be a good little demoncat.

3. gehrig Jun. 28, 2011 | 3:57 p.m. Report Abuse

   living where you choose is a benefit of u.s. citizenship. if i were immobile, guess i'd move near a public transit route. certainly those able bodied enough to bend over to plant, cultivate, and harvest a garden can use a walker or cane to get to a bus stop. some of the supermarkets offer a delivery service. mariana's i've seen noticed at their stores. and walmart is in trials with such a delivery service, in california i think. writing a check oughta be easier than picking potato bugs. as usual, the leftists spin the issue to some fake "need" for the "disadvantaged". a "need" that requires subsidy with taxpayer cash.

4. MIKE VEGAS Jun. 28, 2011 | 3:36 p.m. Report Abuse

   GET RID OF PAT MULROY; PROBLEM SOLVED. GROW CORN GET SUBSIDIZED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

5. Bob_Realist Jun. 28, 2011 | 2:02 p.m. Report Abuse

   Randy, use your words not the caps lock key. Sheesh. If you are angry, write it, all caps went out in the 90's. As a solution to the problem why not take a quote from the article itself, "One avenue is finding the right sponsor or institution..." Why can't the inmates and those receiving community service work there to earn their keep and the partnership between the state, county and neighboring cities provide the water funding for getting the knuckleheads to work? Why is it the most simple problems and issues become such a tooth pulling endeavor? When Sisolak was mentioned I saw one of the biggest problems. If he sits on the board what decision do you think he is going to make. He gets himself in these Catch 22's all the time for he is a Commissioner but he also has the conflict of where his income will be coming from when he is out of office.

6. nhartvig Jun. 28, 2011 | 1:25 p.m. Report Abuse

   8,000 people, one dollar each. My family is 6. Where can I send my $6.00 ? My kids have already come to me and said they wanted to give up their allowance for this cause.

7. RANDY.BOYD Jun. 28, 2011 | 1:23 p.m. Report Abuse

   THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH GARDENING IN LAS VEGAS. AN AFFORDABLE WATER SOURCE. THE WATER RATES HAVE GONE THRU THE ROOF IN THE LAST TEN YEARS. SOME WATER USERS GET BREAKS AND OTHERS DON'T. YOU CAN BLAME THE DROUGHT THAT HAS BEEN OCCURRING DURING THE LAST DECADE. BUT, THE UNCONTROLLED GROWTH IN THE VALLEY AND THE GREEDY DEVELOPERS, HAVE MADE THE SITUATION WE HAVE TODAY. IT'S NOT A CHEAP HOBBY. IT COSTS MONEY. IF YOU LOVE GARDENING, YOU MUST PAY THE FREIGHT. THE SOLUTION WOULD BE TO CHARGE EACH GARDENER A 20 DOLLAR A MONTH FEE FOR THEIR PLOT.

8. TimeRanger Jun. 28, 2011 | 12:39 p.m. Report Abuse

   @ ladybird53 - maybe you should do a bit of research to find out where the water in those "magnificent water wasting displays" comes from.

9. ladybird53 Jun. 28, 2011 | 11:21 a.m. Report Abuse

   Hmmm, the casinos (with those magnificent water wasting displays and gi-normous swimming pools that aren't for essential use like drinking) should be 'persuaded' to give back on a smaller scale? I'd like to know if casinos and others using water for purely aesthetic purposes pay the same rate.
   Could it be fairly argued that it is in the best economic interest of the community to fund the water for this project (or lower the rates) since it should be relatively easy to quantify lower crime rates, improved health among residents using other similar projects as a model?

10. desertrat Jun. 28, 2011 | 10:32 a.m. Report Abuse

    Oh gehrig...count your lucky stars that a. you are still able bodied and can drive. b. you can relocate to better housing. c. there are people out there that still love and tolerate your mean spiritedness. That's all the teaching I'll do for today...just like the pig, you ain't never gonna sing.

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